No response from guest checking in tmrw

[Marilena145]

Hi,

I have a guest who should be checking in tomorrow. I'm still relatively new to hosting and had no issues so far. However I have had no feedback from tomorrow's guest so I'm at a loss on what I should do. 

I've sent him messages via Airbnb and sms/whatsapp and no luck.

At this stage I'm actually wondering if he is still coming. 

Any recommendations on how I should proceed?

Thank you.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marilena145 

It happens from time to time. As long as you're communicating as you should, the guest should (in theory!😀) not mark you down on communication in the review. 

There's not much you can do - simply prepare the listing. If they have any questions, they have multiple ways to contact you. Often it's not intentional: international visitors may be offline while they travel a long distance by plane, or the previous stop on their route may be a rural area with limited coverage.

For me, the main problem in your position is that I'm unable to confirm what time they'll arrive, which means they could attempt an unannounced early check-in while you're still preparing (which can happen if the guest is not keen a keen communicator). I try to ask the estimated arrival time 2 days before check-in (before they likely catch a flight), but sometimes still end up in your position. I don't send detailed arrival instructions before a guest replies with their estimated arrival time. If they still haven't replied on the day, we finish preparing and I only send the arrival details after we're ready for check-in. 

Hope it helps a bit ...

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Marilena145 

Some folks consider their stay to be a business transaction, only.  Some are not social with hosts - as if they were staying in a hotel. If everything works well, no complaints, they likely did not feel the need to communicate. 

Perhaps you set things up so well, and made it so easy for him that no communication was needed? Just a thought ! 

I am a home share host so I really need communication, especially arrival time.

I also require them to tell me who they are traveling with. 

In the end, do they leave the place in appropriate condition? 

@Shelley159 has good ideas as well, and please don't over worry on this. Guests come in all  sorts of individual variations. 

[Bhumika]

I can understand how concerning this situation must be for you, @Marilena145 !

Have the guests been responsive during the booking process and only stopped viewing your messages in the past couple of days? It would be interesting to see if they are travelling from a distant location and may be that's one of the reason they haven't seen your messages yet.

What do you think of the comments shared by @Shelley159 and @Kitty-and-Creek0 ? 

[Joan2709]

@Marilena145 

Lots of great ideas already...

It depends on your check-in process...do the guests need a code to get in? Do they need to check in with a person?

If so, you can contact Airbnb tonight and ask Airbnb to reach out to the guest, as you are concerned something has happened as they have not read or responded to your messages. Airbnb can reach out to the guest's email and report back to you. You can see if a guest has read a message by clicking the 3 dots in the message thread. Of course, you can actually turn that off in your account settings, so not always 100% reliable indication. 

I would post a screen shot, but I have exceeded my 3,500 image limit apparently 😊

[Marilena145 · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for your replies. 

We usually meet the guests at the apartment ourselves and dont share the exact details to get in until the last day. This particular guest was not seeing any of the messages I sent on Airbnb but finally responded to our whatsapp message this morning.

Marilena

[Bhumika]

I am glad to read this update @Marilena145 ! Hope they arrived safe and sound to the listing. 

Did the guests share reasons on why they missed your previous messages?