Late guest arrival

[Zoe31]

Hi everyone,

A guest communicated with me (after MUCH prompting) that their flight arrived at 8:40pm and that they weren't sure what time they would arrive because they weren't sure how long it was from our place to the airport. I told them it would only take about 20 minutes (assuming they were landing in the local city airport), so initially expected them to arrive at 9:30 - 10pm at the latest (after getting their bags, hire car etc.). 

However, they recently sent me through their itinerary asking for advice and it showed them arriving at an airport almost 3 hours drive from my place! Our check in window is between 2pm - 11pm - it is very unlilely they will make it to our house before 11pm!

Is it unreasonable to tell them they will be unable to check in and need to find somewhere else to stay if they do not make it by 11?? It is a private room situation and we need to sleep for work in the morning - we are often woken by guests when they come in late at night. I think it would be very unreasonable for them to arrive after 11pm! 

Would apprciate any thoughts. Would you tell them the same thing? I am getting very sick of guests parading around the house at all hours of the night. I do not think check in before 11pm is unreasonable or that our quiet hours after 10pm are either!

Zoe

[Fred13]

~IF~ it is an understandable 'emergency' situation (cancelled or switched flights by the airline, etc), standards procedure don't apply. If it is your position that it would be unreasonable to prevent from checking in after 11pm, then it should follow it is equally unreasonable to expect them not to inconvenience you in any way. What other guests have done in the past has no bearing.

Of course it is all one big pain, but things like these do happen.

[Marzena4]

Being a host also means some kind of responsibility. Incidents like that do occur, and here it is really fair on the guests' side that they have been updating you. Many do not. Even for that they do deserve a better treatment. Just a thought, @Zoe31.

[Lisa658]

@Zoe31

I can see this mix up as being slightly also your responsibility in telling them they were 20 minutes away when you did not know their arrival point.  I would nicely ask the guests if they preferred to stay closer to the airport on the first night and have daylight to enjoy their travel to your area.  You can suggest that perhaps after a long day of travel they would feel more refreshed the following day and better able to enjoy their holiday if they had accommodations they could reach earlier on the first evening.  It would be a shame to pass through x area of Tasmania and not enjoy the spectacular scenery - something like that.

I lived in Tasmania for a time and can vouch that it would be better to drive in the daylight!  There used to be a pub near Cradle Mountain with a wombat named Harry who lived in a basket near the fireplace.  He would roam around the pub visiting the patrons.  Too cute!  

Anyway, I would offer to alter the reservation and not charge them for the first night if you do not want to be disturbed with a late check in.  You can put 80% of the blame on the guest for not engaging you for help with their arrival plans but some of the blame does have to fall to you as you did not clarify how long it would take to arrive and therefore provided a potential check in time within the allowed window.  Suddenly the guest is left in a less than optimum position.  This is mostly miscommunication and it is gracious if you can offer them a way out of the mistake that might be to the benefit of both of you.  If they do not want to alter the booking, I would honour it and be more diligent in the future.

Maybe not what you wanted to hear but perhaps one nights fee is worth a good sleep?

Love Tasmania and would visit there again in a hearbeat, Lisa

[Kelly149]

@Zoe31 If there is still time then sure get them re-homed elsewhere. Call CS and let them know that guest will be arriving too late & to please get them moved. Guests often are more concerned with how travel looks from their end without considering it from the host side. You aren’t a hotel. Don’t have a front desk. Not a big deal just needs to get them into a place that more fits their needs. 

Keep in mind (regardless of your cancellation policy) you WILL NOT BE PAID. But you also won’t be receiving guests after midnight. 

[Zoe31]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your feedback. Appreciate you all taking the rime to reply.

I think the thing that is starting to really frustrate me as a host is the guests who clearly do not read house rules before booking. Upon booking, this guest agreed to abide to my house rules, one of those rules being that my check in time is between 2-11pm. If the guest had read my house rules, they should have been fully aware they would be breaking one of these rules by arriving after my check in window. 

