How can I stop guests ignoring the check in time?

[Huma0]

I really don't want to have to put it in CAPITALS at the beginning of my listing, as that's not very welcoming, but I am starting to get frustrated that so many guests simply ignore my check in time (3pm). It is in my listing and house rules, which I ask them to read.

Check out (12 pm) doesn't seem to be a problem. Occasionally a guest asks if they can leave bags and pick them up later, which is fine, but most leave earlier than noon with no fuss.

Check in is another matter. I would say that the majority of my guests want to come earlier. Some politely ask if that is an option, or if they can drop their bags earlier. Unfortuntely, a lot just assume they can come straight from the airport/train station and wouldn't have bothered to even communicate this to me had I not asked.

I always message them to ask what time they will arrive (the majority don't offer this information without a prompt). Even when I stress in my message that check in is from 3 pm onwards, they still respond saying, "We'll be arriving at 11 am." So, it's not that they don't know check in is after 3, they just simply don't seem to think it matters.

Even at a five star hotel with 24 hour reception, this is usually not okay.

Any tips for how I can prevent this? What am I doing wrong?!

[John498]

@Huma0Gosh Huma and to cap it all they will probably give a bad review. At least you can reply I suppose. You can also let them have it with both barrels in the review although I must confess I tone mine down a bit unless they are completely terrible.

Just a thought here. There is nothing to stop guests logging on to this chat board is there? I have seen a few messages which were definitely from guests who were 'lost'. And of course if you are both host and traveller you could peruse it.  It is unlikely but some day someone may see something written about themselves.

You sound like you have the patience of an angel Huma xoxoxoxoxo

[Huma0]

Thanks @John498. Yes, you are right, technically a guest can see anything we write on here and also write on here about us, except for one forum, I think it's called something like 'Host Circle', which is for host access only. Of course, if the guest is a host as well, they could see that too! Judging by the number of hosts v guests who use the forums though, I don't tend to worry about it.

My guests aren't the worst in the world, but they have driven me a bit crazy and I am debating how honest I should be in my review. I only mentioned some of the issues, but there are others, some big, some small (noise, mess, leaving lights on everywhere and more). The sum of them all though leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I really, really wish I hadn't accepted the booking (I almost didn't because they were arriving on Christmas afternoon) because even though they are the ones ignoring the listing/rules, I am the one who will be stung with a bad review.

So I thought about writing something like, "X & Y were generally polite and courteous guests and were very complimentary about my home. It's unfortunate that there were a number of misunderstandings during their stay, but I would put this down to them not having properly read the listing or listened to the information I gave them, rather than any deliberate intention to cause damage to the property or inconvenience me or other guests."

Does that sound harsh? What I haven't explained is their VERY passive aggressive manner of correspondence and refusal to accept responsibility for things clearly no one else could have done. This goes as far as to concoct a mystery person who has apparently been staying in my house the last few days (who else would be here was clearly explained to them both before and on arrival). This mystery person seems to be responsible for most of the problems, including the dirty state of a shower room that I cleaned before their arrival and only they had used. Could it get much weirder?

[John498]

@Huma0Thanks for the info on guests using this forum as I didn't know and of course yes you are right the amount of users is small so the chances are unlikely.

I have become less interested in the reviews as Instant Book has been foisted on most hosts. I guess a host could still cancel when they saw a bad review but not sure if AIRBNB would accept it without penalising the host.

I think your review above is excellent Huma. The recent guy I had issues with who came early and got rip roaring drunk at night and was reluctant to leave so I reviewed him as an "interesting character who burns the candles at both ends who left later than our agreed later check out time." Hard to know though I suppose in both of our reviews will Hosts get the nuances of what we really mean.

I myself tend to lie back and think of England for most reviews  that I feel are unfair. It is unseemly to argue I think so consider they have paid you and ultimately if you had a crystal ball you wouldn;t accept them. But you don't. And not sure it can get weirder. I did have one guy ask me for an extra pillow as he is not used to sleeping without his wife 🙂

[Huma0]

@John498ha, ha! He could have just asked for an extra pillow and not mentioned his wife. That's sharing a bit too much 🙂

I think hosts will be able to get the nuances in your review. If I read it, I would be reluctant to accept that guest. I don't use Instant Book, but I thought there was an option in the settings to block guests with bad reviews. Perhaps I'm wrong?

