Guests that don’t vacate on time.

[Sharon1155]

I am curious as to how other house handle this problem. I’ve had to guess this year already not be aware of the time and day they are supposed to leave. Should I start reminding them the day before with a text? I’ve changed my House rules to charge them $25 for the first 15 minutes and a dollar after that per minute, if they don’t leave on time. Do other hosts  think this is harsh.

[Kate867]

@Sharon1155   I send our guests a message the night before check out confirming their checkout time and a few gentle reminders of our requirements.  I also let them know that our Housekeeper will be there 10mins after their checkout time to commence her work.  In our house rules we allow early check in and late check out if available and only when the times are mutually agreed on Airbnb Messenger.  Any un-agreed late check out will be charged at ‘X’ per hour or part of.   So far we have not had any issues.  We do try to be as flexible as we can with guests and they do seem to appreciate it.  I don’t think a ‘grace’ period of 10 minutes should be charged for but all Airbnb’s are different with different time constraints on turnovers etc.

[Sarah977]

@Sharon1155  Yes it would be harsh to charge a guest for checking out 10 or 15 minutes late, but you can charge for overstays in general. But "per minute" sounds  odd.

And yes, you should send a check-out reminder the afternoon or early evening before. 

BTW, you need to edit your listings. The "both" units listing is showing all the sleeping option in both the bedroom and the living room, and the 2nd one apartment listing shows all the beds as being in the living room.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sharon1155  no, I don't think it's harsh but I think it will not be easy to collect this fee.

I am dealing with this differently. I set my check-out time to 11:00 instead of 12:00 which is the latest possible to be able to prepare the place for the next guest.

Guests forgot to check out only twice - the first time they overslept, the second time they thought they have another night. I just entered with my cleaner and we start swiping beds while guests were packing.

I have a late check-in fee though because that's the problem I face too often.

Guests just instant book and say they will arrive at midnight like this is a hotel. They don't even ask if it's possible. It causes me a lot of stress and I am wasting so much time texting with guests and finding a solution

Airbnb should really put the House rules and Additional house rules somewhere in the prominent place, not hiding them in a footer, behind the "Show more >" link where nobody finds them.

For example, if the guest reads my house rules and book then we exchange 2 short messages before arrival.

When the guest doesn't read and just instant book then we have to exchange at least 20 messages. It is so time-consuming, frustrating, stressful, complicated and so inconvenient for guests and for me.

I don't know why Airbnb thinks hiding house rules will speed up the booking process, it is totally the opposite.

[Jane563]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I cut and paste my house rules into the message thread when I take a booking, and ask guests to acknowledge that they’ve read them.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jane563  when they instant book already then it is too late, unfortunately.

And, if they confirm they have read them it doesn't mean they really did or understood. 

[Sharon1155]

It seems they don’t take the time to read the whole offering. Or they don’t know how to navigate webpages.

[Huma0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I ask all IB guests to confirm they have read the house rules anyway. It's really important as, there can be something really important there that they don't like that they didn't understand when booking, so I need them to do this within 48 hours of booking so that they can cancel penalty free if necessary. This has happened a few times.

If they won't confirm this after being asked a few times, I will tell them I am going to cancel their booking.

You are right that people lie about having read the rules. It happens all the time. So, I now have an Easter egg question in there that they have to answer. I simply won't accept a booking now until they have done this. If they IB, they still need to do it and, if they won't for some reason, I tell them I am going to cancel, or I get Airbnb to do it.

True, they could just skim through the rules to find the Easter egg, without really taking in the rest. Or, they could read them but not really understand them. People can also be very 'selective' in what they do and don't absorb. However, the Easter egg allows me to detect the guests who don't read the rules and then claim they have have.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Huma0  I am doing exactly the same, the first sentence on my listings says: Prior to booking please read ...,  I have an easter egg,  my first message is : Please read and copy and paste the password... I even have a screenshot in my pic. gallery showing them where they can find HR, and my pre-booking message is similar.

But to no avail. I am helpless. Every third booking expects late check-in and then we have a problem

This madness has begun the moment Airbnb decided to hide house rules in the footer, place reviews above other important information and hide everything behind "Show more>" links

I would turn off instant book but the competition in my area is too strong.

[Huma0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Yep, it's tough. If I could get back all the hours I have spent trying to get guests to read and acknowledge the house rules, I would be a very happy bunny. Hosts have voiced their concerns about the hidden nature of the house rules so many times and for so many years, that it's clear Airbnb does this intentionally.

I also want to turn off IB (never wanted to turn it on in the first place but was left with no choice). However, since turning it off on one of my listings, I'm still getting bookings. I haven't checked the views, but it seems to get booked as much, if not more, than the other two listings that are still on IB, so I may turn IB off on another one soon and see how that goes. Of course, I now only host long term stays so I don't need a lot of bookings. Still, if the listing was getting buried in the searches, which is what happened before I first turned on IB, I don't think I would still be getting the same interest in it. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Huma0  tnx, good to know, I'll try to turn ff IB to see what will happen

[Sharon1155]

I just start cleaning while they are still there. This makes them leave even quicker.

[Jane563]

Don’t let them instant book then.

I have had one guest who thought that one of my house rules didn’t apply to her. She had acknowledged them when she booked, so I told her to stay out of my kitchen as she had agreed. She didn’t wish to and asked airbnb to move her - she didn’t get the money she paid me refunded.

[Sharon1155]

Unfortunately some people are so self-centered and narcissistic. Sometimes hard to spot them.

[Huma0]

@Jane563 @Sharon1155 

Yep, I had a guest who broke numerous house rules. She was also really taken aback by stuff clearly stated in the listing, e.g. the fact that I have three cats or that I live here!

Of course, I had asked to confirm before she booked that she had read and agreed to the house rules, but when I questioned her on this after she started breaking them, she just replied, "Yes, I have read the rules. That doesn't mean I have to remember them."

When I very politely asked her to please stop messaging me about non-urgent matters at 1 or 2am, she replied, "I will message you when I think of something. You don't have to read it straight away." Erm no, when a guest messages me that late at night, I am going to check in case it's something urgent because most decent people with manners don't send messages at that time unless it's important. Narcissistic indeed.