Has anyone had any issues opening up there home to a pet fri...
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Has anyone had any issues opening up there home to a pet friendly environment? any damages?dog bites to other guest?we are ho...
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As a host of 10+ years on the AirBnb platform I would like to petition for changes to the Reliability Standards policy (https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2895). This morning at 9:14a.m. 4 October 2025 a guest who made a booking for 2 nights contacted me to ask whether they can check-in early; they had made the booking on 28 August 2025.
They texted me with:-
Good morning. We have a reservation for the next 2 nights. Our train arrived very early this morning. I see check-in is typically from 3:00 p.m.. I was wondering if there is any option for early check-in? We have a lot of luggage so I would love to be able to drop it off if possible.
Thank you! 🙂
I replied to them at 12:11 noon. During this time; AirBnb support said that they tried to contact me and could not. AirBnb support said that they cancelled the booking (even though my cancellation policy is set to FIRM)and gave a full refund to the guest because I had not replied expeditiously enough citing the Reliability Standards policy which I have attached below:-
I think this policy could be open to abuse. Our check-in time for all listings is 3pm and in our check-in manual (which should have been sent to the guests 48-hours before check-in) has instructions on where to leave bags before check-in time so it seems that the guest might not have read that.
The guest had asked for a favour (i.e. early check-in) which the host can decide to grant or not and is completely discretionary and solely at the host's behest. It is not something that the host had advertised on their listing and failed to deliver upon.
Had the guest not been able to gain access to the property at check-in time and the host is unavailable or uncontactable or there is no hot water at the property or something that causes the guest inconvenience then I agree that AirBnb can cancel a booking and issue a full refund. However for favours I don't agree with the policy.
(1) The guest could have made this request in August when they made the booking because they knew full well that they had booked an early train but decideed to leave it to the last minute (e.g. the day of) to ask the host for early check-in
(2) The guest knew full-well that the check-in time was 3pm and claiming that the host is unreliable (because they hadn't replied to a favour request to check-in early in a timely manner) is not fair to the host as the host lost business and will be unlikely find replacement guests
(3) Had the guest actually perused the check-in documents they would have found a section with the code to a vault where they can leave their bags before check-in. Should guests be required to read vital information that they had been furnished?
If the guests call up the morning of the booking and request for a few bottles of champagne to be placed on the dining table and the host doesn't respond in a timely manner should the guest be entitled to cancel with a full refund? How is this request different to requesting early check-in?
Given this, I believe that the Reliability Standards need to modified to apply to serious matters only that materially affect the guests stay e.g. access, things not working, amenities described in a listing that were not delivered, etc. and should not include favours like early check-in, free champagne, helicopter pick-up, etc.
