Strict checkin times and a charge

[Joe3011]

I’ve just had an email from the host of a house I’ve booked in France telling me that i have to book in from 2pm to 5pm and any later than that will be €50 extra! They also want to charge an extra €28 per person for bedding and towels! This seems completely outrageous! 

[Nina75]

I'll meet my guests at any hour for free.. we charge $15 for extra guests per night. We feel that is reasonable.  Dont get your panties in a bunch, it will just ruin your trip just make sure that YOU LEAVE YOUR FRUSTRATION IN THE REVIEW  🙂 Dont show your disapproval until after the reservation and be very through with the listing.

[Robin4]

@Nina75 

Nina, I was working away on the computer at 11.50pm one evening and I got a reservation  for a 1.00-2.00am check-in......

They arrived about 1.50 am, got 5 hours sleep and were gone at 7.00 am the next morning!

They had left Melbourne Victoria after work at 6.00pm and driven the 870 Kms to Mt Barker South Australia, got a few hours sleep then picked up a pure breed dog they had purchased from a local breeder and were back in Melbourne that evening by 6.00pm!

They had driven a total of 1,760 Kms in a day and still got 5 hours sleep in the middle of it!

You do have to be adaptable don't you Nina!

Cheers........Rob

[Nina75]

@Robin4 Very sweet of you to accept it.  I had a few of those over the years. I love em because they usually leave the house in good condition and are so tired that they dont need anything.

But yes I love those. Yes I would not have charged them extra, it would have been a pleasure providing a nice layover and great memories.

[Sandra856]

@Nina75  Things are different in Europe. It is very common (since 1970ties) that people pay for a linen/towel/tea towel package. Those packages are delivered directly from a laundry service company in a bag. Guests will even have to make there own beds as well. Guests will pay the exact price the rental company pays the laundry service company. When it comes to paying for arrival outside business hours that is also common. Airbnb accepted old fashioned rental companies to join the platform. They do it differently and the guest won’t meet the classic Airbnb host who can show up whenever it suits the guest - free of charge. 
@Joe3011 All of these extra costs and info about arrival time should be mentioned in the add for you to read before you book - otherwise you can write or call Airbnb and ask them to cancel the booking and refund you. I would do that if I were you as you don’t seem happy with the booking. I just wanted to explain that what you experience here is the way it basically works in Europe if you rent a rental the old fashioned way outside Airbnb.

[Nina75]

@Sandra856 Please... Im European and I have 3 AirBnb Units in Bulgaria. I live in the US but my family collectively meets the guests and checks them in. We live in the same building as the units so its not an issue. We feel its easy enough. In Los Angeles we meet all guests and we dont care what time it is we meet them and we do not charge a fee.

We have washing machines in all of our units in Bulgaria and the US. Travelers need to wash their stuff, I cant for the life of me charge people to do their laundry ID never be able to live with myself. 

I just had a lady from Florida visit Sofia and stay for 30 days with a baby, no way on earth she is sending her laundry out. You should step up your game to modern times. Its 2022 and people dont make their own beds, EVEN IN EUROPE.

[Robin4]

@Nina75 

Nina, as a host you do have to put yourself in the guests shoes and go that extra metre..... Yard.

In the guest cottage bathroom as well as a washing machine for guest use I have installed a personal drying rack. Many women do not like hanging out their personal washing in a public space,  so this overhead cupboard has a concealed pull out drying rack which gives them the privacy they deserve........

We try to make the cottage as homely as we can for guests

On the wall beside the bed there is a picture of my mum which was taken on the 26th February 1936.....she was 19 at the time.

She thought she was unattractive and destroyed every adult photo that she could find. Maybe that is not quite true, she just thought she never took a good photo........

So this is what she did to every adult photo that was taken of her......

The top photo is one of only two that remains of her intact and I managed to get that from her sister after she died in 2009.

That's a strange thing to hang in a short term rental property but Nina, it's like you are inviting guests into a personal part of your life....you are sharing a bit of yourself with them, and they all appreciate it!

NB: I have posted this wedding photo before here on the CC and a lovely host from Rio,  @J-Renato0  saw it and asked me to send a high quality copy to him. His wife Anna does professional quality photo enhancement, and from the ripped and torn photo reproduced this copy for me removing all the damage.......

I mounted the photo in a frame and gave it to my sister last Christmas as a Christmas present........

She cried when she removed the wrapping and saw it whole for the first time.

We owe Jose-Renarta and Anna a great debt. Anna made my mum whole again!

Cheers.........Rob

[Kia272]

@Robin4  Way to highjack a thread! Lovely story, but not the issue at hand here. 

Also, the person you're communicating with has proffered some very poor advice to the OP. I'm surprised that you haven't commented on that. 

"Dont get your panties in a bunch, it will just ruin your trip just make sure that YOU LEAVE YOUR FRUSTRATION IN THE REVIEW  

 Dont show your disapproval until after the reservation and be very through with the listing."

[Robin4]

@Kia272 

I don't agree with a lot of what @Nina75 says and I certainly don't agree with leaving personal frustration in the review. But I have been here on the CC for 4 years longer than you have Kia and over that time the help and mate-ship seems to have gone. Everyone simply wants b*tch about something or other now.....we don't share nice experiences any more.

I felt Nina's give and take approach with regard to check-in and guest laundry was worth a positive comment and I took the opportunity to inject a bit of my own nice experience with those two items into the thread.

Kia, your comments are spot on, the advice you give is good, but just remember we all have something to offer, it might not be strictly to the theme of the thread, but hopefully we all learn something and it all makes us better hosts!

Cheers..........Rob

[Kia272]

@Robin4  This has nothing to do with how long a person has been in the CC. It has to do with promoting good advice and helping others. I see plenty of that, along with good "mate-ship", as well as bad advice and nastiness. We can't dictate to others about how to behave, but we can promote good behavior with our own actions. 

Your feel-good stories are all well and good, but perhaps to the detriment of the original OP seeking help. 

Also, by not pointing out the flat-out poor advice of other posters, you are tacitly agreeing with them. What she advised is a lose-lose situation for both guest and host. It's hard for me to imagine (as a host) promoting that as an acceptable solution. 

There you have it. Kia

[Kia272]

@Joe3011 I suggest that you review the listing for the property you booked. All of those details should be included in the listing. Hosting trends vary by location, and as @Sandra856 said, it is common in certain markets to charge for things like linens, local city taxes, etc. 

If these details and charges are not mentioned in the listing, then you should contact the host and or AirBnB to clarify, and make a decision as to if you want to continue with this booking. Contrary to one piece of advice that you received, it's not smart to wait until you review, and then exact "revenge" on the host by airing your grief in a review. It's much more productive to get things straightened out before your stay, allowing for the possibility that you and the host can be happy, and that you'll enjoy your stay. 

The check-in window does seem short, but some good communication with the host might help you work around that. 

It looks like you're new to AirBnB (no reviews on your profile), and you have to remember that AirBnB is not a hotel. There are real people behind the listings with lives and families and other responsibilities. It's not a hotel with a clerk behind a desk who is available at any hour of the night. 

It's fairly common for guests not to read property details carefully. AirBnB does a good job of hiding many important things, and it does require clicking on/expanding several areas of the listing until you get the entire picture. Again, you should review the listing again, give your host the benefit of the doubt, take a deep breath, and see if you can work this out. 

Good luck. Kia