A guest asks to check in SUPER early, he will land at 6am...

[NY-Blue-House0]

The new coming guest told me, after he made the reservation with us, that he and his family (wife, one infant, and one toddler) will arrive in NY at 6 am on Sunday.

He said: "Hey. We are arriving early morning on 10/10 (610a). Do you think we can check in early?".

Who will book such an early flight with two super young children?

It will be Sunday, and my housekeeper will need to come super early for him.

But then I feel bad because it will be miserable for the parents...

And maybe he might take it on me and gave me a bad review later...

I wish he had asked me before booking. I would never take him.

I told him the earliest time we can make it will be 10 am.

I explained some details to him and my cleaning lady will need to come at 7 am... 

He:"We can wait until 10am".

Those are everything he texted me... somehow, I don't feel his appreciation...

This reminds me I allowed the guests to check in very early because they came from another country.

But it was overlaying my previous guest, they ended up bumping into each other...

They later gave me a bad rating on "Check-In".

What should I do?

[Emiel1]

@NY-Blue-House0 

Your listing mentions a check-in time from 3PM.

A request for check-in at 6 AM should offcourse be communicated before the reservation was made, it is 9 hours before your official check-in time !

You already offered 10AM, which is very generous and guest should be pleased,as also you are not even charging him money for the early check-in !

[Sarah977]

@NY-Blue-House0  I don't see his communication as being rude or demanding or presumptuous or anything. Nor does he seem irritated at the 10 am time. He simply asked if you could accommodate the early arrival, rather than assuming he could check in at 6am, and when you said not until 10, he said okay. 

I don't see that you need to "do" anything further, aside from maybe saying when he arrives, "Sorry we couldn't accomodate your 6am preference, I undertand it would have been more convenient with the kids and all,  but that's simply impossible with our housekeeping schedule. Normally if guests want to be able to get in super early, they need to book the date starting the previous night."

I wouldn't be worrying about it, nor anticipating a bad review.

As for why they would book a flight that got in that early, there is often no choice given a passenger's itinerary, or the more convenient times are double the price. With 4 people to pay for, they might have saved $1000 by taking a red-eye.

When my kids were young and we went on road trips, we would often drive at night while the kids were sleeping, and check in to a motel earlyish in the day, where we would take turns sleeping while the kids could run around and play, rather than them being cooped up in the car all day driving during daylight hours.

[Mark116]

@NY-Blue-House0  You're stuck now, since you already said they could check-in at 10am.   

In future, you can tell them its a shame they must have missed that check in time is 3pm, and due to the cleaning schedules it isn't possible for early check in....because you see the guy did not thank you profusely for allowing check in FIVE hours early, but only that he magnanimously can 'wait' until 10am. Ugh.

[Sarah977]

Without knowing for sure, it seems presumptuous to assume that the guest knew when he booked what his eta would be. During all these Covid travel restrictions, flights have been cancelled, changed, etc.

Happened to me 2 months ago when I booked a flight to Canada. The airline just cancelled the flight I had booked a week previous, and I had to rebook for a different day with a PITA schedule, because it was all that was available.

I had a guest once whose flight had engine trouble and had to turn around right after take-off. The airline gave everyone hotel vouchers and rebooked them all on a red-eye that night. So her original eta of around 5pm was changed at  the last minute to an eta of 6 am the following morning.

[Jenny349]

I’m with @Mark116 here. Whatever the background to the request for ultra-early check-in, some warm appreciation for your efforts in going the extra mile for your guest @NY-Blue-House0 @would not be amiss here. Ugh indeed. 

[Dimitar27]

Requests for super early or super late check-in are definitely not something, that should surprise you. It will happen all the time - especially, if you are close to a busy airport.

[Laura2592]

@NY-Blue-House0  hopefully he isn't actually texting and is communicating through the platform. Otherwise you might have issues if he complains that you couldn't accommodate his super early arrival. 

We don't do back to back reservations for this reason. Our space is ready the day before so if someone says they want to come at 6am, no cleaning crews are disturbed. We started this as part of COVID protocols and its really worked out for the best. You might consider doing something similar 🙂

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 but the point of the COVID protocols was to create an airgap between guests/cleaners. If cleaners/you finish at 3pm today for tomorrow's 3pm arrival and then someone actually arrives at 6am, then they've shortchanged the "breathing" time.

I don't think we should be encouraging fellow hosts to setup their business to give away 9 hours of free in all situations. Even the FourSeasons says no to getting keys to your room 9 hours early and those rooms cost a whole lot more than most of our spaces.  I'm happy to "give" extras to pleasant people, but I don't like it when guests "ask" to be given extra, without so much as a "I know this is a big ask, and I'm happy to pay for the inconvenience!"

[Laura2592]

@Kelly149 you are right. I think a better response would be to prorate the super early arrival, as you suggested. 

Of the myriad issues we encounter with guests, we rarely have an early arrival ask, and never a 6am. But if we do compensation makes sense. 

[Kelly149]

@NY-Blue-House0 I'd ring up CS and say that guy has different expectations than what you offer and you think it would be better if CS would cancel his stay and help him book elsewhere. Of course you understand that you'll be 100% refunding him, but it would be better for him to choose a different host.

In future, the answer to this question is: "Of course, we can offer you an additional 9 hours of time for xyz price" bc the people who think you should rearrange the world for free should stay somewhere else

[Laura2592]

"bc the people who think you should rearrange the world for free should stay somewhere else"

Amen. 

I am always a bit in awe of the requests that come through both our space and this forum. There are indeed souls out there who believe that because they are paying you a nightly price, their convenience should take precedence over any other consideration, person, fact or situation. There's no thought to "these are the parameters in which my payment matters" its just a "I paid you. Now dance, monkey."

My mother would have called this rude. (She would have also been aghast at someone who would take an infant and toddler on a  plane ride in the midst of a pandemic, but let's not even get into that.) 

I agree that if @NY-Blue-House0 feels like this won't be a guest respectful of her space and rules, she should see if the reservation can be canceled before arrival. 

[NY-Blue-House0]

Thank you for everyone's stories and suggestions. I have learned a lot.

My previous guest will check out on Sat morning.

But it happens that my clean lady can't make it. 

It is a big ask to make her to come to my house in early Sunday morning.

She lives very far away. I will need to pay her more...

And I never know we can charge extra fee for check-in early.

I am not going to... I just updated my house policy for the future.

Never Check-in early before 12.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@NY-Blue-House0 

IMO, if you state a check in time of 3pm, you should simply not allow check ins before 3pm period. 

If you state "never check in early before 12" in your policy, then from now on everyone will assume they can check in at 12. 

[NY-Blue-House0]

Good point! Thanks!

It is true, even there is an official check-in time, some people will start to ignore that. I just make it clear.

❤ We offer luggage drop off. But NO Check-IN early please.
If within reasonable hour like 1pm-2pm, and we happen to have the apt ready, we might be ok. Our Check-In is 3 pm.