Trying A New Approach To Guests Who Book Without Reading The Listing Info

[Todd-and-Reese0]

After two bookings (both IB) in a row where the guests showed up and thought they had rented our entire home and not a private room and bath, and obviously not read any house rules, didn't know we had cats, etc......I'm trying a new approach.

I have a strict cancellation policy so that 7 days or less before their arrival if a guest cancels I still get paid. So, just under one week before they arrive I am sending the following type of message so they can cancel if they realize they booked without checking the details and it's on them.

Let me know what you think! I will try to revisit this thread to let you know how it's going. I recently instituted a hidden phrase in my rules to see if folks read them but these are some reservations that happened months ago before I got savvy.

"Hello So & So!

Hope you are doing well. Your trip is less than a week away. We wanted to touch base and start familiarising you with our home and area so you can plan your stay. These things are all mentioned in the listing in several areas, but they tend to get overlooked when booking, so we make sure there are no surprises. Our listing is a private room and bath in a shared home which means we will be here. That being said, we are super busy and you will hardly see us. You will probably see more of the kitties, which brings me to the fact that we have 3 rescue cats that have free roam of the house. Note: they do not go into your bedroom unless allowed, so you can keep your door closed to keep them from visiting.

It's a large house (3 stories total) so we all have plenty of space. Our offices are on the top floor and our entrance and bedrooms are in the back of the house and basement. These areas are off-limits to guests and there is a layout in the listing photos.

Speaking of listing photos, there are photos of your areas of the house and of some suggested activities as well as the nearest places for coffee and food. There is also a guidebook in the listing created by me that lists everything nearby and also tons of attractions.

AirBnB requires upon booking that you read and agree to our house rules. Some of the more important ones to us are quiet hours and no shoes on the wood floors, but please read through them (and share them with your guest) to be sure both guests and hosts have a 5-star stay. Alright! Let us know if you have any questions. We will touch base a day or so before arrival to talk about check in.

Thank you!

Reese and Todd"

[Karen842]

I like this idea! I also list a master bedroom and private bath, and make it clear in my listing that there is limited use of the common space, but have many peeople who dont seem to understand this. What has really annoyed me is two recent comments.. one was a private comment by a man who told me that I "need to pick up my living room." My "living room" is my office and workout space and not a place for entertaining, which is pretty obvious if you see the layout. 

I recently had a guest who was complimentary of the listing space (bedroom and bath) but had many complaints about the living room and kitchen. I use a large portion of the space for my office/workout room, and two kids who don't always clearn the kitchen. I also have a rescue kitty! 

Her revew really brought down my rating and I dont think it's right because her compalints were about areas of my home that were not for her use. Of course Airbnb is of no help. 

Any sugesstions? 

Thanks!

[Huma0]

I had a pretty strange experience with this yesterday. I had a guest checking in, but hadn't heard from her since she booked back in May and no response to recent messages, but she had said she was coming at 3pm, so I had the room ready and waited for her. She did not show up.

At 4pm, I messaged her to find out if she was okay and if her plans had changed. Turned out they had and was coming in the evening (hadn't thought it necessary to inform me apparently), but still wouldn't specify a time. Eventually she turned up just before 9pm which is the end of my check in window. Okay, but I do really specify on my listing and in my messages that guests need to confirm a check in time in advance and let me know if they are running late.

She went to the neighbour's house and called me from there, despite the fact that she had received two messages with detailed directions on finding the house (one with photos) and specific instructions NOT to go to the neighbour's. She claimed she hand't received either of them but strangely was aware of other information I had only included in those same messages.

She had barely got through the door, but as I was showing her the first bathroom, she asked why my bathrooms were shared. Why didn't I have a private bathroom per room? This threw me a bit given that it's really clear on my listing that the bathrooms are shared.

When I showed her to her room, she looked a bit perturbed, which is not the usual reaction. It's a beautiful room and most guests are really impressed when they enter. After I had finished showing her the room, she said that it was not the one she booked.

??? Apparently, she had booked "the pink room". I do not have a pink room. She insisted that she had booked a pink room and got the photos up on her phone. Well, it was clearly the same room, just with a different coloured bedspread (the one in the photos was not even pink, by the way). I pointed out various things in the room, like the very distinctive Louis style gilt silk uphostered bed, the five door painted wardrobe etc. etc. and finally she was satisfied that it was indeed the same room.

I think everything is okay now, but who knows what kind of review I'm going to get. Definitely one of the strangest check ins I've had. Why can't people just READ the basic info? Personally I would want to know what I'm booking, but apparently some people prefer to book and then expect the place to magically transform into some random idea of it they've formed in their heads.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Huma0

There really is no cure for the clueless. Please let us know how that guest turns out to be 🙂

I can't stop laughing.........I booked the "pink room" omg.

[Huma0]

@Jessica-and-Henry0

I know. It was so random.

Luckily the guest was only here two nights and out for most of that time. I did bump into her on the second night and offered to help carry her very heavy suitcase downstairs because she was leaving early morning. Although she still seemed a bit clueless about practical stuff, she did seem much more normal on this occasion and we had a nice chat before she went to bed.

It then occured to me that she might have been intoxicated during check in. She had spent the last few hours at Wimbledon (that's why she didn't turn up for her 3pm check in) and I know what too many Pimms & Lemonades can do in the heat! 

