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?

[Enri1804]

@Nanxing0  I agree. If I’m concerned, I have created a scheduled message that provides the check in and checkout times. Sometimes right after booking, or day before check in, and usually with day before checkout task message.

[Karen114]

@Enri1804  I do the same however they still try to check in early 😞

[Robin488]

I send a message the morning of check in, it reminds them that our check in is 4 pm, however we often finish cleaning early, they are welcome to check in when the property is ready.  (Usually I’m done at 1 or 2 pm). I send the code as soon as it is ready for them, and if they are in the area they are free to arrive as soon as they get the code.   I have rarely needed to hold them out until actual check in time, unless we have a scheduled maintenance item, and I let them know in advance, that there is maintenance happening, this is done to improve their stay, and check in will be no earlier than 4 pm. 

[Carol6369]

I send a Welcome message when they book, & thank them for booking.

About 6 days before arrival, I sent a message acknowledging that with info about where to park, and check-in time, and check-out time.

Then on the morning of arrival, I send them their SafeLock Code and wish them safe travels.

Last, the morning of check-out, I send - example:

>Please message me when you have checked out. Thank you.

> For your convenience, leave all bedding on the bed.

>Place towels, cloths, etc in the shower.

>Leave trash in the cans inside or in the can at the road

>No need to wash dishes, just leave them in the sink.

We appreciate you for your cooperation.  Thanks again for being our guest/s.

[Eileen0]

@Nanxing0 I've just checked my listing and the check-in time isn't obvious.  I might amend my listing to make it clear. 
Looks like I might have a problem with an upcoming guest who is supposed to be checking in tomorrow.  The original booking was for 9 nights (booking amended by me), then she changed it to 5 nights but was only going to be actually staying for 3 nights but had offered to pay for 5 (as this is my minimum length of booking).  Of course I amended the booking for 3 nights. As per my usual routine, I sent her information 7 days about staying here in the flat, and asked when she expected to check in (no answer to this). I then emailed her on Thursday (5 days before her arrival) to ask about her arrival time, the response was "I will let you know when my flight is confirmed".  Then today, I messaged her to say that my workplace has asked me to come into the office tomorrow (the arrival day) but if she let me know her arrival time, I could check with my boyfriend if he could meet her.  She replied saying she was arriving at Heathrow at 13:55  tomorrow and could she check in early as she had arranged to meet friends at 16:30.  I said that I would be able to confirm at 18:00 tonight, and she replied saying "I haven’t been back to London in 6 years so I really do need to make sure I have a reliable option to freshen up and store my bags while I meet old friends.I’ve had to book a different unit for the Monday night, that I can check in to at 3pm" and would I mind adjusting the booking?"  Of course I am not keen to adjust the booking again, and also it is extremely unlikely that anyone can get from Heathrow to Shoreditch during daytime traffic through London in just 1  hour! It's all starting to feel like a scam.  
But what would make me feel better was if the usual check-in time for my listing was easily visible to my guests!

[Eileen0]

Update on what happened next.  I was able to message the guest at 18:43 last night confirming that my boyfriend would be able to meet her here at the flat for the earlier checkin time, and had asked for the guest to confirm when she would be arriving and what day.  I didnt hear back from her.  I've woken up early this morning to see lots of messages on my phone.  Apparently the guest cancelled the booking at 2:30am this morning.  Customer Services had messaged me at 3:24am saying the guest was waiting for my response, and if they didn't hear from me within the hour, they would issue a full refund to the guest.  

What is going on!  How can Customer Services expect me to respond to messages in the middle of the night. How can Customer Services decide to override my cancellation policy?

Apologies @Nanxing0  for using your thread to have a rant!

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Eileen0 

Unlike hotels, we don't have a 24 hour desk clerk to handle these things promptly while we - the owners - are sleeping. I'd pester the service reps around that, and get to the bottom of it.

[Jenny]

Hi @Eileen0 

Sorry to hear about this.  Have you been back in touch with Airbnb to discuss the situation?  Can you let me know the outcome please?

Jenny

[Eileen0]

@Jenny  Customer Services eventually replied to me last night (15 hours later) to discuss and sort it out. There won't be a refund issued from me. Thanks for checking

[Jenny]

Thanks for letting me know @Eileen0 - this didn't sound right to me so I'm glad it got sorted out.

Jenny

[Nanxing0]

@Eileen0 Not a problem at all! Glad your issues were resolved!

[Dave52]

@Nanxing0 The check-in date and time, check-out date and time all clearly displayed in the confirmed booking.

Yet you may be noticing a trend of guests to pay attention to nothing, or ignore everything, or both.  I've noticed this the past few months.  A few guests claimed they were "confused" about their check-out date and tried to stay an extra night (another guest arriving the same day.....)

If guests were truly confused or making it up, I recommended to CS, airbnb make such thing prominent on the booking calendar before the guest even books.  Crickets......

[Nanxing0]

@Dave52 Absolutely. It is quite obvious that some guests have cognitive issues that hinders their ability to properly read and understand the instructions and rules. Honestly the percentage of guests that have such issue is small, meaning most guests have proper cognitive skill to find important things out themselves. My point is that there are a lot of things Airbnb should do to make this situation better.

[Dave52]

@Nanxing0 Adding Check-in and Check-out to the app calendar might help.  But they won't change it.

[Stephanie365]

I don't know if it's still a Thing or not, but I know the guests used to be able to click on a time period when they expected to arrive. If they have done away with this, they should bring it back. And then program it like they do the calendar.  

The host lists their check in time for their place. 
Then, in the booking message, there's a place to click on their Estimated Time of Arrival. 
It could feature a drop-down menu and based on the value the host has input, it would only allow guests to select times within the parameters the host selected.

For example, say a host allows check in between 5 pm and 10 pm. 
It will allow guests to click on any time range within the allowed values of 5 pm and 10 pm. 
If they try to click on 3 pm, it won't allow that selection.

They could program a small pop-up message like on the calendars where it lets guests know the greyed out times are not available.