Do you charge extra for Midnight or later check ins?
One thing people have not mentioned is that long term guests can cancel. And that leaves a big hole in your schedule which may be difficult to fill. This is an issue with Airbnb, at least. It isnāt so much an issue if you are doing it without an intermediary, since you can protect yourself by taking money in advance.
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That sounds exceptionally organized. In my limited experience it is a rarity when guests arrive at a precise time, and I donāt ask them to, anyway. I try to get them to commit to a range. And sometimes even that can be hard. And sometimes they arrive outside it anyway. In any case, given that airport/train arrivals are not precise, and road traffic is unpredictable in this city, along with other factors, it would be very challenging to arrive at any specific specified time.
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I would be thrilled to be given a one hour window. Todayās guests told me, āWe plan to check in sometime in the late afternoon.ā
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It totally depends on what you offer. If it was in your home I agree I could only handle 5-7 days max unless I got along amazingly with the person, but what are the odds of that?
For me with a separate structure (apartment above the garage) I offer a max of 3 weeks. No matter how clean people are, itās so much more work to clean after a longer stay. And I make more money between the cleaning fees and no discounts.
And like mentioned: squatters rights, maintenance, etc.
And thereās a theory that the Air algorithms track what kind of stay your typically get, so they think you prefer it. So if you have accepted a few long term stays, youāll be higher in the search rankings with long stays and lower with short stays.
So even though in theory a long-term stay has less work, I make more money with short stays and the cleaning is A LOT easier, even if they are clean and respect the space. I agreed to let my young cousin live in our AirBnB apartment this coming school year for a really low price and regular babysitting, but Iām kinda dreading the wear and tear even a young, clean, single young woman will do to my place. We had a few upgrades we were going to do this spring but are now holding off on until after she moves out figuring weād have to fix things from a long-term tenant anywayā¦
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For me, it depends on the reason for the long term stay. Our favorite guests have been academics who are working on their PhD. We had one for 25 days. She was working on a project at UCLA researching cancer cells to try to find a cure. She was such a great guest we were sorry to see her leave.
The guests who have been the most problematic for us have been parents visiting their grown children who live close by. A lot of times we can see why their family asked them to stay elsewhere. However, we had one wonderful guest who was visiting her son who lives across the street.
Every guest and every stay is individual.
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I know what you mean. I sometimes allow long term stays (like my cousin coming this school year) and most recently a young family for the entire month of December. While it was great in that I didnāt have to worry about turnovers during the holidays and we know them personally, thereās just something about long term stays that make it harder to clean even if theyāre clean people.
But yeah, Iām always willing to listen to the story and decide, but red flags are: Between apartments (thereās probably a reason they couldnāt extend their lease until they could find a new place), down on their luck, bad credit, etc.
Traveling nurses and academics in general tend to be good because theyāre looking for a homey place while here short-term for a job. But I donāt want to house a bum who got kicked out of his last place for a monthā¦
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Iām really interested in the responses saying you get given windows of arrival time. Iāve had responses like that and then always pressed for an actual time because like I said, I donāt have a doorbell accessible to guests and Iām in a top floor flat so I canāt see the street. Thereās no way I could wait outside for x amount of hours and so guests tell me exactly when they wish to arrive and update me if theyāre running late. I shall count my lucky stars then as it appears to be a rarity.
Of course if i had a doorbell it would remove a huge amount of stress from the check in process as itās always obvious when someone has arrived and wants to be checked in. My fear is that a guest canāt communicate with me so often have to check downstairs just in case. Case in point my most recent guest who appeared to be running late so I asked them to message me on their arrival. They didnāt and because I had not had confirmation back I decided to check on the off chance that they might be there (via the bin store). 2 minutes away from the meeting point I get a message demanding to know where I was ā¦
I am also worried Iāll miss a call or a text and so itās always stressful. I would truly prefer a doorbell.
Iām impressed that they do that. I make similar requests but am ignored at least half the time - not surprisingly. I tell people to text me (or otherwise contact me) when they are leaving the airport and when they are close by. Itās not unusual for people to simply just turn up. Of course, most of my guests are foreign tourists, so communication is not that easy, granted.
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I guess in my case there is no choice. They know Iām meeting them on the street. So it makes for timely arrivals and reasonable communicationā¦
Oh, I see. That makes sense. My guests arenāt operating under these conditions - I tell them they can come directly to my place.
Guests can come directly to my place. There is no doorbell however 
so I have to meet them directly outside the building on the street.
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I would appreciate windows of arrival time. Yesterdayās guests told me that they would arrive āsometime in the late afternoonā and ignored my request for a more specific time. When I asked todayās guests what time they would arrive I got this answer. āWe donāt know the arrival time yet , we are not have a plan yet , anyway we will tell you as soon as we desire.ā My guess is that you donāt have many guests who have to clear customs or who are arriving by car.
They have to go through immigration and we have very long lines. Weāre outside schengen so even EU visitors have to go through immigration. Still itās easy to put aside one hour to get through customs.
Drivers? No never, not even Londoners drive.
Weāve had three sets of guests take three hours to clear customs. With Trumpās āextreme vettingā it will probably take longer.
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God good point. I think it took me over an hour too at LAX but I arrived early morning and was checking in in the evening. And I arrived at a set time again (9pm)
Iāve been watching the developments in foreign policy in horror. I wonāt get into politics any further but to say the situation looks dire ā¦
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I think that the possible negative effects of long term stay (āguests starting to feel at homeā) is not as bad as having to frequently check them in and out. I take about 20 min per guest initiation to go over the house rules and teach them how to use the house. To me, that is a huge overhead, I would much rather have 2 month guests who pay AirBnB price and not Craigslist.
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How long have you been hosting @amphibient? Iām leaning towards not that long ā¦ or you have yet to enjoy a guest with horrible habits ā¦
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Iāve been hosting for three years. I vastly prefer long stays. Not only do I not have to clean the guest room every day; I donāt have to spend hours every day waiting for the guests to arrive.
I canāt stand long stays. But thanks for keeping me honest @EllenN. Thereās always multiple perspectives on an issue and itās good to be reminded of that.
Before hanging out on this forum Iād make sweeping generalisations and never get called out. Iām learning not to make blanket statementsā¦ albeit slowly
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