I took a self imposed 2 month break from AirBnB because the house was broken in to and I was mentally picking up the pieces. The break from guests was enjoyable because there was a downward trend in the types I was receiving that made me enjoy hosting less and less. I did learn a few things during this hiatus:
cancelling last minute reservations will kill your ranking in AirBnB regardless if you've been stellar from day 1 and it doesnt make any difference if its an extenuating circumstance. My ranking was the least of my worries during this hiatus, but I thought eventually things would turn back to normal and Id be getting one or two bookings a week like last year. NOPE! I just carry on with life and take what I can get.
guests still havent changed. I managed to get two bookings over NYE and the first one told me they are arriving early which was fine. They informed me theyd like a 1pm checkin which was doable as the room would be clean by 12. Well, they showed up at noon. No call, no text. Just arrived to my courtyard space looking in the windows. whatever happened to communication? There stay went okay after that, but it felt like the longest 2 days when they dont leave the house, order in and just hang out in the room with the tv blasting.
The next guests arrive thefollowing day while I was at work without so much as a "hello, we arrived to your place." I text them around check in time and they said they made it in. Whew! Crisis averted until the next evening where they are calling me non-stop at 3am saying they lost the house keys. They took the keys off of the keychain and were just walking around the city and lost them somewhere so some unknown person has a copy of my house keys or perhaps they still have them and wanted to pass them off to a friend. I'm not sure but they are being charged for re-keying all doors to the tune of $130.
Its so good to be hosting again. Has anyone tried RFID keyfobs for their house doors?