Akar and Anupa were very nice people and we enjoyed meeting them and hosting them. It was their first time using Airbnb though, so they weren’t sure how everything worked.
If you allow late bag pickup after checkout just make sure they know exactly how you want it to work and everything should be fine. And make especially sure that they know when your checkout time is and if you expect them to honor it.
They didn’t pay attention to our instructions about late bag pickup and it turned into a problem for us in getting their room ready for the next guest. We not only have these instructions prominently posted on our listing, but we also email them a copy right after they make the reservation. Then a few days before check in we email a copy again. And the day before they check out we send them yet another email, this one focusing solely on the check-out procedures and times.
Our check-out time is 11:00 a.m. That gives us three hours to get the rooms ready for the next guest, for whom the check-in time is 2:00 p.m. The email we sent them the day before was very specific. It told them if they’d like to leave their bags here past the check-out time that they were welcome to do so. It also specifically said that if you do leave your bags here, you must pack them up, get them out of your room and leave them in our living room.
We tell guests that because we need them to get their stuff out of their bedrooms so we can clean the them while they’re gone. Then they can come back anytime later in the day to pick up their bags. And we couldn’t care less when they come back. The only thing we care about is that they get their back out of their rooms by 11:00 a.m. at the latest – and we make that very clear to them.
But these guests apparently thought all that was beneath them. It was beneath them to read our instructions and it was beneath them to have to follow any instructions. They arrogantly assumed that they could leave their bags in their room, occupying it, for the entire day, even though they hadn’t paid a single dime to have access to the room on their check-out day. So, instead they left their things in their room – unpacked. This prevented us from getting the room ready for the next guest who was checking in later the same day. If they had left their things in the room packed up – it wouldn’t have been a big problem as we could have easily moved them into the living room. It would have annoyed us, but it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But we couldn’t pack their bags for them. Not only to have a rule to never touch a guest’s belongings, but they had so much stuff, tons of stuff and it was strewn all over the room. We wouldn’t have wanted to get into that big job anyway! Nor, could we have ever figured out how they would like to have their things packed. And even if we could have, we wouldn’t.
They came back about five hours after their checkout time to pick up their bags – which would have been fine normally, except that in their case, they had so much stuff it took them two hours to get it all packed up and finally leave!
So, in essence, they occupied the room seven hours past the check-out time and couldn’t see any reason why we would be upset by that. The next guest was supposed to arrive seven and a half hours after the regular check-out time, which would have made it impossible for us to get the room ready for them in time. Fortunately, they were two hours late and we just barely made it.
But more amazingly, during that time, the wife and mother spent an hour in the shower (in the bathroom we had already cleaned for the next guest – making it necessary for us to clean it again). And then, as if that wasn’t enough, right before they left she started cooking something in the kitchen! Our guests are welcome to use our kitchen – but never after their checkout time! This was all completely against our posted policies. And it was against all common sense and common courtesy.
If your checkout time is 11:00 a.m. who would think it’s okay to come back at 4:00 p.m. and spend almost two hours fully utilizing everything offered by the Airbnb host? For some reason, they apparently thought that late bag pickup meant they still had the full use of our entire place for however long they might need it. They left us with barely enough time to get their room ready for the next guest who checked in very shortly after they left.
This happened about a year ago and I’m just now getting around to writing about it! We left them a scathing 1-star review and I just checked and saw they’ve haven’t used Airbnb since. So, a reminder to guests, treat your host poorly and get a bad review and few other hosts will accept your reservation. Treat your hosts the way this awful guest treated us and it will most likely be your last Airbnb experience ever.
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