Freaked out by Newbie Behaviour

[Paul154]

So I wake up to an Airbnb scolding and a frantic text from guest who arrived at 1:00 am and could not gain entry.  My Catholic guilt blames my failing mental faculties. "How was I so unaware?" I triple check my to-do list  neurotically.

Turns out guest asked for a late checkin on 8/2, fine. But guest arrived at 1:00 am on 8/2 and wanted an EARLY checkin.

I should have taken more care, because the guest was a newbie. I'm so used to everything going smoothly, that I really didn't think much about her reservation.

Newbies = extra work.

[Lawrene0]

Perhaps they only needed 1 am to 8 am or something, @David126, and chose the wrong date? I had one like that. It didn't involve CS (thank goodness). I had the luxury of being able to work it out with a reasonable guest.

[David126]

Well I did have somebody who tried to turn up a week early, I think they phoned me as they were also lost.

Anyway Guest's fault not Hosts.

[Rosemarie9]

I had a guest turn up a month early. They didn't realise she had booked October not September!

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

When guests ask for late arrival reply and spell out the night they have reserved (Wed Aug 2nd) and the date they are arriving (Thursday the 3rd) to make sure they understand. 

If they are arriving just after midnight ON the 2nd they need a reservation for the 1st.  Confirm with the guest so they don't misunderstand their booking.

In this case escalate it to Airbnb, they should not have cancelled the reservation.  You should get paid.

[Kenneth12]

I second this.  I try to be very careful when the guest isn't specific,  especially when times close to midnight are in play and they say things like "I'll be arriving Thursday at 3am" and have booked starting Thursday.    I guess I'll add 11pm to this,  though I have some cross-checks in my process.

[Paul154]

More details.

They couldn't get in because there were guests already in the house!

They were using the code. But fortunately, the current guests had the deadbolt locked.

I apologized to the current guests, but am hesitant about their review...

Airbnb cancelled the future guests reservation, leaving me high and dry on the most popular weekend of the year 😞

[Letti0]

@Paul154  You really need to call on this one and mention that they woke up your current guest at the time also. 

[David126]

They can can cancel, not the issue, getting paid in accordance with your cancellation policy is.

[Yuri67]

ew. AirBnB should compensate you for this. That's so stupid. I love how they take a fat cut from the guest's fees, and a cut from our fees, and then when it comes time for arbitration they're "neutral".... 

[Huma0]

Yes, we have to be really careful with this kind of stuff as common sense ain't so common...

I spent ages on the phone yesterday with an otherwise very helpful CS rep to try to contact an unresponsive guest who was supposed to arrive that day. Several hours into this process, the rep suddenly said, "But your guest's reservation is for tomorrow, not today." This threw me. How could I have got that wrong?

Turns out the rep thought that yesterday was 4th August not the 5th. She was pretty embarassed when I pointed out her error.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Paul154 Many newbies need to get Airbnb educated! But i have also met many regulars acting like newbies.This is sad i guess some people never try to learn.

[Kenneth12]

It's up to Airbnb to provide reasonable onboarding / eduction for new members.  Currently this is a total fail,  which is does not bode well for the platform.

[Pete28]

Funnily enough I had this happen way back when we started - guests got date wrong and showed up but key was not in lockbox etc. Just refunded them and moved on, didn't even bother calling Airbnb.