Is Airbnb hiding our check in time?

[Nanxing0]

In the past year or two I have noticed a drastically increasing trend that guests do not pay attention to the check in time. Basically those guests send in a booking request with a message saying they are checking in at xxx time which is much earlier than my 4pm regular check in time. Then I respond to the guest pointing out and most of time they would tell me that they did not notice that while booking. Is it that Airbnb has made the booking process in the way that check in time is not apparent?

[Nanxing0]

@Stephanie365 I do remember they had this feature a long time ago and I'm also very curious why this feature was removed -- it is a such an obviously useful feature that can prevent such problem from happening.

My guess is that when guest tries to pick up a time earlier than the regular check in time, the system does not allow guest to do this. However a lot of hosts do help with early check in that makes it difficult to manage with the set check in time feature so they removed it. They probably need hosts to authorize an override to allow early check in and that might be technically too difficult to do for them. Ideally I would vote for a system that when guest books and input the check in time, if it's earlier than the regular check in time it should become a request and ask the host if the early check in can be accommodated. However that will obviously affect the acceptance rate of the host and Airbnb so apparently Airbnb thinks making this money is more important than the hassles hosts would be dealing with.

[Debra300]

@Nanxing0,

We used to frequently receive messages that stated a earlier check-in time, and guests would also checkout later than what's listed.  Many guests feel that they are not getting full value for their stay because of the 4-6 hours that are usually allotted for turnovers.  Before the pandemic we decided to have a day between stays, because we just didn't want to feel rushed to complete turnovers.  We then changed our 3 p.m. check-in and 11 a.m. checkout times 2 p.m. which offered guests "full days" throughout their stay.  Since we implemented those updates, guests rarely ask to arrive early or checkout late without approval.  In fact, almost all guests now ASK for the exception, and not tell us.

Also, we usually state in our greeting message if a request can be accommodated, or if we will have to wait until closer to the check-in date to confirm. 

[Nanxing0]

@Debra300 Exactly this is the feeling I always rec.eive from some guests that they feel they should get 24 hours from the booking and I constantly have to educate them this is not the case. Honestly I don't think you are obligated to offer them the "full day" as it's not what Airbnb stands for. We are basically working on a per night basis

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

I don't think it's a new trend. I've experienced guests ignoring the check in time as long as I've been hosting.

[Wende2]

This is the very reason I send a polite message asking "do you expect to arrive by 5 check in", along with other heads up about getting here.  I have plenty that ask about early check in being possible, when I don't have guests leaving and arriving the same day, sure I'm ok with people checking in a few hrs early.  The guy that booked Saturday, told me he was checking in at 1, for a 3:30 wedding, checking out an hr late.  Then they never showed up, or told me they wouldn't be staying, not to mention his ABnB name was Z Daddy, really.  Says a lot about how strict they are about real names being used, his one review said...Josh.