Strange Behaviour - Guests Check in, leave and never return

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Yesterday, we had guests arrive.... I greeted them, explained a few things, they commented how nice the place was, then they said they were just dropping off some belongings and heading straight out again to the beach.  

10 mins later another car arrives on our property with 3 people in it. They don't get out of the car, but have a 5 min conversation with one our guests. Both cars leave together..... we assume they are friends travelling together, but staying in separate accommodation. 

They never returned!! 

We kept the driveway lights on all night, assuming they would return.... I had a restless night, and frequently checked if they were home so I could turn off the lights. The curtains were left open all night, the car was never there and it was obvious that they never returned. 

Further investigation in the morning, we discover the key in the lockbox..... must have been put back before leaving to 'go to the beach'.... No belongings had been dropped off (so never intended to stay), hardly anything had been touched inside the Studio and the Queen Bed was perfect with folded towels and chocolates still in place. The only sign that someone had entered, is the toilet had been used, and someone had laid on top of the single bed very briefly. 

I haven't received a message from them, nor a cancellation. I'm trying to decide if I should message them, and ask if everything is/was okay. Although, they were terrible at replying to messages and didn't answer text questions when asked. If I do message them, I might wait until after I receive notification of payment from Airbnb.

My only thought is that perhaps they were hoping to sneak extra people in to stay, but realised that wouldn't be possible, as we live upstairs. 

Interested to hear if anything like this has ever happened to anyone else, or if anyone has any other thoughts! 

Very strange Indeed! 

[Sam397]

@Michelle-And-Michael0, I agree with Kathy and Paul. If you think about it these people did nothing wrong. Nothing says people actually have to stay at a place they book. True it would have been polite to return your messages but again there is nothing that says they have to stay in contact with you.

I go back to my original post saying its better to not do something and wish you had then to do something and wish you hadn't. What happens if you give these people a 3 and it comes out they were in an accident or something. You won't be able to retract it or change your review. I dont know about you but that would make me feel like s**t.  If you cant bring yourself to giving them a 5, another option would not to give them a review. One last point in regards to informing other hosts, don't do us any favors because I don't think to many hosts would mind if these people turned around and did the same thing to them.

[Huma0]

@Sam397

I agree with you overall, but not in terms of scoring them high for everything. Their communication sounds very poor indeed, and actually, the guests should have informed their host they were not coming back, rather than being dishonest about it. The host is then left waiting and worrying all night, with lights on etc. etc. Not cool.

Okay, perhaps something might have happened to them, but given that their communication was poor prior to the stay, they said they were just going to drop off their bags but left no belongings and left the key in the lock box make it much more likely that they had no intention of returning but didn't have the courtesy to inform their host.

@Michelle-And-Michael0In a case like this, I probably would not leave a review unless the guest left one for me, which sounds unlikley in the circumstances. If I did leave a review, I would give them 3 stars for communication and 5 for the other categories if you do have to rate them. I would also just write a short review outlining the facts and nothing more, i.e. no speculation on their reasons for not staying, just maybe that it would have been nice if they had let you know.

[Sarah977]

@Michelle-And-Michael0  It would be just as unfair to rate them on anything except communication as it is for guests who don't stay to rate a place. I'd just forget the whole thing (don't leave any review at all) or just mark the communication low and leave the others blank (although I'm not sure if it will let you proceed without marking anything, maybe others know that) and just say "Guests checked in, then immediately disappeared with no further communication and didn't respond to messages asking whether they were returning or not.".

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Sarah977 If only Airbnb would allow me to rate them on just communication.... and leave a few words! 

That would be great 🙂

[Susan151]

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@Michelle-And-Michael0 wrote:

@Sarah977 If only Airbnb would allow me to rate them on just communication.... and leave a few words! 

That would be great 🙂

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I believe that you can skip stars as you wish. So just communication and a few words should be possible. Please let us know if this is still the case. [I haven't skipped one in quite a while.]

[Emilia42]

@Michelle And Michael, you can do that. Clicking stars is not a required field. You can choose to leave no stars and only a written review or vise versa. If a guest cancels at last minute and never enters the apartment I will never indicate stars on cleanliness or house rules because that would be dishonest. But I can still leave a star for communication.

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Thank you for that information @Susan151@Emilia42..... I will definitely give it a try and see how I go 🙂

[Ann72]

As an avid listener of the "Casefile" podcast, I'm kind of hoping these people turn up on that one of these days...

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Ann72 Hahaha...... I hope not!! 😉

[Michelle53]

I have a situation similar to this.

The guest originally booked for one person for 4 days, driving in, to visit family members. Then, last week, added a second person. Check-in was yesterday at 3pm.   The guest asked if early check-in was possible and I said it would depend on when cleaning was finished, and I could let them know early on check-in day. Guest said that was fine.

Yesterday, check-in day, I messaged to say I could make the space available at noon, instead of 3pm, and the guest said that was awesome. 

They did eventually arrive around 4pm, presumably dropped off bags, and headed straight back out again. Last night, they came back around 11.30pm,   according to my ring doorbell. 

This morning, there was no sign of anyone, and no car parked outside.  I messaged my usual "how's things going ?" mid-morning, and haven't heard anything back.     

A few minutes ago, I decided to knock and see if anyone was still there.  I could see that space had been used, but nobody spent the night, and there were no bags.  Per my checkout instructions, the (almost empty) trash bag was left outside the door.

My doorbell sometimes doesn't quite re-set immediately, so misses activities that occur too close together.  I'm guessing they came back to pick up bags, and headed off somewhere else. 

They have the booking until the 19th.    I'm assuming they went to stay with the family.   I locked back up and left it as they had left it,  just in case. 

ETA: they had a sudden emergency, and just canceled.