I booked a couple with no reviews. I have booked folks with no reviews before and usually everything goes very well. After they showed up at 12:30 AM to check in (I do not have 24-hour check in), the woman mentioned to her partner that the place looked too nice, almost like it would have been a problem running something by me because the place wasn’t a dump. I stood there and observed carefully their interaction as they arrived.
The gentleman then left at 1:00 AM and returned at 10:00 AM the next day to slam the door as hard as a human being can slam a door. I gulped. I sat there saying to myself, “you wanted to be a host, here you go…”
They then hibernated in the room after that; they hardly went to the bathroom or out for food. Another thing that was odd since people dont come to New York City to hibernate for two days. They went to their alleged wedding and showed up at 5:00 AM. Checkout is at 11:00 AM.
At one hour before checkout, the guy said: “Hi there. Can I talk to you? Is it okay if we stay here untill our flight leaves? We would have to sleep in the airport and don’t really know when the flight leaves. We still haven’t seen the city at all and would love to go to the Statue of Liberty.”
Mind you it was one hour before checkout. I said, “Well, you can stay until 3:00 PM.” Then the little voice in my head said, “You do know if you let them stay past their checkout time without a paid reservation you will probably need the police to get them out of your house?”
I knocked on their door again and said, “I just spoke to Airbnb and they told me I would have legal problems if I allow you to be here past the checkout time since another guest is coming in.” I knew there was no guest coming that evening, but I wanted to be polite and very firm.
Then he said, “But you are the host. I thought I would come talk to you instead of going through the site.”
“You didn’t come to me to make a reservation. You used Airbnb to contact me and book for you. We don’t have anything else to talk about; everything has to go through Airbnb.”
The woman inside the room farted. They placed a call to someone and said, “My wife is nervous about this.” My walls are paper thin and I can hear air as it moves. I was now in the kitchen and they were leaving. He dropped his suitcase, nervous as can be. I shook their hands and said, “I totally apologize for not being able to help you stay past checkout, but it’s hard to do that between reservations.”
They left, and the door closed behind them. I wonder if telling the next hosts these scam artists are worth dealing with. I have no idea what type of a review they might leave me, but in all honestly, I trully dont care. He never looked me in the face as he asked me if they could stay past checkout.
It seems the inexperienced host has allowed paranoia to cloud their judgment about the mentioned guests. These guests were in no way scammers. My recommendations to new hosts is to travel both near and far as an airbnb guest to become more open minded and culturally competent.
Real grey zone to deal with a request and Airbnb is not involved. I have to side with the inexperienced host that erred on the side of caution, instead of regret..
Try staying at any hotel past checkout… You were polite, I wouldn’t have been.
How were they scam artists?
What do you call anyone giving you a story an hr before checkout, on why they should continue to be there for free?
The scam artist here is clearly you. This is why people should go to hotels or B&B. No nosy hosts who spy on you and get back on their word.
Actually the issue seems to be they tried to stay past the time they booked, and then it would have been outside airbnb’s hands and a real problem. No host wants something like that. ever.
What’s the issue here? Getting aroused when eavesdropping on guests? Get a life and don’t host illegally on Airbnb New York.
I don’t hear that said individual hosted the entire apt for 28 days ( while they were not present in the apt ) and then the guest tried to stay free.. You need to know what the f legal means before opening your pie hole..