Guest arrives early, is locked out of house, then leaves low review

[Anthony608]

I've had this happen about three times in the past two years and am curious for opinions and options.  A small number of guests have arrived upwards of one to two hours early and have found the door to the residence locked, due to our using an electronic lock which is on a timer to gain entry at the published check-in time of 3PM.  The 3PM check-in is widely stated throughout both the listing, check-in messages, and the message sent right before the guest arrives (24-48 hours) with the door code.  The guest will certainly have seen the check-in time since it is right next to the door code in the message.

In these cases, the guests will send messages that they "cant get into the house" and often have to be contacted and told its because they arrived before check-in time.  About two years ago we had a 10AM arrival for a 3PM check-in and that person actually tried to force their way into the home, checking other doors and windows, at one point using a rock to try and break one of the window panes.  Our housekeeper called and said they thought someone was breaking into the house (which I guess, they kind of were).

For reviews, normally four stars overall with low stars in check-in often with a comment that there was a "problem at check-in" or "couldn't get into the house" or "door lock was broken".  I think these should be removed as irrelevant reviews, but have never pursued it with AirBNB since they were 4 stars and I can live with that.  What do others think?

[Sarah977]

@Steph27  Then there's the ones who request an early check-in, which you can actually accommodate if you boogie the cleaning a bit, so say okay,  then they don't show up until 7pm without giving a revised ETA. 🙂

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Happened to me many times. 

A couple of girls were coming to stay and had confirmed the check in time of 3pm twice. Around 1pm, they messaged asking if they could check in now. I happened to be in a hospital appointment so I didn't respond until about 2pm, saying sorry, but I'm still on my way home, so can we stick to 3pm as agreed?

3pm came and went. They then started messaging me (at least updated me, I guess) saying could they come at 4? When they didn't turn up and I messaged, they would say, how about 5?. This went on and on. They ended up showing up just before 9pm (my latest time for checking), leaving me practically sitting at the door waiting for them for six hours. I responded to all of their messages immediately (bar the one when I was in the hospital appointment).

The rest of the stay went okay and they seemed to leave in high spirits.

Then came the review/ratings. They gave me 4 stars overall I think, but 3 stars for check in. They gave me 3 stars for communication with the feedback that, "She didn't answer our message, but I suppose she was in hospital."

[Huma0]

@Steph27 

I have no idea if it still exists (perhaps other hosts can enlighten here), but there used to be a function on the booking where guests could indeed specify a check in window. I can't remember if it was a one hour window. I just remember other hosts discussing this on the CC.

Hosts were not actually happy about this function at all. Why? Because the check in slots offered to the guests had absolutely nothing to do with the host's check in window. E.g. guests were given the option to select 12-1pm when the host's check was after 4pm only. It obviously caused lots of confusion and stress.

It sounds like a great idea, but only if Airbnb gets it right, i.e. the host needs to be able to tailor it to actually fit their check in window rather than the guest being able to click on any random time on that date.

[Anthony608]

@Huma0- Yes, that was a bugged feature associated somehow with Instant Booking.  It happened to me once where a woman was able to enter a check-in time of 11AM on a 3PM check-in on the listing and her and her boyfriend showed up around 12:30 trying to get into the house and were very upset.  I haven't seen it happen since then, but also do a glance at the booking from the guest to see if a check-in time is listed contradicting the published check-in time of the listing.

[Huma0]

@Anthony608 

In theory, a good idea, just badly executed. I think if the host was able to set the start and end of the booking window, this would be a useful feature for many.

Personally, I prefer to have a conversation with my guests prior to check in, but hosts who have a lot of short term guests in and out and use self check in could really benefit from this feature, if only it worked properly!

[Anonymous]

@Steph27  the thing with that is, in practice people are clicking to agree on things all the time without reading or remembering them. And it's not all that different when you're making a sale in person or on the phone; customers glaze over during the discussion about rules and restrictions.

You could try communicating the check in time during the request phase, so at least you have a chance to decline bookings from people who seem unresponsive or wishy-washy about their arrival plans. Of course that means not using Instant Book. 

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

You are right. I often do it (how many people really read through all those long T&Cs?). That's why I started following advice I'd seen on the CC and put a 'password' in the house rules. That seems to be working well overall. Some guests need to be reminded to send it to me, but quite a few do it without me asking, which is promising. 

I also always ask for the check in time (reminding them of my window) asap in the communication process.

Both these things apply to request bookings or IB. With the latter, I have the same communication but straight after the guest books. That way, they have 48 hours to cancel penalty free if there's something the don't like or I can cancel them if it's really necessary. I have cancelled an IB booking penalty free when the guest was unresponsive and ignored any questions about check in time etc.

I do require minimum two days notice for a booking though. I think the combination of using Instant Booking and allowing same day reservations is a recipe for disaster. I would never risk it.