I'm not saying for sure that she was tipsy. I didn't notice the smell of alcohol or any obvious signs, but she was definitely on a different planet that evening and much more lucid the next.

Anyway, the lack of pink wasn't brought up again!

[Cynthia157]

I have two suites in a locked off back wing of my 1815 home. They are advertised as "Private 2nd floor suite" and "Sunny 3rd floor suite". I include lots of pictures and a detailed description of the rooms in each suite.

I had an older couple that reserved my second floor suite which is very nice: antique furniture including a sleigh bed, fireplaces in the bedroom and sitting room, bedroom window seat, leather furniture and a roll top desk in the sitting room. 

They booked a month in advance, then the day before they arrived they started sending me message: is there an ice machine? (No) What am I serving for breakfast? (I don't serve breakfast) Is the oven in the kitchen gas or electric (There is no kitchen in the suite, just a mini frig, microwave and coffee machine) Did they read the description or look at the pictures at all?

Of course they arrived two hours late so I missed my friend's dinner party. When they got out of the car the woman complained because there are five steps from the driveway to the door. I said I was worried about her difficulty with stairs. She replied that's why she had reserved the first floor suite! I have no first floor suite.

Fortunately they only stayed one night, but they left me a one star review and complained that my description wasn't accurate. They wrote "In this day and age the hostess didn't even have a bedside phone, television or air conditioning." 

What can you do? I think they'd have been much happier in a hotel than my 1815 Federal house.

[Huma0]

@Cynthia157

These guests sound like an absolute pain and I'm sorry you had to put up with them, but more importantly, you should not be penalised via a review for the guests not reading the information.

Do you have their quesitons/complaints and your answers in the message thread? If the complaints in the review are about things clearly stated on your listing, including any facilities that you do not list as provided, then I would ask Airbnb to have this review and the ratings removed.

You might not have any luck as it seems to really depend on the CS rep you get on the phone (and do call rather than email them), but it's worth a shot. I had a review removed because it was inaccurate and retalitory. The rep checked the correspondence and also the comments in the review against my listing description and decided it was the guests, not me, who was at fault.

[Nicole2143]

I'm so glad to hear that others have had people show up thinking they had rented the whole house!  So far it only happened to me once, but the guy was a bit of a nightmare.  Tried to talk my sons and I into taking extra money and vacating the premises!  It is shocking how people don't read the listing.  I've been developing a standard "this is how you get into the room" text, so maybe I'll send it out earlier and make sure it makes clear that this is one room in the house.  I refunded that guy's money, which I really shouldn't have!

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

I send guests a similar message but on booking. @Todd-and-Reese0 

Many of my guests book some time ahead and I don’t think it would be fair to them to wait until less than a week before their stay for them to understand key information which would make them not want to stay and then be faced with losing 100% of their money. 

A couple of my guests cancelled within 48 hours and so weren’t penalised and I got replacement bookings within a day or so. 

I offer a room in a shared home and haven’t had anyone think it was a whole listing in the five years I have hosted. 

However,  I live in an inner city area which doesn’t suit everyone and I ask guests to acknowledge this as I don’t want guests staying who aren’t a good  fit.

[Huma0]

Agree with @Helen3 .

I send a message to any guest who requests to book and also to any guests who IB asap to ask the to confirm they have read/acknowledge the whole listing/house rules. The 48 hour penalty free cancellation period provides an opportunity for them to cancel without much inconvenience to you (unless you rely on last minute bookings, which I wouldn't advise anyway) so why wait? The only reason is to avoid any cancellations, but what is worse, an unsuitable guest who cancels very early allowing you to take other bookings, or an unsuitable guest who comes anyway resentful of your rules because they would rather do that than lose all their money? 

Result = potential nightmare guest and bad review.

[Rossana121]

I'm a fairly new host, and only had a handful of guests. Still what I learned is that 99% can't be bothered with reading details about the listing, let alone house rules. It's clear when they start asking questions that are already answered by either the description or the house manual/rules. Most of them even seem to be annoyed by the 10 minute introduction t their arrival, time that you spend explaining what's at their disposal and to show them around. They receive detailed check-in instructions with pictures and still manage to get lost. Out 10, only 2/3 actually complied to the rules. Mostly they forget they are guests in someone's home, and just don't behave accordingly. I think for the vast majority, airbnb is just the cheaper alternative for a hotel room they're not willing to pay for.

[Victoria110]

I have this same issue. Guests do not go beyond the photos before booking. I’ve even put a message to acknowledge reading the entire listing first thing in the description (many years ago I also imbedded a secret word in the house rules). But still , more often than not, I’m having to tell guests I won’t accept their booking until they’ve  acknowledged reading the listing . If they don’t respond I get  Airbnb to try to reach them and if that fails I’ve been given the ok to decline without consequence. 
But it’s beyond frustrating. Wouldn’t you want to know exactly what you’re getting into when staying in a private home?

[Nicholas828]

100% stand behind your method! It's brilliant and a wonderful Business Model. You are being very intelligent in your approach. 

[Can0]

I send a pre disclosure message asking them to review house rules, check in hours, amenities, not making special request after booking and all main points of my listing in bullet points. So I start a dialogue before booking and then book them after making sure both sides have clear understanding.