dealing with non responding guest

[Andy142]

Hello!

I'm a superhost for my property in Phuket, Thailand ( http://www.airbnb.ie/rooms/9835515 ) . I would like to seek advice on how you would handle the situations that i faced:

1) Checking in/out: Because I don't live in the country of my property, i relied on my housekeeper to do handing and taking over of keys. Due to in flexible hours that i offered checking in, sometimes guest need to pick up keys from a pre-designated area. How do you do handing and taking over of keys???

2) Dealing with guest that don't reply to airbnb text messages or the registered number listed? - I have encountered 2 instances of guest that are supposed to check out but didnt response to my airbnb messages. How do you deal with it for such cases?

3) Smart lock- anyone uses it? is it safe and reliable , from intercountry management point of view?

Thanks!

Andy

[Tim-and-Holly0]

The best way for out of town hosts to manage entry/exit is via a smart lock. You can set a code with a date and time to start as well as date and time to end. There would be no key exchange to bother your housekeeper with as well as no keys to get lost. You could even manage the door from Singapore.

We have used a smart lock on one of our houses for about 5 months with great success.

Answering your question concerning guests who do not answer the phone or messaging- that is more difficult. It's a common problem. We normally message with arrival instructions about 3 days prior to arrival. The day before leaving you could repeat the check-out instructions. We also request that guests text us on checking out, telling them that we need to notify the cleaners. Most people do, although some will text and then stay longer, but the cleaning crew is instructed to go on in at their specificd cleaning time and start cleaning. Once the cleaners start almost everyone is out within a few minutes. A good cleaner knows how to make a lot of noise and ruckus.

[Andy142]

Thanks Tim and Holly, I didn't check back into this community until now as i've forgotten. Thanks a lot for your advice and sorry for the late response.