Call the host or pay for parking?

[Inna22]

A guest that arrived last night could not find my garage. It is behind the house so you could see it with your eyes, I provide arial map and turn by turn directions. This is a fairly frequent problem. I guess many people are not used to the Chicago lay out with alleys in back. That was not the problem.

The problem was that it was midnight and the guest decided to wake me up to get help with the directions. Of course my poor husband who had to be up at 5 was woken up as well. I am thinking the guest should have just parked anywhere, even if he had to pay a few dollars to do so. There is paid parking a quarter of a block away and often free street parking. I do not think this justified a midnight call.

Thoughts?

[Mark116]

@Huma0  LOL, right?  Even after I specifically put 'do not go to the basement door' in the check-in instructions, some people will still go to the basement door.  Inexplicable.  It isn't like we're a huge apartment complex with multiple doors.  There is the front door on the porch where the keys are, and the basement door, down the porch steps and another set of steps.  And yet.....it happens.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

For quite a while, I thought guests were getting confused because I wrote 'pink front door' and they just remembered 'pink' and went next door because that house was painted pink. So, instead, I just started saying green house and omitting the mention of the pink door. Nope, that's not it. The neighbour's house is has been painted grey for two years or so. There is no sign of pink anywhere.

Still, many guests will go there as if my house is invisible. I am not exaggerating when I say that my house is probably the most distinctive on the street. Passersby constant stop in the street to look at it or even take photos. I've found photos of it on image library sites. 

I just don't get it. When I say, "Please make sure you come to X number (not Y number, which is the neighbours' house). My house is painted light green, has a pink front door and flowerbeds outside. There are photos of the exterior on the listing to help you find it," would you come to this house?

Or, would you go to the grey house, with the black door and no flowerbeds outside, that even has a completely different exterior (besides the colour) to mine?

And when I say, "Please do not park on the neighbour's driveway. Not even for one minute," would you think, "You know where I should park? Next door!". 

Like you, I'm  not talking about an apartment complex with lots of similar looking doors. Why on earth would people go down the steps when told not to go to the basement door? I wish I could give an explanation, but sometimes I feel like guests' specifically do the opposite of what you tell them. Perhaps their selective memories just remember certain words and gloss over the others and by telling them what NOT to do, we're just making too complicated. 

E.g. "Please make sure you come to X number (not Y number, which is the neighbours' house). My house is painted light green, has a pink front door and flowerbeds outside. There are photos of the exterior on the listing to help you find it," 

"Please do not park on the neighbour's driveway. Not even for one minute,"

''do not go to the basement door''

Maybe by taking out the mentions of the places NOT to go, that will remove those thoughts entirely from the guests' minds. Perhaps it's worth a try!

[Mark116]

@Huma0 Ha.  I don't know though.  When we started self check in during the pandemic we had a basic straightforward message.  The keys are X.  The gold key goes to the front door, all the other locks will be unlocked. Should be easy.

And as time went by and people told me that the gold key doesn't turn the lock [yes, yes it does and has done for 15 years] or went to the basement and then rang the doorbell because 'the keys don't work'[yes yes they do, all of them] ....we kept adding more specific details, which way the key turns, that you push not pull the door and on and on.

Recently, we've had a spate of people who, despite having the self-check in instructions a day before their travel date, will literally ring the doorbell with the keys in their hand, not having even tried to open the door on their own.  This is annoying because I no longer spiff myself up for meeting guests since its self check in now.

ETA. As for your problem, no idea.   Your house looks very distinctive and it is quite strange that people go to your neighbor's house.  We had a guest once who parked in the neighbor's driveway?!?!?!  Seriously??  I told her 'no, you can't park there'  Answer:  Oh it will only be while I am unloading.  'no, you cannot block another person's driveway for any amount of time'

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Ditto. I have added more specific details because it seemed that guests having the address (with door number) and a photo of the colourful house, would be enough. But no. 

With or without specific directions, people still go to the neighbour's house. One guest who was told not to do it but did it anyway, told me it was my fault because my house number was too small. The number is not only a standard size but actually bigger than the neighbour's one, so that makes no sense.

One not so funny incident was when I hosted a lovely couple who arrived with food poisoning. I opened the door to find one of them throwing up in my neighbour's driveway. I called out to them repeatedly telling them that is the wrong house and asking them to come to my door, but they just stood there staring at me, totally confused. I eventually had to go round and physically drag them out of my neighbour's drive! 

I'm glad I don't do self check in. I can't imagine what additional nightmares that would bring up. If guests cannot find my very distinctive pink front door and ring the bell so I can answer it (I am there ready and waiting), how are they going to manage to get in themselves? 

As for the parking, I have had that comment over and over. "I'll only be unloading for a minute." And then they will say, "What's your neighbour's problem? It's no big deal." Do I really need to explain why it's rude to park on other people's property without permission or why I should not make an exception just for them versus all the other guests who want to park on the neighbour's drive? Even if I do try to explain, they just shrug their shoulders. Their immediate needs are more important, OBVS, but to me, this level of entitlement is baffling. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Huma0 

I'm for removing the "nots" and emphasizing the uniqueness of your house front. I send a photo in the message thread to guests.  They tend to overshoot our driveway and end up where the GPS tells them to go, which is totally wrong, with no place to easily turn around. 

