Many guests seem to have no boundaries

[Inna22]

I find many of my guests seem to not respect boundaries or are clueless. But perhaps I am too uptight? A guest checking in today called yesterday to say he was in town already but wanted me to show around the house and will come soon. Not even a question of if someone is staying at the house, if I am available, etc. Another guest 2 days ago after not being allowed early check in still walked on the property and even tried to open the door. He is lucky I do not have a gun! What if I took him for intruder? These are just recent examples but variations of this theme are common. Many guests call as early as 7:30 am with benign questions. Have you noticed a similar pattern?

[Andrea2893]

Any time a guest is trying to review the listing prior to the reservation and also trying to check in earlier without your permission, I would advise speaking with Airbnb to have the guest reached out to about how the platform works. Airbnb can help set up a listing preview as long as both parties agree to it.

[Mark116]

@Inna22   I'm curious if most of your guests or these guests who are wanting early this and that are driving?  The majority of our guests are here to see NYC and are flying into one of the airports, so while they may want an early bag drop off, or to leave bags after check out, they rarely want anything else.  For whatever reason, probably because we're on site, we don't get a lot of 'locals' and even people who are driving are usually somewhere between 3-7 hours away.  We also don't offer any parking though and that probably discourages drivers, which is good, because urban parking is tough if you aren't used to it.

So, I don't know other than my guess that your house attracts people who are not that far from the area so are able to drive around and show up early.

[Inna22]

@Mark116 no, I try to stay away from locals but because my places are bigger there is often a local connection- like family coming to visit someone who lives here etc

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  I don't think this attitude and behavior is limited to guests- I think it is a reflection of the way society is going in general. It seems like basic consideration for others and a sense of propriety has taken a back seat to "It's all about me".

I had a client text me at 6:45 AM on a Saturday morning to ask if I could make him some curtains. I didn't answer, turned off my ringer, and went back to sleep. When I woke a couple hours later, I saw that he'd resent the text 6 times between 6:45 and 7:30 AM. When I finally got back to him, and said that just because he wakes up at 6AM ready to attend to business, doesn't mean everyone does, his respònse was "Oh, was that too early?" I told him I considered that anything before 9AM was too early for a business call, unless you know for sure that people will be available to answer earlier. You didn't used to have to explain such things to people.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 I actually had a recent conversation with someone about how in Europe it would be rude to call before 10 am for business, for sure 9. And here it used to be 9, then 8 and now I get work calls at 7:15-7:30, no apology, people jump right into conversation. I attributed to workaholic culture here and laid back approach there, but perhaps you are right, it is just general inconsideration. 

[Mike1034]

@Sarah977and @Inna22  Majority of my guests are respectful and considerate. There are about 5-10% who really don't care about other people because they only care themselves.

Recently I had a guest. I sent her a self check-in instruction with my phone number because I was out of town for the weekend she stayed. She had a little difficulty to open the digital lock by following my instruction sent to her. She did not call me when she checked in. But she left me a 2 stars on checkin and 3 stars on communication while I communicated with her a few times before and her checkin to make sure she got in the house with no issue.

She sent me private message in her review that I should welcome her when she checked in since she came out of state.

[Sarah977]

@Mike1034 All my guests have been lovely, in fact. I just notice a lot more narcissism in society in general. Between the age of the endless selfies, reality show TV, posting photos of one's breakfast on Facebook, and no-talent youtubers who are "celebrities" based on nothing but their own penchant for self-promotion and their latest facelift or boob job, a lot of people seem to think they are terribly important. And refuse to take responsibility for their own flaws and mistakes- it must be someone else's fault that they failed a course, got fired from their job, or couldn't manage to read the simple check-in instructions.

[Alon1]

@Inna22 

Your experience is alien to me.

The principle reason is that I have flexible check in and out times. So all arrivals are arranged for both parties convenience. 

Moreover, it is vary rare for guests to drive to my home. Most guests arrive from airports, train or bus stations and finally London underground. 

Lastly, I have a high degree of 'locals'. I don't share the antipathy of many hosts to 'locals' on this forum. That's because the majority of 'Londoners' that I host are what I term 'inbetweeners', mostly looking for temporary accommodation waiting on their long term housing contracts, renovations, etc. 

[Inna22]

@Alon1 This was just an example of behavior, not necessarily  complaint about early check ins. Do you not allow same day check outs and check ins? How can you otherwise offer the flexibility? I need time between check out and check in to clean, no way around no matter how flexible I wish to be 

[Alon1]

@Inna22 

Thanks for reply.

re. subject matter of 'behaviour'.

  I haven't experienced any major differences in behaviour. It's been quite consistent for over 6  years. The vast majority have been much like Sarah and Mike describe, in short, a pleasure to host.

  However, there is one category of guest that irritate me no end are impersonal guests, who don't want any contact. It's very difficult to stomach as a live in host. Thankfully they are few and far between, and whenever they arrive I can't wait for them to leave! 

re. flexibility of check-in & out. 

     I don't understand why you find it hard to fathom?

Yes, I do same day arrivals, and I need a few hours to turn over a room. I do all the cleaning and room preparations myself. And if there's a departing guest, it's just a matter of communicating  with both parties, departing and arriving guests. 

By and large the whole operation has worked very smoothly. 

[Mark116]

@Alon1  We used to offer both flexible check in and check out, thinking that it would allow people to customize their trips, but it became too time consuming, and often people wouldn't confirm what time they were either arriving or departing w/in the 24 hour time frame so we were losing bookings.  Now we have a flexible check in, and an 11am check out time. 

[Helen427]

@Inna22 

I have had the occasional random guest want to come earlier than agreed.

Why don't you do as I have in your listing and tell your guests before check in that it's to be at a mutually agreeable time and arrangement & that you have a life - yes I've included that line in my now lengthy listing!!

I don't usually have an issue if guests want to check in early if they are in between places, or from out of town as there's nothing worse than having nowhere to leave one's luggage or having to carry it around for the day.

I've same day check in & check out & so far only had one occasion of guests arriving before the other one has left and it hasn't been a big deal.

[Inna22]

@Helen427 it is not the early check in itself, but rather guests expectations and attitude. I happen to give an example of early check in but that goes for pretty much everything. Also, I have decided that I will absolutely not allow guests in until the place is fully clean. I think first impression is very important. And even though they are supposed to understand that it is being cleaned, they just see a dirty place when they come in

[Ange2]

I recently had a guest who wanted to drop off their bags early because the hotel they were coming from wouldn't store their bags after 11:00am check-out. The hotel had given them the same luggage storage place I had sent to them.