Yes I have IB on, which works fine for me, as it is conditional on them answering my vetting questions. @GardenFairy
I try and make it as easy as possible for them, and now I send them a photo with instructions so they don’t end up in my part of the house. I’m not a house share, but also easy for them to end up inside my house. Since the pic I’ve had 0 wander in.
Maybe it’s because I used to traveled a lot that I have a lot of empathy for guests on check-in. When traveling the biggest point of concern around Airbnb’s are check-in, check-in times and how to get the key. I generally won’t book an Airbnb for 1 night without self-checkin due to the pain it is meeting the host on time and the stress it adds to my vacation. It can delayed flights, traffic, or to be honest a 2 hour window is something I don’t wan to deal with.
So for my guests this is what I do:
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Self check-in with written instructions 7 days before. About 75% of people read them and answer the questions I ask.
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I use a web page based as a key with buttons for “open door” etc. Works on any phone, on wifi if there’s no data etc. I used to have a keypad, drunk guests lose codes, can’t figure out how to push buttons. (But they did manage to get an Uber home…so they can run a phone. And they are on vacation, people can get a bit too tipsy and release steam. Vacaction are supposed to be relaxing, how can I make it easy for them?)
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On the day of, I send them this picture. Picture is worth 1000 words sometimes. I used to watch people wander into my house and into my living room since they didn’t read step 1 or couldn’t since they don’t read english well. I’ve been lost trying to read these “clear instructions.”
Almost all my guests are on vacation, and I always try to keep that in mind. How do I make their stay easy. They’re coming into a congested and confusing city, and this is already taxing. Add onto that, being tired after flights, etc. How do you make it less stressful and easier?
The wording on the picture is based on problems/questions that have come up. It used to say “The right house” and a few ended up at my neighbors. Doh! People are concerned about the lock on the airbnb door itself and how to open it, hence I call out it’s unlocked, etc, etc. Listen to what people find confusing, it doesn’t mater if it seems dumb, but how can you be clearer?
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I understand that many home-share hosts have jobs and need their sleep. My husband and I are retired, so our schedules are a bit different. I’m a night owl; my husband is an early-riser. I handle the “late shift” and he’s often up at 6 a.m., making homemade oatmeal and coffee for early-morning guests.
I think I do some of my best guest welcoming with people who arrive travel-weary late at night. “Late at night” for us is anywhere from 10 p.m. to about 6 a.m. (those early-morning-hours guests have of course paid for the “previous night").
Yes, we have a range of hours for regular check-in: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. But we’re glad to be flexible.
For the late-nighters, I have helped with luggage and hung up coats. If they’re ready to sleep, I’ve gotten them quickly and quietly settled—I’ve turned down beds and brought them a glass of water. If they’re jazzed and need to unwind, I’ve sat up with them for a bit. If they’re hungry, I’ve found them something to eat—made sandwiches, done a few grilled cheeses, provided beverages, given them bowls of cereal.
I listen and observe them and then do what they need to feel comfortable and welcome.
Of course my husband and I do those things during regular check-in times, too. But it seems more special to me with the road-worn late arrivers, when we talk in hushed whispers and often end up feeling like co-conspirators.
For us, that’s the hospitality we offer. Being retired (and me being a night owl) makes it possible.
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Although my listing says something about late arrivals welcome (but you still have to check out at 10 am) I still get many guests whose message says “arriving after midnight, I hope that’s okay.” Or the next morning they will say “I hope I was quiet enough.”
Despite the surge in Airbnb supply I get the feeling there are still a lot of Airbnbs in homes and with those hosts who can’t easily accomodate late arrivals. And while I don’t usually greet them, I do leave the light and heat/AC on in the room.
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We get guests out by 10 a.m., too. For a few, we have allowed late check-out (if they ask on Air and we can accommodate it). But never more than an hour late. Oh, I think we allowed two hours late one time.
We’ve had a few guests who have arrived at 3 or 4 or 5 a.m., and they’re still out by 10. Some of them have been out by 7 or 8 a.m. Just traveling through.
