My guest not responding to messages after instant booking and during her stay

[Leanna10]

My guest has not responded to any of my messages since instant booking. She did not let me know that she checked-in (note: it’s self-check in). The only reason I knew was that there was a car parked in the driveway last few days. I also sent her a message just now because I noticed all the screen windows were broken?! 

What do I do?

[Ava30]

Hey @Leanna10:

If you are close enough, I would just go over there knock on the door and say either, “I  wanted to check in with you to make sure everything was OK because I hadn’t heard from you when you checked-in “ ,  and then broach the subject of the damage or just go straight to  “hey, what is going on with this damage?” If you are uncomfortable confronting her on your own, hopefully there somebody you can take with you for support. If you’re not close enough, maybe you can have a friend go by and check it out. No communication is pretty much unacceptable. Is it in your house rules that you need them to  message you when they check in,  answer you when you message? If not you might want to add that.  Good luck! 

[Leanna10]

Thank u for your advice! I definitely have it in house rules and I also messaged her the house rules a day before checking in. I will definitely have someone with me. I’m just not sure if I would want the cops involved and also I read somewhere to give your guest 24 hr notice before you stop by the house. But I mean, if she doesn’t answer any of my msssages, what notice is that?

[Letti0]

@Leanna10  This is why you have a rental agreement the guest must sign. What do you mean by all the screens are broken? You could use the screens as an emergency security issue to go there and check on the place.

In my rental agreement:

• Owner and Owner's Representatives entering Property– Occasionally, the Owner or their designated representative(s), including Housekeeper, caretaker, or repair person, may enter the property at any reasonable time for inspections, maintenance or repairs with a minimum of two (2) hours advance notice to Guest (from when a message is left on Guest's cell phone). Pest Control spraying, Landscape and pool maintenance personnel may enter the grounds of the property at any time, without prior notice.

[Victoria567]

Self check in!

A can of worms in my opinion.

I personally welcome all my guests.

I want to see who I am letting into my property.

[Andrea9]

@Leanna10

It's advisable to have a 'paper trail' on the booking message page. If you talk to her in person or phone or other method, make sure you re-cap the conversation by message on Airbnb. Otherwise she could contact Airbnb from her side and tell the wildest story differing from the truth. Wouldn't be the first guest to do this.

Re. your non-communicating guest I'd have sent a message through the site to the extent of "I see you have arrived (your car is the blue/green/red one on the property?) and was hoping you found everything alright. 

From my window this morning it looks as though the screen windows in the guest home are broken. Do you know what happened? I'll come over later and have a look to arrange a repair person."

That 1) documents the lack of communication, 2) your reaching out to her, 3) the damage, and 4) your care in getting the situation solved. Always friendly, always helpful, but making a record of everything so that the story is straight on the messages. Airbnb will read that later on, esp. in case the guest is unwilling to cover any damages.

If after talking to her and you get a strange feeling, do re-cap the conversation as message and then immediately call Airbnb to let them know and make a note that you are afraid this guest is going to make problems re. the damage coverage or whatever.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

If a guest doesn't respond to my messages I call them.  Some people don't know how to check their Airbnb messages and don't have them forwarded.  And the Airbnb site glitches sometimes.

ALL the screen windows are broken??!  I would be very very alarmed.  I would call the guest immediately and if I spoke to her I would say I'm worried about security and insects and need to come and evaluate/repair the damage.  Ask what happened.  Reiterate any verbal conversation or phone text in an Airbnb message right away.

If the guest doesn't answer or call back immediately I would go knock.  If no one answered the door then I might look around and if nothing really suspicious might call Airbnb and have them try to contact the guest.  If it looks suspicious (broken screens already look suspicious of some kind of issue to me ) personally I would try to get a police officer to enter with me.  No contact, no answer, no sign of life, broken screens all that is of concern.

That's why we do not offer self check in and we keep an eye on our guests (from next door) to ensure their continued safety.

[Quincy]

Hi @Leanna10,

Welcome to the Community Center! 

It's great to see all the helpful replies here. I was wondering if you could update us on the situation as I think that everyone would like to know how things went. 

Thanks,

Quincy 

[Leanna10]

My guests checks out tomorrow. She finally responded after day 5 of her stay. I messaged her 2 days ago and she finally responded same day. Her response is as below:

“Hey! everything is great so far! I’m unaware of any broken screens! I have no idea how that would have happened, however i will pay for the damage since i’m staying here if you need me to. and okay! Sorry about that, I will remember to turn it off!”

i am still concern about the interior of the home and I hope there is no damages.

thank you everyone for all the support and your suggestions!

[Ange2]

@Leanna10   You could go over with a 'maintenance person',  text her and tell her that the broken screens need looking at now for estimates for replacement. You do not want to be doing that when the next guest checks in.  You aslo need to send documentation and estimates for replacement in a very short timeframe, so best to do asap.  And/or make sure you are there when she checks out to walk through with her before she leaves.

[Leanna10]

Post-check our update.

I’m thankful nothing is broken on the interior but my guest left the house with some very difficult stains to remove.

My house cleaners came by to the house and observed these silver paint-like stains on the living room floor and bar counter, some stains on the couch. They tried using house-hold cleaners including acetone nail polish remover and it didn’t budge at all. They ended up trialing paint-thinner and it worked.  

It’s in my house rules to keep the place clean and in the same condition upon arrival.

In terms of the window screens, since she said she had no idea, I’ll take her word for it  and not request her to pay for the damages. 

In the future, I’ll be installing outdoor survellience cameras for security reasons.

[Quincy]

Hi @Leanna10,

Thank you for updating us on this. 

I'm glad to hear you were able to get some of the stains out and hopefully this won't happen again!