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So the few days I remove the “$10 late fee” for guests who arrive past midnight, the next guest who books tells me she’s coming in at 11pm (the end of my check-in time) and like clockwork, tells me at 6pm that her flight is delayed …and her plane is not due to arrive until 1:15am, so I am stuck waiting up again for free…sigh…I’m putting that damn fee back on my house rules…
Why do so many guests do this? Are flights really always routinely being delayed by 2 hours that much?
I like that policy. You don’t mind waiting so much because the fee makes it seem worth it. But how did you collect the fee? Is it allowed and wouldn’t it put people off?
I just say, hey it was in the listing. If they are clearly apologetic and it truly was beyond their control or I just plain like them I might "waive"it otherwise I tell them it will be charged against their security deposit and they have to okay it. Any claim on a security deposit has to be okay’d by the guest anyway!
I had one white guy guest check-in at 11:30pm when check-in time was 11pm at the latest, without communicating all day when he would arrive. He made sure to say on his review of me that he had arrived at 11pm (a lie- but done just in case I tried to charge him for that half hour lateness). He hadn’t read the rules well. Another white guywas lying in his room moaning could he check out at noon instead of 11am…I said, sure! I’ll just add $10 per the house rules! and that got him up pretty fast. Another white guy was rude about still being in his room at 11am and I requested it from his deposit in the resolution center and Airbnb okayed it since after 11am I was still sending him messages asking when he’d be able to leave and that time-stamped what was going on and I guess proved he was still in my home, even though he was careful to not reply to me on the Airbnb message board. That guy was the kind of guest who just stayed in his room all week eating pot and drinking alcohol and being surly, but I didn’t leave him a bad review, I just scolded him privately for leaving BBQ stains on my white towels, leaving half-eaten take-out containers in his room (even though he wasn’t supposed to eat in there).
One Indian woman who arrived very late after repeated and endless postponements - she was extremely apologetic, I just told her, “I used to be upset when this happened, now I am happy to see if guests make it or not because if they don’t I get this late fee!” and she just laughed, agreed to it and even gave me a positive review.
PS The only reason I am bothering to relay the race of each guest is because I keep seeing posts on this forum about the awful Chinese guests and so I figure it must be really important to state the race of each bad guest I have.
Do you also get people saying derogatory stuff about Asian drivers? I have many guests from Asia (mostly China and some Singapore and Korea, probably at least half my bookings in the last 6 months) and they always tell me they find this in every Western country. Lucky they can laugh it off all the way to the bank as they are renting high end cars and living it up here as their economies are booming while my other non Asian guests are usually on a super tight budget and getting the bus he he
I was going to add a late check in fee for after midnight and a late check out fee for after 10am but I just decided it would be too hard to collect so I just jacked up the fee by $15 a day for ALL bookings and leave them all some designer chocolates and a little card on departure and my bookings actually increased by about 25% almost immediately (I surprise them with the chocolates so its not because of this but I just thought it would make them feel bad if they left me a shitty review). Its amazing people must think my place is better because its more expensive. Go figure
I ask my guests for the name of their airline and their flight number so that I can track their arrival time. I don’t find many flights are delayed by two hours. In fact, most of the flights coming from the east get in earlier than scheduled. Customs can be time consuming and renting a car always takes longer than the guests anticipate.
It probably depends on where they are coming from and the time of year. Very anecdotally speaking (based on the experience of me, my friends and my clients) it seems to me that flights are late about half the time.
The information is probably available somewhere online.
I can understand your frustration and especially in Trumpmerica it seems we are going backwards on this issue. However, as you can easily see in society and on this forum, people don’t get sarcasm or irony. Many are hypocritical and not in the least self-aware. It seems every racist starts sentences about race with the phrase “I’m not a racist, but…” So you might want to reconsider your strategy.
Yes, it’s been a joke that asians are bad drivers that i’ve been hearing since I was little here
Around here, everyone blames the Italians. And it is not for lack of Asians.
Who knew that stereotypes were so regional across the U.S.? I’ve always heard the stereotype about Asian drivers; the one about Italian drivers is new to me.
Around here is it is Floridians and people from South Carolina…lol!
IMO everyone’s a racist. Racism is generalism and stereotype and easy for the mind to grasp. Considering each person as an individual is too hard for most people…especially people who can’t read…
I think you’re conflating race with nationality. Weren’t the Chinese mentioned as being awful from China? They were tourists I think.
I don’t know when people talk about Chinese people on this forum are they talking about Chinese people or only people from China?
They are talking about people from Mainland China. I don’t agree with them. The country we’ve had the most guests from is Mainland China and we’ve had wonderful experiences with them. Many people on this forum are upset about the cultural differences between them and their guests from Mainland China. These hosts are upset that their Chinese guests spend a long time each day cooking. This is more than fine with me, particularly if they share. The other complaint I see a lot is that people from China are used to splashing water on their faces and get water all over the bathroom. I have not experienced this.
Yes there are cultural differences that can sometimes be problematic, especially if the guests ignore house rules. I believe you have a separate unit for the guests, don’t you? That would make a huge difference. They could splash water, cook and have a great time without bothering you.
No, I do not have a separate unit for guests. They stay in our guest bedroom. As a matter of fact, we only have one bathroom in our house which we share with our guests. I am open minded to different cultures.
Flights arriving to Hawaii get in late frequently. I can take check in up until midnight. If someone is coming in really late, I will wait up for them, but only because it’s a late flight. Not that happy about it but I still do it. The latest I waited up was 1:30am, very rare. But in a situation like yours, where guests seem to abuse it, I can see why you added the late fee.
Yes, now I remember. We’re “neighbors”. I’m in Long Beach. I believe you’re a “stay at home” host so you really do experience not only cultural differences first hand but also the personal idiosyncrasies of your guests. And you all share a kitchen and one bathroom. That’s amazing!