Guest showed up out of check in hours

[Sage28]

I use key cafe since I’m often out of town while guests are staying at my condo. My guest booked weeks in advance but didn’t respond to any of my messages with details on how to check in, etc. He showed up outside of the hours of availability for the key cafe and wasn’t able to access the air bnb. I think it’s reasonable to offer 1 night refund and charge for the 1st night and cleaning fee. 

what can I do?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

This is a sign of a nonresponsable guest so you are better without him anyway. I would tell him to cancel and refund him. 

[Colleen253]

@Sage28 

Have you filled in the check in guide on your listing, so that guests can also access the info from their trips dashboard? It’s best to cover all bases. Do you have check in and check out times selected on your listing?

Refunds are appropriate when you are at fault. If you provided all the information the guest needed on when and how to access the suite and they failed to take heed of it, then a refund would not be warranted. 

[Sarah977]

@Sage28  When guests don't respond to your messages, it could just be a matter of them not feeling that a response is necessary. Sending check-in info may, in their mind, not require a response, not even the courtesy of a thank you.

So it's best to ask for a response, rather than just assume they got and read what you sent- "Please let me know ASAP that  you've received these check-in instructions so I know you won't have an issue with retreiving the keys at the time the key cafe will be open, and checking in."

Making things about you being concerned about the guests' comfort and convenience, works better than it being about the host's expectations.

If you do that and still don't get a response, try sending them a text message to their phone number asking them to respond to the Airbnb message you sent, and if they are still not answering, ask Airbnb to try to contact them.

Non-responsive guests are a red flag and I wouldn't just ignore it and assume all will go smoothly.