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Post by queenie&ted on Mar 10, 2016 2:48:54 GMT
9:46 PM and I have not heard anything from the guest who is supposed to check in tonight! I've been messaging/emailing him since yesterday and not a word in response. Oh well. My house is clean for the weekend now!
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Post by andrew on Mar 10, 2016 3:16:03 GMT
I'd just send a follow-up message saying: "I'll only be available to check you in until XX:00 PM. If you are unable to arrive this point, please contact me in the morning to make further arrangements."
There could be something like a flight delay, but a conscientious guest would get an airport hotel for the night in this situation.
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Post by queenie&ted on Mar 10, 2016 3:23:51 GMT
Good idea Andrew.
The guest was a local, spending just the one night. Lives about 20 minutes away but wanted to be on this side of the river (a big deal during rush hour) for a conference tomorrow. Could have decided that sleeping in his own bed is worth the extra hour in the car in the morning.
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Post by queenie&ted on Mar 10, 2016 3:34:54 GMT
Sent this message: Our normal check-in time is between 4 PM and 10 PM. I'm still up so I'll be available to check you in until 11:00 PM. After that, we will not be able to accommodate you this evening.
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 10, 2016 3:53:56 GMT
I think that's a good plan, Queenie. I will generally offer to put keys out for the guest to let themselves in, but not if they don't respond to my messages and even bother to tell me that they are coming!!
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Post by queenie&ted on Mar 10, 2016 5:31:05 GMT
Finally got a response from my guest. He's in a motel! Says he was at my house from 5-7 PM then left and got a hotel room. I told him I've been home since 3PM and no one rang the door bell or came within 200 feet of the house or the dogs would have barked. I finally got him to tell me where he was parked and it turns out to be several blocks away. He picked a house based on the map! Seems he did not get a full itinerary so no street address, no phone number to call me. Even though he should have been getting my messages to him and he could have responded with 'where are you?'
I just got off the phone with Airbnb to let them know this has happened. First words out of their mouths, 'do you want to give him a refund?' Er, no. The room was available and I was waiting. Airbnb messed up and did not provide the guest with a full itinerary. They asked me what I wanted to do and I said I want to keep my well-earned payment and you should give the guest a credit since he has now paid twice for the same night. So now I've been escalated to a case manager. Dealing with airbnb is harder than hosting.
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Post by andrew on Mar 10, 2016 12:47:49 GMT
Interesting! Now that you mention it, all of my recent guests have asked me for directions and my address, even though I include all that info in what is supposed to appear in their itinerary. I need to start asking what they're actually getting in their confirmations.
Airbnb usually doesn't disclose to hosts how they resolve matters with guests, but let us know what you find out!
And I agree, dealing with guests is much easier than dealing with Airbnb.
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Post by queenie&ted on Mar 10, 2016 14:25:51 GMT
I received an email from an Airbnb case manager stating that I would be paid in full due to my cancellation policy. No mention of what they're going to do for the guest.
I'm adding a step in my pre-checkin process to make sure the guest has my address and phone number. Like you, my last few guests have asked me for my address. I wrote it off to them being first timers. I wonder if it's that they're using their phones and the complete itinerary isn't coming through on the app?
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 10, 2016 14:37:24 GMT
I recently booked a reservation as a guest (for my upcoming vacation), and indeed, I was unable to get a full itinerary. THis didn't used to be the case -- my previous time as a guest, the itinerary I printed out was much like the one I got as a host. But recently, the itinerary I got was shorter. At the top, it had check in and check out times, then the address, then the total amount paid. Then the host's phone number is to the right. Below, it has DIRECTIONS to the place (which host has to put in on the page of manage listing titled "location") and then below that is house rules. THe house manual doesn't show up anymore , on the guest itinerary! No house manual could be found anywhere I tried, as a guest. I have no idea if that's because my host doesn't have a house manual, but it wasn't there.
By the way, here's a pic of the Airbnb listing I'lll be staying in on my upcoming vacation -- a little brown RV on a 100 acre ranch -- it's called the "Hershey Bar" at Gnome Woods!!
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Post by andrew on Mar 10, 2016 16:41:30 GMT
I wrote to CX to check on this and got these responses:
I then asked if Directions and House Manual were still appearing in the Itinerary, and whether that would also be the case on the App. His response:
So, my understanding here is that the House Manual and Directions no longer appear in the email sent after booking, but and are not accessible from the App, but do appear for users who can load the site from a computer. (Unfortunately not very useful for travellers on-the-go, who would benefit from having the directions in a format they can view on their phones).
Deborah, would you mind checking if all the relevant data appear in your confirmation on the Desktop version?
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 10, 2016 16:53:20 GMT
ANdrew, I almost never use the app for anything but sending messages to guests, so what I mentioned I saw, was on the desktop version. WHen I go the desktop and look on the full site and go to "my trips" and look at my upcoming trip, all I see is what I mentioned in the previous message -- no house manual is on there at all. In fact I clicked all over and was unable to find house manual info anywhere, so I have absolutely no wifi info (which is the thing usually included in the house manual). I went to my past trip and same thing -- it has directions and house rules, but no house manual info available anywhere.
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Post by andrew on Mar 10, 2016 16:59:51 GMT
It could be that this particular host has no House Manual, too!
Does your confirmation email for the past trip have Directions, or did you have to log in to the site to find them?
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 10, 2016 17:02:55 GMT
Currently the confirmation/reservation for the past trip is of the same style as that for the new trip, containing only directions and house rules. (It does have both) I don't believe it looked like that last August when I booked it, though. I seem to recall that it looked more like the reservation form that I have always gotten as a host.
Considering that directions is a little harder for hosts to find on their listing (it's on location page) than the house manual (which is on basics page) I would assume that hosts who have directions also have done a house manual. It's possible both my hosts don't have house manuals but not likely.
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Post by andrew on Mar 10, 2016 17:07:18 GMT
Most of the hosts I've stayed with didn't have manuals. My main concern here is that guests have to be at a computer to view the directions. If they appear in the email that's sent when they book, at least that's something they can access from their mobile devices. In all of my past bookings as a guest, the relevant details were in the email, so I didn't have to go to the site to find the property.
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 10, 2016 17:11:38 GMT
I wont' be able to find my confirmation email from my August trip as that was too long ago -- nor even the one for the upcoming trip as that is buried too far down now in my email account.
However I got a reminder Email a few days ago, about my upcoming Airbnb stay, and in it, there was a link "view itinerary"> When I went to my iphone and found that email there and clicked on that link from the app, I was able to see directions and house rules, same as on the main desktop site.
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