Hi Everyone,
I’ve been thinking about setting my check-in window to after 7pm. Has anyone experienced a decrease in their number of reservations with a check-in window that late? I’m in Brooklyn, New York.
Thanks
Our check-in window starts at 4 p.m. We’ve had plenty of requests to check in earlier than that. Sometimes we can accommodate them.
I think the more you restrict check-in time, there has to be some impact on reservations—for the guests who read. No impact at all on the guests who don’t read, unless you find out what time they plan to check in and then decline/cancel them if it’s too early, or get them to cancel.
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When is your check-out time? What type of listing? What are your typical guests doing in Brooklyn?
I would it will have an effect, but will the effect be a reduction in bookings or a slew of guests asking to drop off their luggage early, or something else?
This is true! Many of my guests don’t read or think the checkin hours are just suggestions and don’t apply to them. I have checkin hours from 3-10 and many of my guests tell me the day before that they’re arriving after those hours. I put in my listing that I’m unable to accommodate early checkin and advise guests to not even ask for it, but I still get frequent requests for early checkin. People just don’t read. If 7 pm is non-negotiable for you, I’d remind them of that in your welcome message so they have the opportunity to cancel or find stuff to do until 7. It’s hard to say whether you’ll get less bookings because of this, because it all depends on whether there’s a lot of other Airbnbs to choose from and how your price compares to others—in other words, how much do guests want to stay there despite the late checkin. Guests are asked to rate you on the checkin process, so you might get dinged for a late checkin by some guests (even though they’re fully aware of the late checkin).
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If I were a guest, I would not want to wait till 7 PM to check in. Is there any way you can do a lock box?
It’s quite late for check-in. Can you not provide self check in for earlier check-in’s
If I was looking for a listing on AirBnB. I would not want to wait til 7pm. But if I have evening flight I would not mind. So you are basically marketing yourself for evening flight visitors.
I don´t see any guest who is willing to pay for a whole day only after 7pm.
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Like others, 7 pm would be too late for me. I, and my guests it seems, like to get in, shower, have a coffee then embark on dinner, either out or in.
Why 7 pm?
Yes, I think it will affect bookings if people notice. If they book before they realise, then you’ll probably have grumpy guests on your hands.
But you’ll need to let us know why you think 7 is a good idea for you and your setup?
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As a guest, yes it would be a deal breaker for me and I would move on to the next listing. I want to check in and get settled before dinner.
when other hosts offer a pretty standard 2-4pm check in …what do you think?
As a guest, I would feel short changed.
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To everyone who asked earlier, it comes down to when I get off of work. I want to have enough time to leave work, return home, turn-over the room after the previous guest, and have everything ready for the new guest. The new guest would be free to check-in at 7PM or after because I have a lockbox and offer self check-in.
About half of my guests check-in in the morning/afternoon and the other half come late at night. Most of them, regardless of when they arrive, do want to situate themselves and freshen up after traveling.
I have a co-host now, but their work hours might change in the coming months.
PS - A lot of guests read the listing thoroughly, but so many do not. :oD
You can always try it and see how it goes, but make sure your guests REALLY know about the 7pm check-in or your reviews might suffer. If you can offer a bag drop before then, that might help a little, too.
One thing you can do is to set a preparation time of 1 day to ensure you have time to clean and prep. However, the obvious downfall is that you lose at least one day for every reservation and that’s a really hard hit if you get a lot of 1-night stays. Although if you get a significant number of morning check-ins, you will be prepared and possibly can charge extra for it to make back some of the revenue lost to preparation days.
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Mine are 3:00 - midnight. Like Gardenfairy I get requests for later. I also get an equal number of requests for early check-in.
You can always try check-in after 7 pm. You may wish to mention your check-in time in your first communication with the guest. If they need earlier they can let you know or cancel.
It sounds like the rental is in a shared home so I understand your desire to be there.
Yep – 7pm is a deal breaker. I am NOT gonna wander around Brooklyn – or anywhere for that matter – pulling luggage and schlepping bags trying to stay warm or cool and safe; when my flight gets in at 10 or 2 or 4.
So yes I think such a late check-in will significantly, negatively, impact your bookings.
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I second this suggestion. It might work better for you in the end, because I imagine you’ll lose a lot of bookings from people who want an earlier checkin. I also work and there’s no way I can do a same day turnover but it is doable with the one day blocked after a guest checks out. Especially since you allow self checkin, just get the room ready at night when you come home from work and have it ready for a 2 or 3 pm checkin the next day.
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I have read of other hosts who have evening check-ins, for the same reason- they have home-share listings and don’t get home from work until then. But I’d also suggest you set one day prep time between bookings- I’ve had that since I started hosting, and I really like it. It’s not ideal for hosts who depend on bookings to make a living, but if it’s just a way to make some extra cash and you have a regular job, why not try it- you can always change it back.
BTW, don’t get scared off by the wording on the prep-time setting, which says “Block one day before and after a reservation”. That makes it sound like you’d miss 2 days between bookings- one after booking A and one before booking B, but it doesn’t actually work like that- the day-after block doubles up as the day-before block before the next booking. It really should read “Block one day between reservations” but, as usual, Airbnb manages to make even the most simple concept confusing and misleading.
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I guess you could suck it and see (do you guys have that term in the states?). My guess is you’ll get a lot less bookings. Perhaps it would be better to just leave a day between bookings? That’s what I do. I also don’t do one nighters, as it’s not worth the constant cleaning/greeting/booking hassle IMHO. Let us know how you go.
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You could have your co-host prep the room when you have same day bookings or get a cleaner in to do the turnover. Or just block a date between bookings. @mrmech
I use the one-day prep time setting for exactly this reason - I have a day job and can’t always turn over the apartment during the day. However, with this setting, you can easily unblock the prep day after someone books. So if someone is departing on a weekend, I unblock the prep day and turn the apartment over for that evening. This has the advantage of saving me a LOT of stress while leaving my weekend nights without that pesky dead day.
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I have 9-5 job as well.
I manually block days when I get a booking. Because on weekend I am able to do same day cleaning.
Also I ask guest when they book when their flight is. Some have evening flights so I don´t block in those instances.
So overall yess, you will need to block some days. But you can minimise it.
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