If I can allow later checkout I sometimes do. Just this week a woman arrived after 2 am and I knew my guest for that night would be in after 10pm. So I messaged her in the morning and said “I see you got in very late and if you need extra time you can stay until noon at no extra charge due to my schedule today.” She messaged back and said “thanks, that’s so sweet but I’m on my way out the door.” It cost me nothing but made a good impression. If someone asks for late check out because they are arriving late I will probably say no depending on how they word it.
Todays guest told me he’d probably be checking in at 8 or 9. I messaged him and told him if he gets to town early the room is ready and he can check in anytime. I haven’t heard back. Again, good guest, great booking message, 4 night booking and he leaves great detailed reviews for his hosts. I hope and kind of need him to check out early Tues so by making this offer I’m greasing the skids so to speak to talk to him about his Tues check out time.
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I am a homeshare host, my latest check in time is 10PM.
If a guest asks if they can check in later than that, I respond on a case by case basis. It depends on my own personal schedule, as I do not do self check in. From day one, if people are going to be staying in my house, then I’m meeting them when they arrive!
I don’t get a lot of international travellers, so I haven’t had too many issues. Typically, I try to help guests as much as possible, especially if they have travel delays, but I do not extend check in beyond 11PM.
Most of the problems I encounter are the result of guests not reading the information properly, rather than travel delays. If I get a booking, followed immediately by a message like “we’ll be arriving between midnight and 1AM, is that okay?” The answer is always no. Guests (especially homeshare guests) who don’t read even the most obvious information have likely missed other important messages as well!
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I dont allow it, period. My sleep is more important to me. I work full time, I have to go to work the next day. I realize planes are delayed etc but if happens it’s not my fault. They should go to a hotel. I’d explain this right at the booking time in the initial exchange of info. They should have travel insurance and get the money from them if they are forced to stay in a hotel.
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Are you clear in your listing that late check in is not allowed?
How many times has this happened?
If guests find this out (or realize it or read it for the first time on check-in day), do they get to review you? If so, wouldn’t that just about guarantee a rotten rating?
Never.
Yes, I am in clear. Check in is allowed until midnight. If they tell me that they might be later than that bla-bla I tell them Im sorry but I can’t host you. I will be asleep. Find something else. This is for people coming to my own house where I think I am entitled to prioritize my sleep over accommodating guests arriving after midnight.
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So once again I have had my sleep disturbed by a late arrival and need some advice on how to review a recent guest. He told me upon booking that he’d arrive between 9:30-10 pm, but on the day of checkin the arrival window came and went with no communication. At 11 pm I sent a message asking if his travel plans had changed and at midnight he responded that his flight was delayed and he had just arrived on another flight and would be here soon. “Soon” turned into 2 hours but I didn’t wait up any more (it doesn’t take two hours to get to my house even in the worst of traffic).
Is it too much to ask to expect a guest to send a quick message letting me know their flight was changed when they know the host might be waiting up for them? I’m sure he was frantically trying to secure a flight when the original one was cancelled and my AirBnB was not his top priority at the time, but I think he’d have at least a few seconds after boarding to send me a brief message. I have found the whole chain of communication with this guest has not been great. Is it ok to mention that there was poor communication about checkin and changes in arrival time or does it make me look insensitive to his plight?
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Sadly, air travel is often very unpredictable and stressful.
I don’t ding people for communication/noncommunication on travel days. I know how hard those days can be. I’ve spent a lot of time running through airports and then hurriedly scrambling to catch up on critical business and personal texts in the minutes before phones have to be turned off on the plane.
I would cut him a break.
And I guess I’d think if there’s any way you can allow self-checkin at times like that. I realize that it can be a hassle. It would be for us, too (our house is big and complicated).
Oh, and one more thought. We have a porch camera that texts me when someone is on the porch. I have, a few times, gone to bed when we expect a middle-of-the-night guest. I know the text will wake me up, with my phone beside the bed and the volume not muted.
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That’s the problem, isn’t it? When guests are travelling, it’s really unlikely that they’re going to think about a host’s problems. That’s because, as you say, they are too wrapped up in their own. Understandably really because some people find travel stressful.
