Yet Another Uncommunicative Traveler

[Amy4]

I accepted a booking last week from a guest who arrives quite soon. Since then, I have sent 4 messages, 2 emails, 2 text messages, and a voicemail trying to get a response to my request for their arrival time (waiting 2 days before sending the second one). This happens with some regularity, and it's exceedingly frustrating. Such guests will typically fail to respond to any communications and then become surprised and upset when they arrive and find no one there to let them in. I work, as most of us do, so I obviously can't sit around on a guest's arrival day, waiting for them. I always find it profoundly naive that guests think their host can or should do that. Has anyone else found methods that work to get such guests to respond to communications?I'm a six-year Superhost, so I'm not needing advice on how to use the Airbnb communication systems or any such intro-level issues. Thanks, in advance. 

[Susie5]

Hi @Amy4, I feel your pain!  I think you are within your rights to give them a bad rating when they leave, no matter how charming they turn out to be....  I assume you have tried calling them and it's just going through to voice mail?  I wonder if Airbnb would back you if they arrived outside of your checkin hours and you turned them away.... (just daydreaming on my part, I think!)

[Elena87]

@Amy4

You write something along the lines of ' Hello, I haven't had any reply back from you regarding my inquiries about your check-in time.

Remember I don't have a concierge service like a hotel, so on arrival give me a phone and I can pop around from work within 45mins/60 mins/90 mins to let you in..''

The guests can't say they weren't warned and it should jolt a response.

I once had  Chinese guests writing they would arrive in the afternoon - way too vague for my liking but after sending something like the above to them, they revealed the arrival time as 19.30pm ( not exactly my understanding of afternoon..)

[Amy4]

Thanks very much, but I've already sent a more jolting note than your suggested one. I do not have the type of job that enables me to meet my guests with 30/60/90 minutes notice. That is why I require an advance appointment (at least a week ahead), which I explain in my listing, my house rules, and upon acceptance of the booking. It works out most of the time. But in cases like this one, where travelers don't bother to respond to communications, it leaves me in the crappy position of knowing the traveler is going to hold it againt ME (in ratings, review, and pissy attitude) when they have to wait for me to get off work because they didn't bother to respond. Very frustrating.

[Susie5]

@Amy4, I'm curious to know whether they turned up, and when - and were they pleasant and apologetic? or totally clueless? Please update us!  🙂 

[Kelly149]

@Amy4 I enlist CS to contact non-responsive guests. And do so telling them that I will expect CS to cancel the guests if there is not adequate info by xxxx date/time. This should not be a host problem since this is a function of IB gone awry. 

[Amy4]

Thank you, Kelly. I didn't consider that an option. I will do exactly as you do. Much appreciated.

[Fred13]

@Amy  After reading your profile, a few things are totally clear, to me:

1. YOU can't have a system in which you must know in advance when the guests are arriving by so much in advance. That is not going to happen. It is asking too much from people who are 'on the road' traveling through a helter-skelter world. And I suspect from the type of clientele you primarily cater to.

2. Of course, you find it very frustrating to try to communicate with people who not understand punctuality nor can't extend themselves to see things from other's perspective. Your life and being appears to be the opposite.

3. So, a more 'dynamic' check-in system to let your guests in must happen; it will probably be probably a radical departure than the way your system is now.

Solutions:

1. An electronic system which allows them to check in on their own setting you immediately 'free'. Granted an impersonal opening, one that perhaps comes somewhat into conflict with the type of place you do offer and perhaps too impersonal, but perhaps you then see them 'when you get there'.

2. Have someone of similar ilk as you who can do the check-in for you, and then follow the personal touch, when/if you can.

3. ??? (Perhaps others can suggest other ways; I am at a total loss at the present.)

Just a thought.

[Amy4]

Thank you, Fred. I've been hosting this way for 6 years, so it can and does happen. Most of the time, anyway. A totally uncommunicative guest is uncommon, in my experience, thankfully. Still, I have been considering electronic check-in for some time. But I'm not yet ready to give up the advantages of the personal check-in. The face-to-face check-in, while inconvenient, makes a huge difference in traveler's respect for me, my home, the neighborhood, and other guests. When I skip it, I find a noticeable uptick in things like dishes left in the sink, noise after hours, things broken or taken, etc. It seems the humanizing effect of the face-to-face check-in changes everything. So I'm not sure I'll let that go. Thank you for taking time out to offer your insights (and compliments). 

[Fred13]

I really could apreciate your emphasis on the personal introduction, it is the essence of hosting for you, as is for me. You must get the most interesting of guests and at the risk of embarrassing you, (and I bet not such a wild guess),  you must be a most interesting person to talk to also. Pleasant hosting.

[David126]

Nothing is foolproof, I try but just had a 8pm to 10pm turn up past Midnight, I do not mind so much late, may be asleep in the chair, more when they want to come early and then are late and I could have done something else.

The ABB site seems to have crashed as I was looking at your listing but thought I saw 4pm to 9pm, I have 5pm to 10pm. Usually I know if it is early or late, one today came at 5pm, if i had known the other was going to be so late I could have gone out for a beer!