How do you feel about late check-outs?

[Suzanne302]

Every now and then I have a guest who ignores the check-out time. Usually it's no more than 15-20 minutes, but one time it was an entire hour. (With that one, I'm pretty sure they thought check-out was noon, instead of 11am, awesome guests otherwise, and I didn't care because I didn't need to turn the room over that day anyway.)

Guests who don't check-out on time bother me a little because in my mind it's disrespectful, but at the same time, it feels petty to complain about overstaying by 15 minutes. And it usually doesn't affect my ability to get the room turned over.

If they were generally good guests, I don't mention it in the review or mark them down for staying 15 minutes after check-out. If they had other issues though, I usually add the late check-out issue to the list in the review.

How do you feel about late check-outs? Do you mark those guests down?

[Jim472]

When I greet my guests I always ask them if they'll be leaving before noon. I also see them all off. For me it depends on how I feel about the guests. If they're distant, uncaring, or unfriendly (totally subjective) and they say noon, I'll make it a point to be at the house at noon, if they're not ready I tell them "oooo it's no problem, you can pack while I throw a load of laundry in." They usually high tail it out of there. I don't mention it in the review as I know they're leaving and it really doesn't matter as I'm getting my work done. If I dig them and I don't have 2pm check in I'll ask if they'd like to stay later so relax and they can too. 

[Ann72]

@Suzanne302  Those are 15 very passive-aggressive minutes - so yes, that's disrespectful.

I love @Jim472's response - if you're there in the house when they're supposed to be checking out, I would adopt it.  Enter the room and say "I'll just strip the bed while you finish packing!"  

My cabin rents to mostly millennials, and my housekeeper tells me they're always lagging when she arrives at 11.  Their excuse?  "Oh, there isn't a clock in here!"  Tell me the last time you saw a millennial use a clock instead of their phone to check the time.

[Alexandra316]

@Suzanne302 Most of my guests are back to back, so I don't like unscheduled late check-outs. If people ask in advance, I don't usually mind, or at least make an effort to accomodate, but if they don't, it annoys me. My free time is far from unlimited, and I don't want to have to waste an hour waiting around for them to leave so I can get started while I could be running errands or doing other chores.

I had a guest this morning who really pissed me off. I always mention check-out time in my welcome message for a one-nighter. I mentioned specifically it was important today because of my cleaner's schedule: I left this part out, but she had to take her husband for cancer treatment. Sure as, they checked out over 20 minutes late. Your question is really timely, because I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to mention it. I don't usually, but these people got right up my nose.

[Mark116]

@Alexandra316  For a single night stay where you went out of your way to remind them of check-out and gave them a reason why they needed to leave on time, and they still blew it off.  I would mention it.

[Kelly149]

@Suzanne302  people don’t really mean to but they push the envelope about their timing and getting out always takes longer than getting in. It’s one reason why my checkout time is now 10 instead of 11. Bc 1015/30 isn’t the end of the world but 1115/30 is a real monkey wrench. 

My checkout page now says “cleaners may arrive as early as 1015, you’ll be bummed if I have to charge you for delaying their entry, so please plan accordingly.”

since these guests are are in your house I’d adopt the suggestion to start your cleanup protocol at your checkout time anyway and let them work around you and yes, I’d mention it in their review too. It’s not about the time, it’s about them respecting you. 

And, yeah, we should all reiterate our checkout time bc this is for sure a place where guests use “imaginary thinking”. I.e. “my last abb checkout was noon”, “hotels always let me leave whenever I want”, “if I had an abb the checkout would be at 3pm & the checkin fairies would always have it ready for an early check in at 3:05”

[Sandra126]

Just had someone check out a little late who sent a message saying ''sorry we left you with the dishes, we ran out of time''

lol. That makes it all better, you checked out 20 mins late AND left me with dishes.

