How long do you wait in if a guest is late

[Nicola2231]

If a guest asks to check in early, how long would you wait for them as I’m expected at a birthday, no way of leaving key. I came back to let her in and she’s not here. 

[Colleen253]

@Nicola2231 If you've agreed to meet the guest, then you need to wait. Or at the very least, don't leave until you've spoken to them first. Have you tried calling?

[Debra300]

@Nicola2231,

I give guests up to an hour to be late.  I remind them that we don't have a front desk or on-call person to check them in, and they must provide an estimated time for their arrival to ensure that someone will be available for their check-in.  I also tell them that it's their responsibility to notify me if they, their flight or ferry are going to be late, and they risk not gaining access to the guesthouse if we are not around.  

[Michael-O-Reilly0]

@Nicola2231  Hi Nicola, Yesterday I had a request from a guest for an early check-in, they had advised me that they would arrive between 1 and 2 pm, I agreed to meet them,  they subsequently arrived at 6 pm, their travel plans had changed and they were unable to contact me, there is also the possibility that my own plans could change and I would not be able to meet them at the designated time, so to counteract any of these situations arising in the future I have a few backup plans, I only agree to an early check-in if I can meet my guests in person, or if my Neighbour can check them in for me, in the unlikely event that neither my neighbour or myself can meet them at the requested time, I have a spare key which can only be collected by the person who requested the early arrival.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nicola2231  uh, waiting for our guests wasted so much of our time and money 😞

We are off-site hosts with same-day turnovers. It means we would be there at 12 clean until 2 PM and, if our guests said they will arrive at 3 PM we stayed in the city, drink a coffee and wait. If they would not show at 3  we texted and called just to hear they are still on the way and will come at 4... so we would go to lunch, waited and waited... and they would arrive at 5. Until then we would already spend half of the nightly price 😞

We tried different tactics for a couple of years to no avail, until we had enough and put in our house rules we are charging for delayed arrivals if not announced at least 1 hour in advance. We also charge for late check-ins because guests didn't care about our check-in time, they would book and just say they will arrive at midnight.

Since we put a price tag on our time we don't have these problems anymore 🙂 The only problem is to make them read additional house rules (thank you Airbnb for hiding them so well)

Btw, we never had to enforce it 🙂

Feel free to copy our house rules