In the past, i have been more than happy to make allowances for guests e.g. arriving late at night, using extra things from the kitchen. However, it seems that once these allowances are made, guests think it is okay to walk all over you and more and more house rules are broken. Once it starts impacting my life and my work e.g. loss of sleep, this is when I am going to put my foot down. I don't think my check in and out times are unreasonable but too many times I have had guests try to bend the rules - which often really puts me out! Perhaps I am being quite picky? But I feel as though people sharing my home should respect that I live a life beyond Airbnb - and that I value my sleep!

[Marit-Anne0]

@Zoe31

If you are going to be picky and ensure you get the perfect match every time, you need to spend a considerable amount of time communicating with your guests prior to arrival, preferably immediately after booking so that they can cancel within the time limit given for free cancellation if they cannot live with your terms/sound like a bad match.

Guests are often on holiday, possibly jet lagged, so assuming them being able/willing to tune in with a host's working schedule and rigid quiet hours is a bit unrealistic.

[Zoe31]

@Marit-Anne0 I agree, it is often hard for guests to fit in around hosts while travelling - one reason I rarely book private rooms on Airbnb when travelling. However I disagree that it is unrealistic and  unreasonable of me to expect guests to "tune in with" my quiet hours. I also disagree that we should have to follow up with communication reinforcing our house rules - is this not why we provide them on our listing site? Should it not be the responsibility of the guest to read our listing, house rules and sleeping arrangements to ensure they are a good fit for our place? If, after reading our house rules (AND before booking), a guest is aware they are unable to settle before 10pm or cannot check in before 11pm, I believe it is up to them to seek alternative accomodation. Perhaps they are better suited to a whole house/detached apartment - or even a hotel. When booking a private room, guests are aware they are entering into someone elses home and lives. Ultimately, our listing and house rules are our form of communicating who is our "perfect match" as you put it.

But perhaps I am completely missing the point of Airbnb!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Zoe31 I totally understand your point of view and I would advice you to put your check in time until 8:00 PM because, as you said - guests will always try to bend the rules and will arrive arround 9 or 10 🙂

[Marit-Anne0]

@Zoe31

No, you are not missing the point of airbnb, but many guests need to be fed with a teaspoon as they do not fully understand the concept. Many actually believe they are booking into something similar to a traditional bed & breakfast, they do not read the listing, the house rules, they do not uderstand that every airbnb is different, they do not get that some hosts have a life outside of the hosting, they do not even understand that check-out time has to be enforced so that we have time to prepare for the next guests, they do not understand how much work is involved in each turnaround, some book last minute using the app and do not take time to click "read more" and only see the basic house rules set by airbnb and not the individual ones set by the host and the list goes on. 

In an ideal world, guests would be as you outline, in the real world the majority are not.

[Lilly28]

I agree with Marie Anne from Norway. But I have a question - is it right to rate such guests not with 5 stars but less? Often exactly guests braking the House rules are giving bad ratings to the guests... My experience is that many guests are arriving late in night - after midnight - because they want to use the cheapest transport from the airport. I had a guest arriving at 2.30 a.m. because at the middle of his way from the airport to my home the last Metro train stopped, but even so he did not take a taxi but got at my place by foot.  Communicating does not help - I informed several of my guests with late flight arrival that it is better to take a taxi than using the last train of the metro - but in vain, they all made me waiting them a bit after midnight, using the metro instead of taxi for 7-8 euro. You see, they are giving that money just for one breakfast, but want to spare money from using a taxi. It is completely different with guests who are also hosts or gusts of middle age. Perhaps we should be patient and wait till the young people understand with age what   it is to be in someone,s shoues.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Lilly28

With your rock bottom prices you will attract the young backpackers travelling on a shoestring budget - they are like that.  And they choose the late arrival flights because they are the cheapest.

Perhaps adjust your check-in time to avoid those.