As hosts, we tend to understand more about the whole hosting thing and the host/guest relationship but many (most?) guests don’t. They don’t really see the difference between us and a hotel or a guest house.
As far as they are concerned, they are paying money for a service and they don’t particularly consider the host’s lifestyle, worries or problems. So unless a host specifically tells them (“I’ll be waiting up for you so please be sure to let me know if you have any delays” etc.) then it simply doesn’t occur to them. It’s not meant in a disrespectful or entitled way most of the time, it just doesn’t cross their mind that someone will be inconvenienced.
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I think that might depend on how he is, once you meet him properly the next day/tomorrow(?, on UK time). He may apologise to you profusely, with a tale of woe of how awful his trip was.
Conversely, he might be the real dick I had here a couple of years ago, who is seared into my memory.
Initially, he was in the UK/London with his sister, booked a day beforehand to stay with me, after they picked their parents up from Heathrow at 4pm. They would be with me by 7pm, a reasonable judgement timewise, given rush hour traffic at 5pm around Heathrow.
9pm, no show or message. “Are you okay?”
“We stopped off in central London after picking my parents up from the airport. We’re on our way, be with you by 9pm.”
10pm, no message. Zilch. “Are you okay?”
“We stopped off in Canterbury to show my parents the City, and to eat. We’re just leaving and will be with you by 10.30pm”
Canterbury is 14 miles way. They arrived at 12.30pm. He made a huge fuss about not being able to self check-in on arrival; it was my fault for not offering such a facility. He didn’t give a toss about my explaining that he had booked to stay in my home, where we live, and that we are unable to allow strangers into our home when we are sleeping.
At least his parents understood fully, but he was the one to leave a review. To give him his due, star ratings were not damaging but his words were unbelievable. He had apparently flown in with his parents, on the same flight, been delayed by four hours and stopped for them all to eat.
And said “She wants to know exactly where you are, what you are doing, and why you haven’t arrived”, or something snide along those lines.
Rant over. My review was a 14 day later one, and I enjoyed writing a concise demolition job.
He probably uses his parent’s account to book since…
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Very nice reply @jaquo. It’s easy as an experienced host to wonder why a guest can’t bother to send a quick text if plans change, but like you said most guests probably think of me as a service provider like any other hotel and are wrapped up in the stress of travel. If I was staying in a hotel I certainly wouldn’t call if my flight was delayed unless I was worried about them giving up my room. I suppose since most guests don’t seem to understand what goes into hosting and the host-guest relationship in a shared home, I should be more aware about communicating things that seem obvious to me but may not be to guests. It just seems so odd to me that you wouldn’t be more considerate when staying in someone’s home, but again that’s something so obvious to me as a host that may not cross the minds of travelers. I noticed many of this guest’s reviews state that the host never met him, so his experience with AirBnB may be that he can come and go as he pleases and doesn’t realize that not all hosts are so absent as his previous ones.
I do let guests know I like to meet them in person and I ask their estimated arrival time, but I also send self check-in instructions and fortunately don’t have to wait up for late arrivals. With all these after-midnight arrivals I’ve been getting I should probably ask them to let me know if their arrival times change if at all possible so I don’t wait up for them. The problem then becomes that I don’t get good sleep so I can be listening in case they have trouble getting into the house, but I realize most guests wouldn’t care about that.
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We have had distance drives and overseas flights come in way past our bed times. I have a keypad entry and an idiot proof step by step self check in that works like a charm. I leave water and a plate of nummy nums. And earplugs.
This also works well if guests are running late
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I have had only 4 after-hours arrivals in a year and a half of hosting, thankfully. I don’t do IB and use a friendly template communication before booking, including re-stating the check-in window.
While I am very accepting of extenuating circumstances - I can facilitate self check-in, it’s the vague “we’re driving and may be having dinner with friends…” Or “would it be okay if…” where I’m proactive:
“We are a smallish flat with our tenants below , making it difficult to check yourselves in without
creating a minor disturbance” ( stretching the truth a bit)
If necessary, as an additional incentive:
“ My little dog might be startled, as he’s quite protective😊. (He’s capable, but trained)
I find that indirect, gentle - but unwavering - reminders work best for me!