Today is my final day to write the review for the problem guests above, so time to bite the bullet and get on with it. I put it off partly because I think it's good to let off steam first, instead of doing it in the review, but also because I was dreading reading theirs. I think now a few days have passed, I won't get so irrate about it. If they did leave a glowing review (I doubt it), I'm not going to feel guilty about it. After all, they didn't have to pay for the ceiling they damaged or the extra cleaning I had to do, so I think they got off lightly.

[John498]

Hi Huma,I haven;t used that facility and yes you are right it is there but i wonder how straightforward it is. I bet Airbnb need reasons for your cancelling and probably adjudicate it. You are only allowed to turn down on gender if there are shared spaces for example so not liking someone's reviews is more subjective and therefore probably more nuanced again.

Your review above sounds fine. It really does. You could also say something along the lines of

"They were nice/good/ok people but any future  host might want to sit down and not only go through the house rules and listing but also check they have understood. This would serve to avoid a similar experience I had with them. After checking their understanding I am sure both parties would be immeasurably happier with the guest/host experience. Providing they comply of course."

[Huma0]

@John498 

I know we've gone off topic here, but I posted my review and I think I was too kind!

Their review was the worst I've received and the only time I've ever got 3 stars. I kind of expected them to leave 3 though. Not sure how this effects my Superhost assessment as my stats don't seem to update for at least a few hours. At the moment I am still on 84% five stars, so let's see how much this knocks that down!

Now, the question is how to respond. Of course, I don't want to draw attention to this review by writing a lengthly response, but I think I do have to defend myself. As this was the first booking for that room for some time (I had a housemate renting it directly before), I assume it's going to be quite prominent.

How about:

"I am sorry that X and Y found me demanding and my rules tedious, but I do think when someone floods your bathroom, causing damage to a ceiling, that it's reasonable to politely ask them to please close the cubicle door next time! I have had well over 100 guests stay with me and X and Y were by far the most difficult and unpleasant. They seemed determined to disrespect me and my home. I would suggest guests read my other reviews for a more balanced impression of my listing."

Not sure about this yet. Will have to ponder on it...

[John498]

My gosh Huma I have just read their moronic review! It is sad to think such creatures exist

They don't have any other reviews apart from your gentle one so it is impossible to know if it was a one off experience.

Because of the tone and idiotic content I would take the high moral ground and respond with restraint but with barbs to them. But you have to avoid being seen to be argumentative.

I would respond firstly by thanking them for taking the time to review. I would go on to say that I welcome all feedback as it helps me improve as a host.  However I feel your comments are most unfair because...

***You could respond on these two points I feel.

a) Can they really smell smoke in the room?

b) Was there a heating issue?

If there is any substance of truth -----> then don't make it an argument. But say what mitigations you intend to put in place if any

If no truth then say so. But remember if you say so and another future guest  has the same issue then your credibility is in doubt.

But Huma, they come across as horrible nasty pieces of work!

On another thread a host made an excellent point in that reviews are read by future guests about past events. There is little to gain from trying to score points or win the unwinnable against people who have never the intention of coming back.

[Huma0]

@John498

Yes, that's the tricky thing. Even though you want to defend yourself if the comments are unfair, you don't want it to make you come across as the difficult one!

RE the two points you mentioned:

a.) No, I really don't think they could smell smoke in their room. The communal area where you can smoke is on the ground floor and their room is three floors above! Other guests who have stayed in that room have never complained about it, but I guess it could depend on how sensitive you are to the smell of smoke. It's a tricky one really because I can't 100% say that they couldn't smell smoke upstairs, even though I think it's highly unlikely, only that they expressely said they were fine with smoking before they booked.

b.) When they checked in, I asked if the room was warm enough and they said yes. I said if they wanted the heating adjusted to let me know, but please don't fiddle with the controls because I recently had guests who accidentally turned off their radiators. What did they do? The first night, they turned one of their radiators off (this was the first of their late night messages to me). I went and sorted it out. Later, I also offered to go and check their radiators again, but they said the temperature was fine and I didn't need to. It is a difficult house to heat, but I try my best. The next set of guests said the room was perfectly warm.

I don't want it to seem like I'm making excuses though. I already responded to the earlier guests review saying they had accidentally turned their radiators off (I only realised when I went to clean the room after they had left). People might think that I'm making it up, but I'm really not!!

[John498]

Well you could say that you are sorry you smelled smoke through three floors but I guess it might sound sarcastic so yes very tricky. It is up to you of course but I don't understand why you allow smoking at all in the house, just make them smoke outside. That removes that issue.

