What NOT to do as an Airbnb guest

1. Show up 4 hours before check-in time

My check-in time is 2 p.m. Check-out time is 11 a.m. The guests who just left had agreed by email to check-in at 2 but arrived at 10:30 am (all 5 of them) expecting to check-in.  They let themselves in just as the last guest was walking out the door. Not good.

2. Call with false complaints

10 hours later I got a panicked call and email from these same guests saying the heater wasn't working and the apartment was cold.  The weather outside was extremely cold so I was immediately concerned. I asked them to go to the thermostat and tell me what the temperature read.  70F (20C). This is a case where my programmable thermostat saved me.

3.  Call at 11 pm the night before check-out and ask if they could stay until 6 pm the next day

Well, at least they asked.  The answer was 'no.'

Kids are people too*? Maybe, says Airbnb

A while ago I had these 2 guests stay.  Well, at least that's what they booked the apartment for.  Then they showed up with their 2 young kids.  Now, I'm not opposed to letting young children stay for free if extra beds aren't needed.  But I do like to know who's staying.

So I asked Airbnb about it. Here's the transcript of our chat:

me: I had a recent guest reserve the apartment for 2 people. He and his wife arrived with 2 children, one an infant and the other a toddler of about 4. Are children not people? Usually, I have no problem letting people with children stay without extra charges but they always ask me about it first. This couple just showed up with the kids. What is airbnb's policy about this?


Lindsay W: Is your place listed as family friendly?

me: Yes (Turns out I was incorrect. It was NOT listed as family friendly)

Lindsay W: Airbnb doesn't have an official policy about this. It's up to the host. But since you've listed as Family Friendly, I'd just suggest that you write something in your listing's description that guests need to book for everyone, babies included

me: Does airbnb have a suggestion box? I'd like to suggest they have a separate drop down for people to list the number of children and change the People dropdown to Adults
Also, its not up to the host when the host doesn't know about it.

Lindsay W: We do! airbnb.com/feedback
Dialogue with our users is a core part of what makes Airbnb great. We value your feedback and it is important our our community
And yes, good point



My take-away from that conversation? It's the host's responsibility to tell guests they need to count their children. Which means, by default, that kids are NOT people too.

And I'm sticking by my suggestion which I did submit to them: that the booking form have fields for guests to report number of adults and number of children and their ages, just like what you're expected to do for hotels.

*You have to be an American of a certain age to have seen Kids Are People Too.

Airbnb Open - A Global Host event

Airbnb is holding a live-stream event on November 12 at 10 a.m. pst and plans to announce a new product aimed at hosts.  Wonder if it has anything to do with this.

If you want to attend, you'll need to order a 'ticket' which you can get on their Facebook event page.

Wait a minute Mr. Postman?

Can't blame the Postwoman for this one.

After guests checked out the other day, I went upstairs to start cleaning and found several pieces of my mail sitting on the table.  Weird, I thought. Why would guests pick up my mail?

Several hours later a friend contacted me. She hadn't yet gotten my RSVP to her wedding invitation.  What invitation?  I never got it.

After some checking, I realized that I also never received that month's water and cable bills.

That's too much of a coincidence for me.  The only conclusion is that guests have been picking up and throwing out my mail.  Now, why the hell would they do this?  Don't know but apparently it's another thing you shouldn't have to tell adults that I will now have to warn them about.