Guests checked in WAY too early

[Ryan47]

Just had a weird situation- had a guest book our home. We only rent it out when we're away. They said they would check in "some time before noon" and we planned on leaving the house at 8am.

So I left the keys in the key safe and sent them the combination.

Cut to five am, were sound asleep. Three people let themselves into my apartment and start turning on lights. Scared THE HELL out of us.

They admitted they were early, and not wanting to throw them out on the street I said well make yourself comfortable. They all three went to sleep.

Question is: should I charge them another night???

[David336]

No I wouldn't charge them. But I would not have put the keys in the lock box until I was ready to leave. When renting out your place, you always have to consider worst case scenario. You'd have to eat that one because a lot of people are considerate but you get those " few" once in awhile that will do something like that or bring a pet when it clearly says "pets not allowed". Chalk it up to lesson learned.

[Helen82]

WHOA! That is really not ok. I'm sorry about this. I had a similar situation (not as drastic), my check in for a couple was 4pm, and then they texted me to say they were here at 9am. I was in my pajamas barely waddling to the coffee maker at the time. I was so relieved I had not given them the Keycafe instructions yet! I just texted them and said the suite was occupied and I could not accomodate them sooner without adequate notice, my apologies, and let me know if they have any other questions, yaddah yaddah yaddah. But just as previously mentioned on this thread, I also don't send any key information until my house is ready and I am on my way out the door. If guests press for information (I always provide the location of the keys, just not the pin#/pick-up unlock links etc) I tell guests when the current party staying drops off the keys, then they will receive a notice to pick up the keys. Which makes perfect sense. I'm sorry about this, but unfortunately people are people- and people will do inconcsiderate things.

*If you really wanted to, you could list it as a Ho-use Rule, and say you are unable to accomodate anyone who arrives before the check-in time as the space will be occupied by a paying guest. Just a thought.

[Janice137]

Hello, My husband and I are Superhosts and have been for a year. We have a checkin time of 4 pm to be able to turn over the cottage. We have a self check-in SMARTLOCK. Our checkout was stated 1100am. What to do if a guest ignores your times by a couple hours and doesn't communicate.?

[Letti0]

@Janice137   I had an issue with guests showing up too early. One group showed up before 12:00PM and my check in is 4:00 PM. This was the same group that did not leave until after 2:00 PM when my check out was at 11:00 AM. After them I changed the way we did things. I send the code 3 days before check in still, but I do not change the code to that until right before check in time, so they cannot get in early even if they show up early. As for check out I now remind the the night before we do sameday booking, so they must leave by 11:00 AM as that is when the cleaning crew will be showing up. I've had very few problems since I started this method. 

[Janice137]

Hi Leti, 

Do you have the ability to change your SMARTCODE remotely?

[Letti0]

@Janice137  We just go over when we bring the wines and the welcome basket items over and change it as we are on property, so it's simple to do.