My recent past guest wanted to checkin one whole day earlier without paying for it. When I mentioned that I was happy to make an arrangement for an extra night stay with a payment, she declined....this process took several email contacts.
Then, she started to work on me for checkin several hours early. I mentioned that I cannot make any committment until the day of the checkin/arrival date due to the instant booking features I have on my vacation rental. I have an earlier checkin and later checkout policy which I've forwarded to her. My policy is there to avoid 1) no early checkin and no later checkout if I have a same day turnover, same day turnover will not allow enough time for the cleaning 2) subject to the cleaning service availability due to my cleaning people also cleans several other vacation rentals. After several interesting email contacts with her, later on I did allow an hour earlier checkin. Of course, she wanted even earlier. Here I put my foot down and declined her request.
Her reasoning for why I should allow her to checkin early without a pay is, she also runs a vacation rental in California and she allows people to checkin early if place is not booked. Honestly, I do not have a much of an issue with someone requesting for an earlier checkin on the arrival day, but when someone is demanding and expecting it, then I find myself sticking to my rules.
I have gladly extended extra stays with no charge to one of my past guest who suddenly got ill and needed time to recover before being able to fly home. Several of my past guests were also allow to checkin earlier all because they were asking nicely.
When it came to the check out policy, she again became difficult and refuse to follow one of the checkout item, which is to strip the sheets and start the wash cycle, which takes 5 min. of her time....this saves the clearning people an hour, thus able to charge less for cleaning, which she benefited from.
She seems to think it's okay to demand but not to extend. I have allowed her an earlier checkin as a good gesture but she has problem following a simple checkout procedure taking a 5 min. of her time. She did complete the check out eventually. She has already left a review, which I cannot see until I either review her or wait 14 days to see her review per Airbnb setup. I am not hopeful that she left a positive review of me or the property. All my reviews are solid 5 stars with only one 4 star review.
I am a big beliver that being a good guest is just as important as being a good host.
What would you do in my case?
