Check-in vs Check out

[Nadine709]

I find check-in times are set as late as 4pm then check out as early as 9am.

And some won't even keep your bags.

@Airbnb can you get some of these hosts to standardize? 

The average hotel is 2pm in; 11am out. 

Could you also encourage hosts to at least have a safe area to keep your bags?

Thanks!

[Kate867]

@Nadine709   Airbnbs are not Hotels and generally do not have great numbers of permanently employed staff to jump in, clean, sort out issues and prepare.  They also don’t generally have multiple rooms on standby to offer if a particular room is not ready on time.  Check in and check out times are set by the Hosts to ensure that they and/or their cleaning team have time to prepare this one unique property for a guest and due to the ongoing pandemic extra care and time is needed.  Many Hosts are more than happy to accommodate an earlier check in and late check out if they can but it is heavily dependent on outgoing/incoming guests.  The three hour ‘standard’ preparation time you are proposing simply will not work for the majority.  However, given some of Airbnbs questionable improvements this last year, I am sure that at some point they will try to force this upon Hosts at some point in the future 

[Lorna170]

@Nadine709   Your expectations are unrealistic for most hosts.  We are not hotels with cleaning staff ready to swoop in as soon as someone has checked out, nor can we clean an entire property from top to bottom in just a few hours, all while holding your luggage. 

Can you clean your entire home including dust, vacuum, mop floors, wash all linens, replace paper goods, check glassware, dishes and cookware, pick up yard, mow and change over the hot tub all in 2 hours?  If so, you are superwoman.  

Please reconsider your request. 

[Nadine709]

@Kate867  Hi Kate  I understand this is not a hotel and their (usually 1 person) staff is usually cleaning several rooms in those 3 hours so they are actually more stressed. The average airbnb is a single room.

@Lorna170 Hi Lorna, I can understand if its an entire house...but I also assume you have more than 1 set of linen and don't need to mow the lawn each time.

While I appreciate your responses. Don't you also see that this will help hosts competitiveness? Some people are just going back to hotels because of some of these conveniences. I can tell you 90% of the (more expensive) airbnb I go to, the room is spotless, but never every corner of the home.

[Mark116]

@Nadine709   Our check in time is 2pm and our check out time is 11am and we do offer luggage drop off for guests.  However, not all hosts can do this.  Sometimes check in times are related to host availability, cleaning needs or other reasons.  Not all hosts have a space where guests can drop off their bags, and not everyone is willing to stand the liability of having control of the guest luggage without the guest being present.

What's wrong with the way thing are now?  Guests can simply choose a listing that has the check in/out time that is convenient for them, as well as other amenities like bag drop off.  Why does everything need to be 'standardized'?  

[Dora486]

I agree, pick a place that suits your check in and check out requirements.   I’ve stopped doing late check out,  we have a  strict cleaning protocol to adhere to.  I’d much rather present a beautifully clean house than be stressed trying to rush the cleaning due to entitled guests wanting a lie in.  Early check in is another thing.  I don’t offer but do say I’ll let them know when cleaning is finished.  I don’t give the code out until then.  Most times we are ready early but not always, there’s always the unexpected nightmare messy check out to contend with.   

[Lorna170]

@Nadine709   The average Airbnb is not a single room in my region.  They are stand alone vacation rental properties of 1 to 6 bedrooms and 1000 to 6000 square feet.  Some require 2 hours by a cleaner with all linens exchanged while others are 5 hours by a team of 2 inside and one outside.  Today I spent 2 hours just on the kitchen after a guest who washed nothing for a week.  

Enjoy your hotel room.

[Kate867]

@Nadine709  I would be very interested to know where your data for ‘The average Airbnb is a single room’ came from.  Please can you provide a link?  It may well have been the case many years ago but I suspect that has changed considerably since.  I was able to see Data from 2017 (using Google) that indicated an approx 50/50 split at that time.

I actually concur with @Lorna170 , It is next to impossible to get an entire home cleaned and prepared in the time scale you want.  You should also be aware, that even in homes where you only rent the one room, many guests will spot another area in the home which is less than pristine, take photos, submit to Airbnb and try to claim a refund based on this.  

[Kia272]

@Nadine709 Ditto what the other two responses say. We are not hotels. It takes me a minimum of three hours to clean and turn over my cabin, and I allow additional time for doing things like mowing the lawn (not an option with guests in residence) or making small repairs. 

I would not be able to store bags for you, because I simply don't have the room. Even if I did, would you like it if you were staying and other people came on the property to retrieve bags? Probably not. 

You are welcome to contact any host with a property that you are considering booking, to ask if perhaps they are able to accommodate a request to store bags, or for an early check-in or late check-out. You should probably expect to be charges for those accommodations. Hosts have lives too, with jobs and families and other things to attend to. Their check-in and check-out times are probably, in part, based on their other responsibilities. 

