Being an Airbnb host is hard enough, but guests who check in late make things even more difficult. Last night, I had a guest who was supposed to arrive at midnight - which is already late enough as it is, but I told him that was fine. I messaged him the day before and told him to please let me know if there would be any delays or changes to his flight. He responded with "Will do!" So check in time came and passed, and I'm sitting up getting more and more tired and more and more angry. Finally, he arrives at 2:15 am. 2:15 AM! He said his flight was delayed 2 hours, but he didnt bother to call/text/message me to tell me. I was absolutely furious. (Note: 90% of the time they are late the reason they don't text me is because they are roaming and don't want to pay the .25 cents to let me know - which is absolutely disgusting and disrespectful)
This is not an isolated incident. I'd say about 35% of guests arrive late. However, for those guests who arrive dramatically later than the time they say, I think Airbnb needs to impose a "late fee". Obviously there should be a grace period for check in, but his is how I think it should work...
When a guest checks out, you get a notification asking to leave a review. There should also be a notification that comes the day after they arrive that says "Did so-and-so check in on time? Yes/no." Now, we already give guests a huge window. Obviously if they are 30 minute late, we don't sweat it... but over an hour late is just ridiculous. If you select "No", then you'd have to say "how late was this guest?" For every hour they were late, they should be charged a pre-determined fee. There are already cancellation policies in place, so a host should be able to add a "late check in" policy. For every hour that the guest is late, you should be able to charge them a fixed rate. This would definitely light the fire under their butts to get to you on time or to at least tell you they will be late.
I live in Italy, so it happens frequently that people get off the bus and then stop for food - making me wait longer. My time is valuable and Airbnb needs to take that into consideration. I see no reason why I shouldn't have been able to charge this guest an extra 10 euros for making me stay up until 2:15 waiting to check him in.