Sometimes everything just goes wrong

[Chris-and-Christy0]

Goodness, we just had a doozy of a experience with a guest, but it was mostly miscommunication and some issues on both sides and I'm still shaking my head and trying to sort it all out! They were a sweet older couple coming to visit family over Thanksgiving. Our airbnb is a detached studio in our back yard, for context. First, she messaged me 20 minutes after booking saying she just found out they could actually stay with their daughter and could she cancel and get her money back. I checked and she had booked the non-refundable (we offer both options) so I told her that and never heard back. So I went into this wondering if they were even going to show. Then, the day before they came we had a record November snowstorm (Colorado) and had the joy of shoveling 2 feet of snow from the path around to the studio and a spot on our driveway so they could get in. And the snow plows kept coming by and re-blocking the entrance. But they did show up eventually that night and then next morning my husband found a voicemail on his phone from them saying they were having trouble finding our place. We felt really bad for missing it but have never had guest call instead of use the airbnb messenger before. And my husband never hears his phone. (On my to do list for today is to get his number removed from the contact info.) But we met them that morning and they were really nice and grateful for the work we had put into shoveling a path, etc. 
The next night I got a message on airbnb really late saying they had just spent 30 minutes trying to get into the studio and had called and left a message again but had finally gotten in. Ah! We have had issues once before with the cold draining the batteries on our smart lock door and they keypad not working, but had changed the batteries pretty recently. Of course my husband never heard his phone. I replied right away apologizing and said we would change the batteries first thing in the morning. We were feeling like terrible hosts at this point! 
So they were booked through Thursday night and our check out time is 11am. We had seen them leave and I went over at 11:30 on Friday and all their stuff was still there. I had no idea what was going on, but I was kinda assuming they thought they had another night. THANKFULLY  our booking for that night had gotten canceled the day before. I sent a message through airbnb but of course they didnt see it. I sent a text to her number a couple hours later and a half hour later she replied that she was confused and thought they had another night but were on their way back to get their stuff. When they got here they were really embarrassed and apologetic and thanked us over and over for being understanding. They were finally out about 2:00pm.
It was such a crazy mess. They were the sweetest people, and we work so, so hard to be good hosts and it all just fell apart this time. 😛
I had a hard time writing a review for them! I kept it really nice but did mention the miscommunication and that they prefer to use calls and texts hoping that might save another host some headache. 
Now I'm waiting for their review. haha. 
Anyway, thought I'd share and hopefully someone can learn from our mistakes!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Chris-and-Christy0 

eh, when you start hosting you have to be by your phone 24/7 🙂  No mercy.

Everything is easy when people are reasonable 🙂

As you said they were an elderly couple so for them calling is easier than messaging through Airbnb. My mum has an old mobile phone for 20 years now and she still doesn't know how to read or send text messages or how to use contacts, she has all the numbers on the paper and dials them manually 😄 😄

[Mark116]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  She should hook up with my mother, who also refuses to learn how to text and only turns her phone on  when she's using it, so you can never call her to find out if her plane landed, or call  her at all when she is 'out' because her phone will be off until she calls us.  Maddening. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark116  she is just saving batteries 😄 😄 😄

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Mark116  My daughters told me that their dad (my ex) couldn't even figure out how to answer his phone when he got a call, let alone being able to send or receive texts. 

It didn't help that he's always been in denial about needing reading glasses and refused to wear them.

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

We always message guests the day before reminding them of their checkout time the next day at 11am. This prevents any misunderstandings 🙂

[Gordon0]

I think you're right (if a little tardy) in getting that number changed over to you, @Chris-and-Christy0. Missing a call from a guest is the antichrist of hosting...or so they'd have you think. 

[Rachel0]

@Chris-and-Christy0 I cannot see the relevance of referring to the age group of the guests here.  Be they old or be they young, the fact remains that your keypad was not working and you missed calls on a number that had been provided for them to call.  To somehow imply that this was their fault because they may not be as "tech savvy" as you is unfair.  

[Gaz-and-Aileen0]

Smart locks are nice but if your having trouble with them can have as we do a back up lock box on the door with a set of keys. Different code that can be given out.

Second rule of bookings, do all communication on airbnb messengers so support can follow everything as it unfolds if need be.

If your wondering what the first rule is (Never cancel a booking) get the guest to do it or support.