Guest not responding to messages

[Paul1432]

I have a guest booked in for the 31st, New Years Eve. I have sent 5 messages to this guest asking them to confirm check in and check out for their booking. After nearly two weeks I have had no communication back and I am getting increasingly nervous because New Year has many travel restrictions and a late check in will cause many problems. I have explained this in my messages to the guests, is there a procedure for airb&b where I can ask them to get some acknowledgement from the guest, Paul, London.

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

@Paul1432

many guests didn't set up Airbnb application and notifications on their phones and therefore have no idea you messaged them. Try to call them or send them email. If they are still unreachable you can contact Airbnb and ask them to try to contact your guests. If they can't reach them you can ask Airbnb to cancel but you will not be paid and maybe you will not be able to rebook these days so close to date.

[Norma90]

I had the same issues very often . Simply call AirBNB and ask them to open up your calendar and cancelled the reservation. They are scammers it has happened to a lot of other hosts...you are not alone. 

[Gordon0]

Evidence-based words of wisdom there, or plucked from the sky, @Norma90?

[Sarah977]

@Paul1432  I have had this situation a couple of times. I contacted Airbnb , they contacted the guests, and the guest then responded to me quite quickly. In both instances, there was nothing nefarious or "scammer" about the guest- One had been away at a workshop the week before her reservation, where there was no Wifi, the other had had a death in the family and checking her Airbnb messages was not exactly a priority.

In both cases I would have tried calling the guest myself, but both were on the other side of the planet and I don't have a phone plan that enables me to do that.

[John1080]

I’ve had this happen a few times and have texted the guest, explaining who I am and asking them to check my messages and respond on the Airbnb app. Each time they were genuinely shocked because as others have said, they hadn’t turned on notifications. 

[Gordon0]

@Paul1432 - Give CS a ring and they'll call the guests for you. 

[Paul1432]

Thanks to all who replied to this post it really helps when others give good advice on a subject they recognise.

[Gordon0]

@Paul1432 As coincidence would have it, my guests who were due to arrive between 2-3pm yesterday went all silent on me. It turns out they decided to have dinner with friends but seemingly didn't think my time was important enough to tell me.

They turned up at 22:30 (when I was alseep), parked in a neigbour's space, made loads of noise and sent me a heap of passive-aggressive questions, all of which had been previously answered and were in my manual. Gotta love this business, right?  

[Stephen1004]

Haha so true 😄