"None at all. A guest is under no obligation to communicate with you."
There's obviously other implications
- Shirley uses Instant Booking to book my room 3 weeks in advance.
- There is no communication for the entire 3 weeks
- Shirley arrives at 8PM on the right day but I'm out shopping after staying at home waiting for her all day.
For all the other replies I agree I should be more flexible about this in general (I'm still learning aout being a host - most people arrive between midnight and 2AM on international flights, and I don't mind waiting up for them to pass customs but I'm sure you'll appreciate it makes my life markedly easier when guests communicate and don't turn up at 4AM unannounced). I don't feel like I'm being inherently inflexible if I bitch about guests not communicating on forum for hosts either.
If someone can literally use Instant Booking to book my place, and then refuse to communicate with me at all regarding checkin times full stop then I'm turning instant booking off. Every other of my guests books without it, which allowed me to clear up the checkin time before I agreed to take them.
Regarding rights if I indeed have "none at all" then this is a ridiculous and absolutely untenable sitation regarding Instant Booking and you couldn't pay me enough to to use it. I obviously need a flexible checkin policy for my guests. However if a guest is allowed to book and is not required to have communication with me, and then can just turn up any old time she wants, and this is not negotiable, then I won't be using Airbnb to host anymore, period.