How do I get my guest to leave at check out time?

How do I get my guest to leave at check out time?

Hi, My current guest refuses to leave, she hasn't informed me that she needed a late check out. Her stuff is everywhere and she's not the best at communicating, and is insisting she has the right to stay on. She had a very very good deal, managing to get a 21% discount for a week stay and has availed herself freely of any service I could possibly provide. I haven't made any money out of her.

18 Replies 18
Lyn3
Level 10
Mapleton, Australia

@Orla27 

Hi Orla, how overdue is she? What time was she due to leave? When does your next guest arrive?

 

@Orla27  Your guest is incorrect; obviously she has no "right" to overstay past checkout time. You may refer her to Airbnb's terms of service:

 

8.2.2 You agree to leave the Accommodation no later than the checkout time that the Host specifies in the Listing or such other time as mutually agreed upon between you and the Host. If you stay past the agreed upon checkout time without the Host's consent (“Overstay”), you no longer have a license to stay in the Accommodation and the Host is entitled to make you leave in a manner consistent with applicable law. In addition, you agree to pay, if requested by the Host, for each twenty-four (24) hour period (or any portion thereof) that you Overstay, an additional nightly fee of up to two (2) times the average nightly Listing Fee originally paid by you to cover the inconvenience suffered by the Host, plus all applicable Guest Fees, Taxes, and any legal expenses incurred by the Host to make you leave (collectively, "Overstay Fees"). 

 

insist to this guest that you must prepare the room for an incoming guest, even if you don't have one. Hopefully it doesn't come to this, but you can also begin removing the guest's belongings from her room. Worst case scenario is that she refuses to give you back the keys - in which case you either a) get the police involved or b) change the locks and charge the guest for the locksmith as per the terms quoted above.

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Orla27 

hope you are well.

agreed to all above mentioned by @Anonymous , also make sure all communication is kept within the Airbnb app with respect to this guest and contact Airbnb (twitter is really good apparently) as to assist you with this.

Good luck to you! 

Yadira 🙂

thank you

Helen3
Top Contributor
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hi @Orla27 

 

I couldn't actually see a check out time on your listing?

 

When you say she has the right to stay on do you mean indefinitely or today? One of course is much more serious than the other.

 

Call your guest now remind her of whatever your agreed check out time is and say you need her to return straight away to remove her things from your property as you have guests checking in later today (lie if you have to). Say if she doesn't return by xxx time you will need to pack up her things and she has until XXX time to collect them. Make sure you follow this up with a message on Airbnb and call Airbnb.

 

Remind her of the clause kindly shared with you on this thread and that under the T&Cs she booked under you are able to charge her extra for every hour she stays after your check out time.

 

By the way please change your cancellation policy from flexible, add a check out time and retake your photos as they don't come out well in the front page of your listing.

 

And finally don't ever offer discounts which means you make no money...you are in effect paying her to stay with you and you get nothing.

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Orla27   I see that you have 2 private room listings in your lovely home.  It is unclear if you are also in the home at the same time or if you live elsewhere, but it is clear that this guest is sharing space with other people, possibly including yourself.  I did notice that both your listings do not have a check out time posted, which I have in my rules.  Perhaps you could correct that for the future.

 

As @Yadira22  suggests, you need to keep all communications on the Air BNB message system, summarizing any verbal communications systems.  Also, it is very important that even if the guest treats you poorly, your communication is professional, short, to the point and firm.  I see that your response to a rare negative review was to attack the guest (big mistake BTW) so it might be tempting to react to this rude guest in a similar matter.  Air BNB will take the guest's side under those conditions.

 

What many of us have learned over the years with these type of entitled guests, is to appear sympathetic to the guest request while staying firm with whatever boundary or rule we need to enforce.  Often, if a guest does not get what they want there is a negative review so as a host we need to respond to the review in a professional way that will not be off putting to future guests who are the audience of the response, not the guest who left the review.

Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

Orla I think your response to the bad review was really funny. Probably self defeating, but very funny.

hahaha 😄 daaa

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Orla27 

 

Set your check-out time to what suits you the best.

 

For your incoming reservations, booked until now, here is what Airbnb say:

If there's no check-in or check-out time specified within a listing's description, check-in is 3:00 PM local time and checkout is 11:00 AM local time.

 

link: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/41/how-do-i-coordinate-checkin-details-with-my-host

Clive12
Level 5
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Orla27,

 

I usually say that the cleaner is booked to do the room (even if that is me) and am very explicit about my check out times on my listing and in my house rules (which has a warning that they may be charged an extra day). I also have a laminate on the wall by the room light-switch which contains fire escape info, internet password and check out time. I no longer have un-arranged overstayers disrupting my days!

 

I don’t agree with Linda that your response to that negative review was a ‘big mistake’, I personally would want to stay with you because of it, it’s fabulous, hilarious and demonstrates what an interesting character you are and that you won’t take any bull, it’s beautifully written too.

 

I don’t think I would really want the kind of people that might be put off by such a response in my house, so review replies can be used as a useful filter too.

Hi @Clive12  Hey that's funny! Glad you enjoyed that wee review. I realise I need to be more explicit, firm and set clear boundaries as some of these tourists appear to have little or no respect for the country they are visiting.

@Orla27   You can always be flexible on the check in/check out, if you want with individual guests, but you should definitely set a time for check out as a baseline and then people can't say they weren't informed, even if they didn't pay attention to it.  We have flexible check in time and then have check out as a pretty firm 11am.  It has made things much easier.  We also message all guests the night or morning before check out to remind them of what they need to do/time, etc. 

Ann3
Level 10
Savannah, GA

I'm sorry your guest is taking advantage, but you know what to do. 

 

BTW, I love the reference to "Local Hero." We watched it again not long ago and loved it as much as we did when it came out. One of the cool things about it is the way the guys from the oil co. evolve over the course of the film. Too bad your guest didn't do the same.

Helen3
Top Contributor
Bristol, United Kingdom

So what happened in the end @Orla27 ?