[Huma0]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 

I am starting to think that might be a good plan. Perhaps I will try it with the next guest + include the photo of the exterior in the message thread, as we know a lot of guests do not pay attention to the listing. A lot of them ignore the messages too though (two out of my three most recent guests do not/did not respond to messages during their stay).

I have no idea what kind of GPS link Airbnb sends them (don't ever remember getting this when I booked as a guest) but I know that some GPS systems take people to completely the wrong place. I had this issue a lot with tradespeople, where it would tell them they were at my house, but they weren't even on the right road. There was no correlation to the street number, name nor postcode. Meanwhile, the Google Map street view would direct guests to a car park at the back of a commercial building a few doors down from me??!

I could state 'do not follow the GPS instructions', but then that's including another DON'T. Doh!

[Pat271]

@Huma0  GPS is the thorn in my side for one of my listings. 18-acre condo complex, GPS takes them nowhere near. I mean, not even to the same acre.

Underlined, bolded text in the first part of the Welcome e-mail reads: “Do not use GPS to find the condo. GPS will take you to the complex office, and not to the condo. Use the directions below instead.”.

Once, after sending the Welcome e-mail, a guest contacted me with “Wow, cool! Love the old-school, step-by-step directions!”

Turns out he was mocking me, as he ignored it, used GPS anyway, went to the wrong place, and then called me on the same phone that the directions were on to tell me he was lost.

Arghgh!

[Huma0]

@Pat271 

Yep, it amazes me the faith that people put into technology over a host who obviously knows where their listing is located or knows, for example, the city they have spent most of their lives in.

Example. Guests tell me they are coming from Stanstead Airport late evening on Boxing Day when transport is limited. I agree to a late check in, but they refuse to follow my suggestions for transport. No, Google is telling them something else. I explain to them that the 'quickest' route that Google is showing them is a really round about route that is going to take way longer. They will not believe me. Google is God, apparently.

I then have to go into a long explanation about how Google advertising works, i.e. that they are being told to use the private bus company that advertises with Google even though it's a much longer route and will drop them nowhere near my house, at which point they will either have to get two public buses or pay for a taxi.

Will they believe me? No! Their trust in Google cannot be shaken. Eventually, I say, okay, you can either follow my directions and arrive by X time, or you can follow Google, but then I am sorry, I will no longer be able to waive the late check in fee and it will cost you £X extra per hour. That did the trick.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Huma0 

I don't recall ever getting a GPS as a guest, either, so this info is news to me. 

Most people are visual, so we rely on photos. We repeat in the message thread that GPS will do its best to get you lost. We have a lighthearted set of directions, make fun of the insistent GPS voice, and ask if the guest has any questions after reading them. Still guests occasionally get lost out here in remote land, they get embarrassed and explain that they were following the GPS which, as we promised, would send them on an adventure that their car - and their nerves - might not be up for. 

Aarrgh!

Tradespeople are locals so they know that GPS is a disaster. We give them directions and codes to the two gates - private road - and they are all fine.

I hate when GPS sends guests on a wild goose chase when they are on vacation and don't need negative experiences. Unless they are up for an off road style adventure. 

[Huma0]

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@Kitty-and-Creek0 wrote:

@Huma0 

Tradespeople are locals so they know that GPS is a disaster. We give them directions and codes to the two gates - private road - and they are all fine.

---

That's lucky. It's not like that here. Many of the trades actually live outside of London, in surrounding counties and, for South London where I live, especially Kent. They are not idiots by any means, but they do not know every street of London (which is huge) like the back of their hand. I think something might have changed recently though as they seem to be able to find me now, thankfully.

[Huma0]

Here is a revised example:

"Please make sure you come to X number. My house is painted light green with a bright pink front door (you will find the house number right next to the door) and flowerbeds outside. 

It is very distinctive so hopefully you will have no problems finding it, but here is my number just in case..."

The parking though, is rather more complicated. I really have to stop people parking on my neighbour's drive. It's not just annoying for them. They rent out their driveway to other people, so it's actually disrupting their business.

[Inna22]

@Huma0 beautiful house and definitely hard to miss! How about charging a fee for parking in the neighbors driveway? That will stop most people. “Parking in the neighbors drive way is not allowed for any length of time, including to load and u load. Penalty is $50 and will go directly to the neighbors”

[Huma0]

Thanks @Inna22 

Yes, perhaps that will stop them. The neighbours actually rent out their driveway, so in theory, the guests could book it via an App, but that's getting complicated. I am sure the neighbours would not want my guests booking it for an hour though and thereby losing a full day booking, which is what they normally get.

The threat of a fine though might deter people!

[Normen0]

Yep! Last week my guest arrived at my neighbours house. A ton of cars, kid stuff everywhere.  There address is in huge numbers over their door. My guest pulled in and walked to the back of their house, up the deck (by the pool which we do not have) and walked into their house via the back door. 
i provided specific directions plus a photo of the driveway and my house. Ffs. 

[Inna22]

@Normen0 thats nuts! Was your neighbor home?