Late check out

[Diana2915]

I very rarely have people asking if they can have a later checkout time. My checkout time is 10 AM but the other day I had a guest that wanted an extra 30 minutes, which meant to Me that it would be more like 45 or an hour and I was stressed because I had to get the cleaners in there because I had someone else checking in and so I told her that I had cleaner coming and that she could have an extra 15 minutes if that helped but she never responded and then she never did a review so she was probably ticked off about that, so my question is, how do we handle this situation when the guest wants to have a later checkout 

[Shelley159]

I do what you did @Diana2915 : try to give some extra time instead of a hard 'No'.

It usually works when you suggest a compromise, maybe this guest was difficult or maybe she doesn't like to review.

There's no point in giving more time than you can give - you'll just get a bad review from the next guest if the place isn't ready.

[Greystone0 · Accepted solution]

hi @Diana2915  - agree with the good advice given. And here's some additional thoughts:

- we often have back to back reservations and we have a large property to turn around so there isn't much wiggle room here.

- so to pre-emptively thwart this from occurring, as it leaves a really bad taste for both sides, we now have a comment about our check in/out times that goes something like this: "it's our common practice to offer early check in/late check out but we'll know closer to check in date what is possible with our house and cleaning schedule." We send this blurb as part of our very first reservation response. We finalize schedules two weeks prior so that is then communicated at that point if an early check in/late check out is available. Very often it is.

OR if we already know "it's our common practice to offer early/late  when possible, however for these dates, it isn't possible due to the change over/cleaning schedule. It's a busy time up here!" or some such thing.  Which for our high season, that we book out 10-12 months in advance it is almost all back-to-back. And so we know far in advance.

Often we can offer one side early or late and we highlight that in our messaging - even if the guest can't take advantage it's still a nice offer so we try to counteract any negative they might feel if they can't have both and so on.

hope that's some food for thought!

[Paula]

Hello @Diana2915, glad to see experienced hosts came to share their opinions. Please let us know when you have a minute to read this.

[Hubert--J0]

Hi @Diana2915 

You did very well. I believe that allowing extra checkout time is only possible when availability permits, and it may not always be an option.

[Coastal-Hideaway-By-Yvette-and-Michael0]

I'd say we have close to 100% of our guests request an extra hour.  Most of the time we can accommodate, but for the times we cannot, we simply tell them we have a check-in as soon as they vacate.  We also don't "upsell" the late checkout.  We know we don't like to be nickel-and-dimed when we stay somewhere, so we don't do it to our guests.  So far, it's worked out.  We are earmarked to be SuperHost on July 1st when the quarterly review hits.