Guest checking in outside the stipulated time

[Andreina3]

Hello,

I need some help with a few questions.

My listing has checking time is stipulated between 12pm-5pm/ which is already pretty flexible. I however, try to be as accomodating as I can and I have let guest checking as early as 8 am or as late as 9pm if they have made certain travel arragements and for the most part is ok because they usually let me know about this when they do the booking.

I have a guest who just informed that their check in time will be 1 am in the morning. (this guest was set to arrive this friday june 10th) I will gone starting at 9pm that night for the rest of the weekened. I have tried to see if a friend or neighbor could give them keys, but 1 am on a friday night is not a convenient time and the people I have asked cannot do it. 

I could suspend or delay my trip. If I suspend it the room is no longer available cause I will be there. And if I delay it I will have to buy/exchange  my plane ticket, which will be incredibly costly and I will have to take a 6 or 7 am flight which still leaves me with the questionas to where do I stay between the hours of 1 am- 6am. 

Is this an issue that I should take up with airbnb directly? I dont want to cancel and get penalized when the guest didn't make the appropiate arragements or failed to communicate within a reasonable time frame.

[Mala0]

Hiya..

Firstly  i would change your settings to a much more strictive time frame. People who really need to come after will ask before booking.  I think they will see you are far to accomdating and take you for granted... We say in UK "take the piss out of you".

I had a couple ask to drive up from london friday after work so i knew they would not get here before 11pm.  I took a shift for my agency and i had to be at work at 9pm. This is something i told them in advance may happen.  i wont give up work for Airbnb clients as i need to pay my mortgage alone and lose more than i ever gain on airbnb bookings.

So i leave key in safe place, tell them exactly where to park, where the room is, leave door open, tell them where the toilet is and they can wait until morning when i am home to show them other stuff.

As you are away for weekend guess you were already planning on leaving them alone so if you can leave key is safe place, keep them in the loop via watsapp or text.  Also i guess you can leave full instructions of house stuff etc when they are in the house. 

I have learnt SLOWLY in life that being too nice and too accomdating folk just take advantage of our good nature.

DONT CANCEL YOUR TRIP. NO WAY NO HOW... 

Mala x

[Mala0]

p.s and the minute they book i ask to give me an E.T.A as soon as they know.. usually they tell me straight away.. i  also then say, if running late or delayed please can you let me know.

There are a very few who are selfish and seem to feel they do not need to give me a time and are vague even if no flight etc is concerned.

But i text on the day and say hi and how is the travelling going, how you doing for time.. You should not be expected to be in all day like a receptionist in a hotel.

My very 2nd guest said this to me on his feedback knowing i was a lone home owner and renting a room!.. he said someone should be in 24 hrs. He always rented airbnb bespoke gypy caravans and treehouses, he had staff to welcome and see people in and others on phone 24/7. He charged for that privalege.  

Unless you charge for being home 24/7 make sure you get a more concrete timeframe as best you can.  I travel a lot and around the world and i ALWAYS give good times of arrivals from the get go and if anything changes out of my control i communicate well, so i dont accept others cannot.

Mala x

[Andrew90]

If your going to cancel contact AirBNB and have them help you cancel. Or perhaps a Win-Win would be to change the reservation to include a late check in fee and use that money to pay your friend and make some extra money.

And

[Amaris0]

Your check in time is between 12 noon to 5pm so if the guest is asking to check in at 1am, that is 8 hours after your listed check-in time. It is not realistic or acceptable to expect to turn up not only in the early hours of the morning, but also way out of the host's check-in time without prior permission from the host. You have two options really -

1) If you have a safe place, then you can leave the keys if you feel comfortable doing this.

2) Inform the guest you are unable to accommodate this request. It doesn't matter that s/he has already booked it. You have rules for a reason and it is the guest's responsibility to read them and ensure they can abide by those rules prior to booking, or, to check with the host before booking if they can accommodate any exceptions; perhaps if your didn’t have your own plans, you might have been able to accommodate this request but as it is, you have to disrupt your plans which might also have cost implications.

If you choose to go down the second route, then contact Airbnb and inform them, they will support you because it is clearly written in your house rules.

Whatever you do, make sure all your communication with this guest is done on the Airbnb platform, DO NOT use text, WhatsApp, your personal e-mail etc. as Airbnb only accept information exchanged on their platform as evidence.

I hope you manage to get it resolved.

Ama

[Alice218]

Hi all!

For the key handling service, check out KeyNest, the largest network of key exchange stores in the UK. We have about 60 partner stores in London. So we basically hold your keys securely through this chain of partner store to make it easier for you to exchange your keys with your guests, cleaner or other. We're used on a daily basis by hundreds of London hosts to let their guests in. Check out our website for more or feel free to pm me!
Happy key exchanging!

PS. Please don't hesitate to give us your feedback! We're always happy to help.