Ultimately, if the check-in or check-out time of a particular property doesn't suit your needs, you should book elsewhere. 

@Airbnb can you get some of these hosts to standardize? 

The average hotel is 2pm in; 11am out. 

Could you also encourage hosts to at least have a safe area to keep your bags?

I will tell you that as a host, communication is everything. I go out of my way to accommodate a guest who comes across as pleasant and considerate in their messages to me. It goes a long way.

Those three sentences make you come across as pretty entitled, and without an understanding of what AirBnB is all about. You may be best suited to a hotel. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nadine709  if you have been hosting even one season, or just thinking about hosts for just a brief minute you wouldn't ask and expect anything you wrote here.

But, it seems you are thinking only about your needs and wishes.

My check-out time is 11 AM even though I could allow it at 12. But, I have to predict some guests sometimes forget to check out on time. Sometimes guests leave a mess and more time is needed to clean it up. Sometimes we have to fix and repair something before the next guest arrives. The same with check-ins. Guests, like kids, always push our boundaries and we have to be prepared. Having 1 day vacant between guests would be less stressful and flexible but, with short bookings, we would lose 30% income.

Could I store your luggage? Yes. Do I want to jump over it and move it around while we clean as fast as we can? Do I want to stay longer and waste my time on the location because you went to lunch or forgot to pick it up on time? No. There are lockers on every bus and train station so please leave your luggage there, it is not expensive.

My cleaner runs 10 more Airbnbs in various locations and her schedule is full from early morning to late at night. If just one guest is a half hour late it messes up her complete day and all other hosts and guests will suffer.

[Huma0]

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@Nadine709 wrote:

I find check-in times are set as late as 4pm then check out as early as 9am.

And some won't even keep your bags.

@Airbnb can you get some of these hosts to standardize? 

The average hotel is 2pm in; 11am out. 

Could you also encourage hosts to at least have a safe area to keep your bags?

Thanks!

---

Maybe where you come from, but in the UK, most hotels and B&Bs have a check in from 3pm and check out by 10am. The numerous hotels I have stayed at in other European countries have a later check out, usually at 12, but I've never been to one where you can check in before 3pm unless you pay a fee. Sure, they store luggage but they have full time receptionists, concierges and porters. So, bearing in mind that Airbnb is a global company, with hosts in almost every part of the world, what you are suggesting Airbnb imposes as 'standard' is only standard where you come from. That's rather close minded.

Also, I am not sure where you are getting the information that most airbnbs are a single room because that is far from the truth. Even if it were... I host private rooms in my own house, but that doesn't mean that I only clean the room before a new guest arrives. The whole house needs to be clean. Obviously. Even if there is only one room to clean, it is not the same as doing a routine clean of your bedroom back at home. There is much more to it than that. It takes me at least two hours to clean and prepare one of the guest rooms (and quite a bit longer for the largest room) IF the previous guest has left it tidy and reasonably clean, but many guests do not.

As for storing luggage, I'll only do this after check out if I feel like the guests are going to be reliable and I don't do it at all before check unless it's a repeat guest because I have had so many people mess me around with this, not showing up when they said they would, making me miss work meetings, taking the keys when I have a new guest arriving, or demanding to be let into the bedroom/use the bathrooms when they are not ready and then marking down on cleanliness!

Do you have at least a few months' of hosting experience? If not, then you probably shouldn't be telling hosts what their check in/out times should be or how long it takes to prepare a listing. 

Luggage storage here is plentiful and inexpensive, plus there are listings where hosts are able to accommodate early check ins/late check outs or store luggage. Just book one of those or a hotel to suit your needs rather than suggesting a standardisation that would make it impossible for thousands of hosts to remain on the platform.

[Helen744]

@Nadine 709 my checkout is 10 am , it used to be 11 but people stayed until twelve and this is ans was a nuisance during covid when the place had to be aired for three hours . my checkin is two but sometimes people check in at six , I dont make them check in at six or insist they checkin at two , travellers may do as they wish but since most Airbnbs are not one night stays at the moment and hosted ones are in homes and often a hotel room , no matter how spacious only has one bedroom at the same price , then you should do yourself a favour and wind down in a home environment with assistance from a person who is as nearby as you wish and wants you to stay and knows your name . Cheers H

[Gwen386]

@Nadine709  These are our private residences. And it’s no way I want AirBnb to dictate to hosts when someone can check-in or check-out. Since guests see this beforehand, they have the choice to book or not. Unlike hotels that have many house keepers, hosts may not have the capability to turn/prepare the space for the next guest. And it’s not a good idea for hosts to keep someone’s luggage. There’s no bellboy. So, this means the host is at the guest’s beck-and-call, waiting around for when the guest decides to retrieve it. Sometimes a hotel stay may make way more sense than an Airbnb. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

And there is one more reason why I don't want to store my guest's luggage - they could later accuse me of theft. No thank you.