How do I deal with the guests who don't follow the rules?

[Jieun2]

 Hello, I've hosted people for the last two months, and had some weird guests. 

Especially, the thing which was highly tricky to deal with was check in and out time. 

There were lots of guests who just check in at early time, and leave late. One guest I'm having now checked in 2 hours earlier (I set the time anytime after 12, and even told him that he could keep the luggage in a kitchen area, but couldn't use the room before the time. ) Then he stayed in kitchen, watching me clean the room for an hour and went inside the room when I was staying in my room for a bit. 

I tried to be nice to this kind of guests, since I was worried about 'the emotional reviews'. Now I'm wondering how other hosts, more experienced than me, deal with this kind of tiny-but very annoying sort of issues. 

(Btw, my place is the old school airbnb place where I am actually living in.)

Thank you for your attention.

[Mary282]

I just recently changed my check out time to 10a.m.  It used to be 11a.m. but people always leave an hour later.  So, I imagine they will leave at 11a.m. now that I changed it to 10a.m.  Ha ha!  

I usually message them soon after they book and ask them to give me their check in and check out times.  If they don't answer, I will message them again the day before their arrival.  

The guests that are really good about it are other hosts that have stayed at my place. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jieun2

Happy to meet a local host!!!!! I haven't had a problem with check-in/out times but I am having some trouble with other common sense and consideration house rules. Based on my short experience, the best you can do is be proactive. ASSUME that people will try to violate rules if you let them and be as specific as possible. (and still you will have SOME guests who will ignore you and do whatever they feel like....sigh~)

If you have a lot of same day check ins/outs, I suggest you have a longer gap between the check out (11am) and check in (3pm) times. Also, I would make it a rule to NOT let them come in your home before the check-in time. Tell them to room is not ready and there is no where in the home to wait while you clean so they should go to a nearby coffee shop and wait. Tell them IF cleaning and prep is finished early, you will contact them. If you are going to let them leave luggage, go out to greet them, take their luggage and say "See you later!" and carry it in yourself without letting them into the house. Make sure the guest understands, its not just the room but they do not have access to ANY part of your home before the check-in time. For check-outs, send a reminder the night before or morning of that they need to be fully packed and OUT of the room and your home by 11am. I am sure it won't be easy but if they are not packed and ready by 10:30, then you need to put on your host hat and nag them to get packing and get out.

I took a look at your listing and reviews to date - you have a lot of good reviews and shouldn't worry about the occasional bad one. If someone does happen to leave a bad one, you can always write a reply if you feel the need to explain yourself. Good luck~!!!

[Fred13]

@Jieun2Guests should not get to check in at anytime, nor leave whenever they feel like. You have an 11am check-out and 2pm+ check -in, so not too much room for guests to play games with leaving or arriving. You have nice reviews, so you are doing everything else right, except not making it explicit, they ~have~ to take check-in and check-out seriously.

[Lily93]

Change to electric locker or key box with code to open. 

[Stacy3]

I set our check-in to 4pm and check-out to 12pm. This seems to work pretty well for us. Occasionally people ask for an earlier check-in,  but no one has ever asked for a later check-out. If we have it ready for them to arrive, then we tell them they can come sooner than 4pm. Some people are a bit pushy, which baffles me, so I totally get what you're saying.

With that, I'm sorry that the guy awkwardly watched/waited.. maybe you could say that people can leave luggage early, but THEY cannot be there early?

I just had a guest bring 2 dogs when it clearly says none, and then there were damages from her husband bleeding on the bed because he's on blood thinners... it's been hell trying to get this resolved and it makes me not want to host anymore, even though we've been doing it for just about 100 reservations. I hoped to come on here and read other hosts' problems to feel like I'm not alone, and your post helped. Even if your situation was awkward and annoying, it helped remind me that I'm not the only one that weird things happen to while hosting. Thank you for posting about it 🙂

[Fred13]

Oh @Stacy0, you are not alone! Love to do a poll among hosts here and may be discover a pattern of behavior. My first question would be:

"As you hosted longer have you gotten more direct and take less nonsense?" I bet 99% say yes. 😉

[Ivan-and-Wendy0]

Yes. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Fred13

yes.... and being a mum, a landlord and a dog owner helps too 🙂

[Scott-and-Sherryn0]

Why did you let them stay with dogs??

[Stacy3]

I didn't. They brought them any way and stayed after they said they were going to leave. Worst booking of my life in the 3 years I've been hosting.

[Edwin57]

I give my self a day befor and a day after cheack in and cheack out why is because like you said guest intend to leave later same with me I feel is our responsibility for Host and guest work together most of my guest are from out town they don't know the area to much so I gave them at least two hours more befor they depart because most of them fly 

[David126]

I used to have 4pm to 11pm as my check in but very very few turned up before 5pm even when they said they would so changed it to 5pm to 10pm.

10pm was because I was getting post midnight arrivals and makes it less an issue. I mentally accept 11pm still.

Seems to work.

[Edwin57]

You have to give your self time or play with it it all depends on your living space most guest like to bet the time 

[James610]

My issue and it's happening more and more is I have a large house with a minimum of six guests and guests are bringing in additional visitors and staying overnight. It's in my post $15 per additional guests per night, I feel bad calling people out on this, but I would rather ask and be wrong then not say anything and let them get away with taking advantage of me. Any thoughts?