I've been hosting for four years and having dealt with a fair few guest idiosyncracies, I thought I'd got to grips with how to set reasonable and respectful expectations and boundaries, but it seems there is always something new to deal with! I don't know why this is starting to happen now when it hasn't been such a problem before, but in recent months I have had several groups of guests turn up hours later than the check-in time we've agreed and it's becoming a real annoyance! What can I do about it?
It's bad enough when the guest is staying at my own home. At least I can get on with my life while I wait for them, although it is often hugely inconvenient that I can't leave the house for hours, and I've often had to cancel social engagements or make apologies for my own late arrival because I've had to wait for guests. It's much worse when I am waiting for them at one of my three other listings which are not my own home. I have a busy life and I always have a whole load of other things to do in a day, I simply don't have whole free afternoons or evenings to just wait in an empty property for people to arrive. I try to pin people down to a check-in time when they book. I give preferred check-in 'windows' on my listings and include copious advice about exactly how long it takes to drive here. If they haven't confirmed a definite time by a couple of days before their arrival, I chase them until they do. I am crystal clear with them about when I need to be somewhere else and can't just drop everything to check them in if they turn up at a different time. I offer pick-ups from the airport to make arrival smoother. I say no to early check-ins and late check-outs that would cause problems. I ask people to confirm when they are nearly at the property, I send them messages when they don't arrive by the time we've agreed, I even send them updates if I hear that there are traffic congestion problems or delays at the airport. And yet. More and more often guests are simply treating me as if I have nothing better to do than sit around all day waiting for them without even the courtesy of a message.
As I type this in gritted-teeth frustration, I rushed home from work today because today's guests wanted to check-in an hour earlier than my usual time. I raced to get the room ready for them as the previous guest only checked-out after I had already left this morning so I had to do a super-quick turnaround. As agreed, I sent them a message to confirm that I was now home and that they could check-in. The appointed hour came and went. Ninety minutes after the agreed arrival time, I finally got a response to my message - their SatNav says they are still two hours away! No apology, either for the lateness or the lack of updates. And on top of having my afternoon stolen from me because I couldn't just relax at home or leave the house, since I was expecting them at any moment, I now have to sit tight for another couple of hours and welcome them with a smile whenever they feel like showing up!
This is happening with nearly 50% of guests recently. The record was a guest who arrived five hours after she said she would, but only got in contact after I had waited, across town, for over two hours. Again, I got no apology - just a weak explanation that the journey had taken them longer than they'd expected - on a Friday afternoon before a bank holiday weekend, on the M6, well how unexpected!
I could do with some advice from experienced hosts. There is no amount of tinkering with the listing or the house rules that's going to solve this, I've already done all that many times. And since it's now becoming a pattern, I can't put it down to the personality of any particular guest. What I would appreciate are some tips or tricks that have worked for other people to somehow get across to self-involved inconsiderate people that they need to show me some better manners! Any thoughts?
Many thanks to anyone who's read through my ranting!
