Host asks to pay for late night check-in.

[Miltiadis1]

Hello. We have booked a place and the Host asks to pay for late night check-in. It was NOWHERE written. What is the best suggested course of action?

[Anonymous]

@Miltiadis1   Take a look at the listing (and/or your confirmation email). It will state the host's listed check-in time window  (for example,  12:00 to 8:00 PM). If your scheduled arrival is within the listed time window, it should not be subject to a fee.

However, if you're planning to arrive later than the listing states check-in is available, the host is not required to admit you to the property - so paying the fee would be your best option. It's important to remember, Airbnb's are not hotels with 24-hour check-in; it may cause significant disruption to the host's life to accommodate a check-in outside of their allotted hours. As a general rule, if your arrival is going to be especially late at night or early in the morning you should inquire whether this is acceptable before making a booking, or choose a listing with flexible self-check-in. 

[Elena87]

@Miltiadis1 

What are the facts here?

What is the check-in time window of the apartment?

When are you planning to check-in?

Did you discuss a late check-in with the host before booking?

How much is the intended fee from the host?

[Miltiadis1]

It simply said "check in after 15.00".
We will be arriving at midnight. Around 00.30.
She asked for 50 EUR, we settled for 30 EUR.

[Anonymous]

@Miltiadis1  I'm glad you were able to come to an agreeable resolution. But a midnight arrival time really is something you should have disclosed before booking with a host that does personal check-in. Especially considering that you may encounter delays that push your actual arrival time even later into the night, leaving your host no choice but to lose sleep waiting for you - even if they have to go to work early in the morning. Those hours that someone spends waiting for you are still work, and work deserves compensation.

Please don't forget, Airbnb is not like a hotel where there's a staff available around the clock. Your host may just be a person with a day job, who happens to be sharing their home to help make ends meet. 50 EUR is a small price to pay for making someone stay up late just for you. If your response to this is that you're ambivalent to the inconvenience caused by your lack of consideration, and you just want to save 20 bucks...well, that's not the kind of karma I would want to start a trip with.

[Cormac0]

@Miltiadis1 

My check in time is 15:00 hours and I had guest who did not reply to my messages till 21:00 hours and said they'd arrive Around 22:30 if my memory serves me right, additionally they request that I put the  kettle on so they would have hot water for tea, they eventually arrived AROUND 01:00. in the morning.

I could not move on the off chance that they'd arrive when I was out...

So yes pay the fee or stay in a Hotel in might actually be cheaper then you Airbnb accommodation.

[Trude0]

Even if the listing info says   «check in after 1500», and no info about latest check-in, I would say that if you know you’ll be checking in as late as 00:30, it would be wise to discuss this with the host before booking, to agree. Unless the listing has self check in, so the host will not need to be there to greet you. 

[Marie82]

@Miltiadis1  you have to keep in mind some host will use a third party to carry a very late arrival check-in. I used in the past for check-in after 10 pm to paid a male student 35 if check-in was between 10/11 pm and 11 till midnight 50. And used to bring a lot of bad resentment from guests even though it was listed and agreed before arrival. After receiving endless complaint I decided to take off that service and I do not provide access to my apartment after certain hours.

And guests who want to arrive past 11 pm is big and simple NO

[Lisa723]

@Anonymous @Miltiadis1 @Marie82 @Trude0 @Elena87 if the host doesn’t list a check-in window closing time and has no such fee in their listing they have no right to charge. IMO it is not the guest’s responsibility to anticipate the host’s needs in this regard. I would not pay this fee.

[Anonymous]

@Lisa723  The "check in window closing time" is a relatively new feature on Airbnb. Most of the time this site has been online, hosts have only been able to enter the opening time. Even though I probably know more about this platform than 99% of its CS staff I don't think I discovered the upper-limit feature until a few months ago - it's not like there was some kind of announcement about it.

Another angle here: if a guest is arriving after midnight, their check-in time is technically on a different calendar date from the beginning of the booking. So where does one draw the line? At what point in the middle of the night or the following morning does "late arrival" turn into "no-show"? 

I do agree that the host should have disclosed any additional fees in the listing, but I can also appreciate that they might not have anticipated getting a guest with the audacity to presume that they were entitled to make a host wait up all night for them just because they didn't put an upper limit on their check-in time. On what planet is it OK to make a business arrangement with a stranger and then only tell them after confirmation that they're going to have to turn up for it at midnight? Even here in Berlin, where nobody seems to sleep between Friday and Monday, that would be considered extremely rude.

[Lisa723]

@Anonymous I will take your word for it on the recent introduction of the feature. But I still think it’s on the host to specify their requirements in the listing and definitely not to spring an undisclosed fee on the guest. (Our guest suite check-in time is 4pm or later. We ask guests to let us know their ETA if after 10pm and provide self check-in instructions for that. It’s pretty normal for people to arrive after midnight without checking whether this will be OK when they book. As a guest, if there’s no check-in closing time I would be pretty upset to be told I have to pay extra to arrive after some arbitrary and undisclosed cut-off.)

[Anonymous]

@Lisa723   I don't think the same considerations apply to Entire Home listings with a self-check-in option.  Guests who book these should feel free to arrive at any time after the earliest check-in. 

[Yulianna0]

@Miltiadis1, I specially offer late arrivals for my guests. And recently I had to add that there is no extra charge for it:) My conclusion is that people are used to pay if they arrive very late. For sure it is better to clarify such things before making reservation. 

[Harold75]

No extra charge for late arrivals?  I am intrigued. 

Question: do you offer self check in? 

[Yulianna0]

@Harold75, I’m just a night owl and it is easy for me to be awake at night. Check in is from 9 PM. Great for those who arrive late. 
But so many just do not read even the title! “We did not see it”. OMG. No brain and no shame for it!