What time do you stop replying at night?

[Nicole2592]

We are still in our first 2 months of hosting. Overall we have had VERY pleasant guests and have had fun with hosting. 
We have 3 listings and are wondering what time other folks stop messaging guests back at night? The past two weeks we have received 75% of our guest messages past 11pm. Nothing as a true emergency of course, but we try to be very responsive and answer questions quickly. But we gotta SLEEP. 

Do you write in your listing or messages to guests that you won’t be responding past a certain time? It has been surprising how many guests ask questions so late at night. 

[Anonymous]

@Nicole2592  Late night and early morning messages are pretty normal for city tourists, since that's when they're likeliest to be in the rental rather than out doing stuff. Most people don't expect instant responses around the clock - the Inbox is a holding tray, not an emergency dispatch.

I wouldn't bother putting any note about your bedtime in the listing, since guests don't usually look there during their stay. It's ok to tell them at check-in or in the House Manual what your typical time frame for replying to non-urgent messages is (and set your notifications to mute when you sleep if necessary). As long as there's a number where you can be reached in a real emergency, your bases are still covered. 

[Mark116]

@Nicole2592  We say that we are generally available 9am-10pm, although we usually will still see messages that come in at least by 11pm.  Depending on the message, we sometimes respond in real time but we reiterate our schedule of when they can be assured of us seeing it, and sometimes we wait until the next day if it is something extremely trivial.

[Emilia42]

I don’t have anything listed about the hours in which I’ll be available to communicate. I don’t answer late messages unless the guest is due to check in that night, which cases I want them to get the sense that I am readily available if they have any trouble (and that they must call if they do.) The guest that messages me at 11pm asking about restaurant recommendations can forget it and they can wait until normal business hours. I don’t have a smart phone so the urge to respond is very small.

[Lorna170]

@Nicole2592  I used to post in my description that I was available between the hours of this to that.  My posted hours were totally disregarded by guests (and the OTA CS).  IMO, people nowadays think that everyone everywhere is available 24/7.

When I send my welcome package to my guests, I let them know when they can reach me.  I do not respond to potential or current guests after 10 PM.  I check my phone, email and answering machine at 8 AM.   My phone is set to receive emergency notifications from the local utilities (electric, internet, weather service) so I can pass that information on to the guest.  Otherwise, as @Emilia42 said, Normal Business Hours apply.

[Emilia42]

@Lorna170 Even though we live in a technology-driven world, I don't really get the impression that people think others should/are available 24/7. I am not quick to reply to messages in the least bit but I still get "excellent communication" remarks. I think the disconnect comes when people don't realize how disturbing 24/7 messages can be. When I was young, you would never dare call your friends landline at midnight. But now, no one gives a second thought to sending a text message or e-mail at all hours a day/night. You just expect it to hang out in the cosmos until the recipient gets around to it. And on the receiving side, we live in a society that is addicted to our devices and can't resist the urge to click on an incoming notification, even if we are in the middle of a live conversation or in a deep sleep. Sorry for my rant, I just watched a documentary on this so it's been on my mind lately. 

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

I am more likely to get very late night messages from guests wanting to book, especially booking requests, for some reason. Sometimes it's just due to a time difference but, when it's not, I guess it's just when the guest has had time to search listings and pick one, having been busy with other stuff earlier in the day. They probably don't expect an immediate response (some have even said "Oh, I wasn't expecting you to respond tonight!") because they have no idea that they have just set a 24 hour timer ticking!

As for guests who are already staying, it's rare for them to message me late at night. I have had the odd few who message me extremely late, e.g. 2, 3 even 4am for something non-urgent, but those were guests who were very problematic in many ways. I asked one of them  to please stop messaging in the early hours of the morning and she responded, "I will message you when I feel like it. You don't have to read it there and then." I don't think this is normal. She was pretty rude in general.

Of course, you could just turn your notifications off or mute the phone overnight. The problem is, what if some sort of emergency happens? What if the guest gets accidentally locked out, for example?

[Lorna170]

@Emilia42   I hear what you are saying and I agree with you in general.  I have, however, had a guest text me at 4 AM with a question, and when he did not get an immediate response, he contacted AirBnB and reported me for not communicating.   When CS called me to explain that I would be sanctioned, censured or whatever for not responding to the guest, I sent them screenshots of the text messages with the time stamp.  The guest said that if he was up, I should be up or have a "night" person to cover my business phone.  It was a circus.

[Huma0]

@Lorna170 

That's ridiculous. Luckily, most guests don't have that kind of mentality. If they did, I know I wouldn't be hosting.

[Sonya81]

@Emilia42  You'd be surprised... Even this morning I answered a request sent at almost 11pm (at or after 8am is my usual time to respond because I have to line up my own marbles, first). And the status (almost 2 hours later) is "Awaiting payment". In the mean-time, your calendar is tied up until 1) the person reserves your space, or 2) the acceptance expires.

I run a small ranch, primarily, so my hours are "early to bed..." In the mean-time, though, not only does the first request wake me up, but several minutes later (when I think I MIGHT be able to go back to sleep), I get the Airbnb notice, "You could be making... $... if you respond..." So by then it takes me maybe 2 hours to calm down so I CAN go back to sleep...

My friends tell me to turn the volume off, but I have a 91 year old dad in hospice, so if somebody REALLY needs to get hold of me... Well...

And yeah, I'm right there, with you on the "when I was growing up, my "call hours" were 9am to 6pm, so these days with "smart" gadgets, it's easy for people to forget that REAL people are on the other end of the "line".

My cows, chickens, and horses don't give a hang about my smart gadget, so they keep me pretty well grounded. They push back on occasion and I've learned from it, so sometimes I push back, too, or at the very least, keep boundary. I have to get my rest so I can work with my animals the next day, or I could get hurt.

Anyway... Just my two cents. Blessings!

[Sarah977]

@Sonya81  There is usually a way to set your phone so it doesn't ring at night, but you can program certain numbers in that will bypass that block. So you could set it to ring for numbers that concern your dad, or other family members, but it will be silent otherwise.

I have never been a slave to answering requests, etc. after bedtime, I turn my phone off. If a guests can't wait for a reply at a reasonable time in the morning, they are likely not someone I want as a guest.

[Sonya81]

@Sarah977 THANK YOU! I really don't know how that works, but I'll go look at my Android site and figure it out... So it's for the ringing... My caregivers usually text first (I guess it covers their butts, like the Airbnb Messages covers ours). Maybe this number bypass works for texting, too.

You are probably right in this case. Even if my calendar is tied up a while, hosting this guy maybe would not be a good fit. Usually my acceptance expires and they just fade away. Thank you for your perspective on answering requests at all hours, too. It makes a lot of sense (and helps me feel better about the whole thing)!