[Thomas1033]

Most check out early here.  It used to be noon but after a few laggers I pushed it back to 11 so it wouldn’t stress me out.  The people who left 45 min late last week also left the place SPOTLESS so no I have never mentioned it but you better believe if I got left with the dishes after a late check out  I’d mention both in their review.  Yvonna (cohost)

[Rachel0]

@Suzanne302 I don't usually have a problem with people checking out late as I am on  the premises and I remind them over breakfast that check out is at 11am.  My issue is with the check-in times!  My check-in is from 3pm to 9pm and yet, even now after more than 4 years of hosting, I still get guests "telling" me that they will be here at noon or midnight. I get a lot of guests coming in on long haul flights into Heathrow airport and I do offer a baggage drop off facility for early arrivers which works well most of the time.  However, tonight I have two guests coming in on the Eurostar train from Paris and the train does not even arrive in London until 22.40.  They then have to buy their Oyster cards and negotiate their way across the city on the tube and the bus so I doubt they will be  at my home before midnight by which time I will have fallen asleep on the sofa no doubt.  They booked this trip 6 weeks ago and yet it was only yesterday afternoon that they responded to my requests for their travel schedule and timings.  It's such thoughtless and entitled behaviour that gets up my nose.

[Linda-And-Richard0]

Hi @Suzanne302 I send our guests a message the last night of their stay and remind them check out is at 12:00 noon.  We live next door to our listing so we aks guests to send us a message when they are ready to depart.   We then go over to say farwell and collect the house key.  I've only had one  group ask for a later check out of about 2 hours.  There was a break of several days before our next guests arrived so the extra time did not cause us any probllem. 

[Pete69]

If you have a new party of guests checking in a few hours later then you gotta get 'em outta there. Maybe have an explanation in your rules that you need every minute to get ready for the next host. Mention that they can keep their luggage somewhere if needed but they gotta move along. Write your rules for the lowest common denominator of guests.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Suzanne302 

I know Henry and I are probably the exception when it comes to check in/out times, but because we host a lot of long-term stays we aren't strict about check in/out times. I always ask for flight information so we can track eta for arrival and also do the same when it's time to leave because most guests need Henry to call them a cab. After a 1~4 month stay, same day turnovers are impossible so we usually block anywhere from 3 to 5 days. I always make a point of mentioning that we are the exception regarding flexible check in/out times so our guests know not to expect this from all hosts.

I'm sure if we hosted shorter stays and did same day turnovers then we'd have a completely different approach. 

[Nancy115]

@Suzanne302 we recently had an issue with a late checkout - over 3 hours. We checked on the guest, informing them we were concerned since they missed checkout. They apologized, took a long shower, and then eventually left. We don't have a tight schedule for room refresh so generally it's not an issue. If it happens again I'll see about adding a fee for late checkout. 

[Marina910]

I just had the same experience today, over an hour late check in and nearly an hour late check out. They appeared to be a nice couple and even sent a  positive complimentary message minutes after checking out... then came the killer blow that the en-suite was described as having cleanliness issues given a separate score of 1....so fake,   this is not so the case, my accommodation is sparkling clean. and the comment for me so unjust.. have made a formal complaint to Airbnb as being fake. I am not petty but the fact that everything appeared to be 5*****, even the positive message before providing feedback just does not make sense... nasty indeed. 

[Inna22]

I  leave a welcome note on the table and about a year ago it started to add check out time to the note. I have had almost no issues since I implemented it. My cleaners arrive on time and I pay them generously  to be there. They feel awkward starting to clean if guests are still there so it is always extremely irritating to me. On another hand, it feels wrong to be petty over a few minutes. I have missed my own check out time at an Airbnb once.  We went out in the morning to rent a car for the next leg of our trip and it took over two hours to sort it out. Then everybody of course had to use the bathroom and then there was traffic. None of it of course is an excuse but I guess it is hard to plan precisely if you don’t have a flight or be somewhere. I’m still just as irritated  when my guests do.  I don’t usually mention it in the review though