I think it is fair to say they are the second guests who ahve turned off the radiator in error and that you will highlight to future guests not to do so.

[Huma0]

Yes @John498 I will try. I did tell them so they wouldn't make the same mistake but, like with everyting else, they ignored me.

Most guests will be reasonable though, so hopefully no one else will turn the radiators off.

[Ange2]

@Huma0    I have a "Do Not Touch" sign on the valve and have covered it with a glass, but that hasn't deterred some. So now I now point it out to guests when they arrive and tell them if they try to turn it off water will leak all over the floor, which did happen once. So far it has worked.

[Huma0]

@Ange2I did specifically ask these guests not to fiddle with the valves only hours earlier. To be honest, I think they resented being asked to do/not to do things, no matter how politely or nicely it was said to them. I believe their attitude was that they were paying to stay here so they would do what they like and who on earth am I to tell them anything?!

When I asked why they turned the valve off, they said it must have happened when they closed the curtain. Really? A silk curtain managed to turn the valve all the way around several times from full to off? Of course, I didn't say anything that, I just turned it back on for them.

I will try your mention of water potentially leaking though as an extra detterant, but to be honest, it's only these silly guests who ignored my request not to adjust the valves. Everyone else has been sensible enough to leave them alone or ask me to adjust them.

[Ange2]

@Huma0  I wonder at the people who come up with incredible excuses like  children afraid of getting detention or those who penalize the host because of their own short comings. Luckily they are few and far between. 

But in my experience it only takes one 'silly' guest, well, two in my case, to set you back thousands of dollars. The leak I had from valve-turning-guests caused extensive damage to the floor.  A friend of mine is customizing an off the shelf box to create  a silly-guest-lock-box, it will encase the valve so it can't be accessed except by me and a key.  It's alarming to have to go to these lengths for the one or two irresponsible guests but the hit I took makes it crazy not to.

[Huma0]

@John498my stats have updated now and I realised that they also gave me 2 stars for cleanliness. This is really a joke, seeing as the cleanliness issues were caused by them. I mean they used a spotlessly clean bathroom and left it in such a state that the other guest was too disgusted to use it. I am not imagining this because he confirmed to me that it was very clean before that. Also, I had 84% 5 stars for cleanliness for that listing and never received less than 4 stars.

Then they left me 1 star for communication!!! Prior to that I had 98% 5 stars for this (one 4 star due to the fact that one guest was disappointed that I don't speak French so well). Check in and value they only scored me 3 stars, although I've never received less than 4 in either category before. Also scored me low on location.

Looks like they were determined to ding me and I'm sorry I was overly generous with them.

However, it does make me laugh at the same time and proves how unbalanced they are. If 100% of my guests gave me 5 stars for check in, I can't take it very seriously when they give me 3, nor when they give me 1 for communication when 98% give me 5 stars!

Oh, and the only category they didn't rate me on was accuracy, which I think is telling given that they clearly hadn't read the listing...

[Kelly144]

In regards to guests, and people in general - they are just thinking of their own situation. Of course they want to drop their bags if their flight is at 8am. It genuinely doesn't occur to them that at 8am someone else could be still sleeping in what will later be their bed. They haven't thought of the cleaning required, they are just thinking about their bag and their tiredness. Once you gently remind them there is another side - the rooms need cleaning - you have a schedule, whatever, they will understand as long as it is said firmly and politely. Don't leave room for negotiation. A place with a locker is a very good suggestion for hosts who host in their own home. 

I manage a small hotel (not anything to do with airbnb) and early check in requests are a daily thing. We can look after bags of course as we have a reception, but I can't tell you the number of people that simply haven't thought about the fact that other people are currently in the room. Our check in time is 2pm, and in busy season, we can't do earlier. We get people booking with a note "we have a wedding at 2pm, need the room by 12 at the very latest" On a Saturday, this is almost always impossible. I remain firm, tell them they are welcome to use the bathrooms to get ready but we cannot promise a room at midday. If I have to I remind them that their room payment begins at 2pm and if I am able to get them in early *for free* it is a bonus for them, but the rooms is booked and paid from 2pm. That line is a last resort if they're getting demanding. If I have an unoccupied room the previous night, I'm happy to check in as early as they like, but if we can't, we can't and I don't leave any room for argument. Hosting in your home is still a business, and you won't want to do it for long if you keep getting stuffed around by guests. Be firm.