Well, this is a thread I need to comment on.
Thanks for helping me see straight and adjust my House Rulles.
I just had my Thanksgiving ruined and am now facing the same situation. Once Learned, Twice burned.
I had a guest book on TG and then send a text the day before asking if he could check in early. I said check in time was 4 pm but if he was going to a dinner could drop his luggage off after 12 noon. At 9:30 am, my day to sleep late, I get a wake up call asking if he could check in. I reiterated if he needed to drop off luggage he could do it after Noon. At 10:30 am I get a text again asking to check in. I get up and look out the window and he is in front of the house sitting in his car. I waited a half an hour and then went out at 11:00 to see if it was him. He then came in, and proceeded to go to the room and not come out by the time I had left to go to my own dinner at 1 pm. When I returned at 5:30 he was still here. He then asked me out for a drink which I begged off on and the next day did not check out until an hour after check out. Beyond the nerve of all this, I am a 4.9 Superhost and he had the audacity to give me 3 stars!!!!!
All this did was confirm that the ones who take the most liberties are just abusing and disrespecting the hosts. I did not let the review go unanswered ("OK for what it was") and stated these facts so that if other hosts were to look at his reviews (mine was only the second) they could at least be forewarned.
I always give high stars to my guests and this has made me step back quite a bit. I now do not rush to review for starters. I also had a couple anticipate an early arrival and ask by text to wake me up at 5:30 am. As I had someone in their room I told them they would have to book another room that morning. They did. Unfortunately they threw makeup wipes down the toilet and I had no plumbing until the Roto Rooter $200 visit.
Mind you, I only charge $30-35 a night, with AirBnB pounding me to go to $21, but I think I will hold off on attracting the Meth users on that one.
I guess I am ranting as I just had a guy want to check in at 10 am and check out an hour later. He seems not to comprehend that 7 extra hours means I have to book out a night before to accommodate him. Given the extensive back and forth and my dorm room in Bangkok rates, I think I talked myself into withdrawing the approval, even though he has excellent reviews. It seems like no good deed goes unpunished and if a guest is insisting on their weird schedule and my need to be flexible about it in a money losing position isn't appreciated, a bad review and attendant aggravation is hardly worth it.
Most of my guests are polite and considerate, but it seems AirBnB may be going the way of Craigslist if it does not protect the hosts in matters like this. I appreciate the forum in as much as I hate to be a complainer, but if we are not running this as the multi-empire all the webinars propose and are offering a room at the Inn, we do need to compare notes.