How to deal with unexpected situations?

[Stephanie]

Hello everyone,

From time to time, unexpected situations are always going to crop up, such as your washing machine taking one look at the huge pile of washing and deciding to give up the go or your guests arriving much later than expected! You can’t prevent these from happening entirely, but there are some things you can put in place to minimise the risk of them happening and ways to help deal with them if they do.  

Things like great communication and doing regular home maintenance, along with some handy lists of emergency support numbers for local repair companies or plumbers are just a few examples. 

What things do you have in place to help you deal with unexpected situations?

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Stephanie

[Huma0]

A guest ignored my instructions and broke the front door lock on his way out. I only realised a while after he left that I was trapped inside the house (the window at the front has a security grill so you can't get out that way) and tried to message him but he didn't respond. I had new guests checking in shortly. 

Luckily, I managed to flag down the neighbour as she was leaving her house, pass the key through the letter box and get her to open the door from the outside, but it meant I could not close the door again until the locksmith came. 

The new guests arrived and I explained the situation to them. I showed them around while keeping an ear on the door to make sure no intruders entered! Meanwhile, the guest who broke the lock returned and, having not read his messages, closed the door and locked all of us in!! 

Luckily, the new guests were understanding and the locksmith came quickly to replace the lock.

I am not sure what I could have done to be better prepared for this situation (all guests are instructed how to operate the lock and this guest broke it through brute force and sheer carelessness) but it's useful to have a few locksmiths' numbers to hand.

[Blair18]

I'm rather disgusted that I can't find consistent reliable, correct information that a guest will receive from Airbnb when they make a reservation.  Not the things I provide, but that Airbnb provides, like my address,,, Some Guests call and want to know my address, others have rooted around and figured it out and come to my home.  I need to understand the logic and rules/procedures that airbnb follows  on this.  I have gotten at least 3 different answers from support.   It seems to me that it should be easy to direct me to the procedures and the logic for the structure.    

[Elaine701]

We get it fixed - somehow - immediately. Not always easy, and usually quite stressful. But we somehow pull it off, even if it means working late.

But also, we regularly perform checks of everything between each guest. Water, electricity, heating and cooling, insects, appliances, etc.... We often find potential problems that way, and try to resolve it before it becomes an imminent problem. Sometimes it might mean buying a new appliance (right now - today) rather than calling someone out to fix it, then getting the nonworking unit fixed in the mean time  and if fixable, either sell it or use it as a "backup".

In any case, I'd much rather go through the stress than cancel a booking at the last minute, leaving the guest to figure out what to do next - and not to mention Airbnb penalties for that.

[Alison1249]

Basically I just have a laminated sheet that explains WiFi and who o ll in an emergency . I find these articles Rey helpful and will now list local handymen instead.