Check your IB settings / WWYD: unexpected last-minute IB, doesn't show until ...

Kenneth12
Level 10
Chicago, IL

Check your IB settings / WWYD: unexpected last-minute IB, doesn't show until ...

Howdy.

So at 11:42PM last night I got a booking notification... great! ... oh wait,   it's for today and the guy is calling ... don't know how that happened as we shouldn't get any IBs after 9PM ...  from experience.

Guy says he just landed at Midway,   and (he booked for 1) he'll be right over with his brother.   I look at his profile (3 1-year old stays,  each with a "walks on water) 1-line positive... I'm thinking of calling ABB to cancel but he's got a 5.0 and bookings close at midnight .. ok,  fine,  I email him an entry code and quick instructions since Midway is close ...   oh wait,  his account says he lives here in Chicago ...

Next message:  "I tried to book 5 days but the app would only let me book 2."  (Hmmm.)

Next message:  "My phone isn't working well.   There's a lot of traffic."  (After midnight???)

Ok,  by then the signs are not perfect but... I've turned on the furnace,   send him long-form instructions and let him know I'll wait up.

He gets a sleepy message at 1:30am and an annoyed message at 2:30am and I doze off some in front of the TV and ...

Just after 4:30am,   ABB CS messages to say he claims someone pointed a gun at him when he arrived,  and therefore he left and now would like to cancel.

Our front cam has been set off exactly 3 times by cars going by,   and I've been staring out the second floor window waiting for someone ... until I dozed off.

 I email CS "I was waiting up,  and will now go to bed and deal with this in the morning."

8 Replies 8
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Kenneth12 

Gee Ken, that's a bit tough, they really do have a nerve some of them.

I have generally found last minute bookings to be really good....they are so thankful they have found someone to take them on such short notice.

 

I once got a 12.15 am reservation request for a 2.00 am same night check-in! Mercifully the cottage was ready but I had to get onto CX to get them to accept the booking as I already had a booking for the night of the day we had just entered! What they wanted to book for was the night the Airbnb system regarded as having just ended. Worked ok though CX completed the booking for them, (no doubt about it Airbnb can move mountains when there is a booking fee involved) they arrived at 2.00, were gone by 7.00 am to pick up a pure breed dog from a local breeder. 6.00pm that night there were back in Melbourne again, they had done the 1800 Km round trip in less than 24 hours and still managed to get almost 5 hours sleep in middle!

So it was worthwhile, at least they didn't shaft me like this guy did to you!

 

Cheers.......Rob

Hey @Robin4 ,

It's always the few who spoil it for the many,  isn't it?

My first late-night / last-minute IB experience was just after the IB feature came out... I think I'd set it to 11pm,  and we'd just returned to Chicago and started hosting here.

Guy said he was playing a set at a local bar and would come over after he was done,  2-3am.   OK why not?   The fact that he was local etc never crossed my wee little mind.

About 6am I fell asleep ... about 9am,  I got a note from him that he was in a local hospital but might still need the room when he got out ...

 Guy then proceeded to submit his hospital documentation to me (not ABB) for a refund.  Come to tell,   I later found that the guy had a song about shopping local ERs for narcotics,  and appeared to have done just that for evening entertainment.

The vast majority of my last-minute bookings have been fine,  but a large part have been entitled,  and a small but notable section,   far worse.

The first line of defense,  alas,  is a cutoff at 11,  10,  9,  ... 8pm etc to filter out and let others deal.   In this case,   I don't know how the listing got set to midnight,   so might suggest that everyone check their settings to make sure no listings have defaulted over to a situation they don't want.

Cheers,   Ken

@Kenneth12  So, did your settings in fact get changed somehow, or did this booking just slip through on a 'glitch'? There have been posts on here about IB glitches. Just wondering what yours was chalked up to.

 

 

@Colleen253 :  when I checked this particular listing,  the setting has been moved to 12AM (midnight).  All other listings were where we had them.

Part of my calculus here was how much effort it would be to call up ABB CS and get them to cancel under these circumstances-- they've been resistant to cancelling IBs 24 hours in advance,  much less 12 minutes.

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

Hmm. I cannot believe how riddled this platform is with glitches.  I've adjusted my settings to require min 2 days notice for any booking, to reduce chances of a payout problem. I'd be supremely annoyed if a short notice booking slipped in on a glitch. @Kenneth12 

 

How did this sorry booking finally end, re the gun pointing claim? Geez.

After telling CS the next day "I kinda don't believe this,  as neither I nor our security cams saw anything-- after waiting up past 4!,"  we decided to ask for a police report or other evidence such as his Google Maps history.

Crickets so far.  Kinda think he may have gone out drinkin' and showed up at the wrong house,  but who knows?

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Kenneth12  Didn't you have some other guest not long ago who had some long convoluted story about how he'd been threatened trying to get your listing, or was that someone else? You and Inna seem to get the strangest guests and you're both in Chicago 😕

Another guy with a brother in Chicago!    Now that guy really told a story-- harassed at the Metro station coming,   chased all the way to the door,    no water to drink when he got here! -- scared to death overnight-- chased back to the Metro,  where he was promptly robbed of $400!  

They don't call it Chiraq for nuthin',  y'know!

Now,   on to tonight's glitch:   no ID,  did not meet minimum stay requirement... fortunately,  looks like a real person (even if I wouldn't have accepted the booking based on time).