If you do not make the check-in window, which to be honest was reasonable, you will be a very unhappy customer. No need to read further if your itinerary goes as planned and you arrive on-time. I booked a stay at Alexandra’s place for 2 nights. On the day of the first night, I notified the host a couple of hours in advance that I would be arriving an hour outside the check-in time window. Once she was aware of this fact, my entire 2 nights reservation was canceled (I would have liked to stay at least the 2nd night), inconveniently leaving me frustrated to figure out accommodations at 1am in the morning, and pushing off dealing with me directly to Airbnb support. As consolation, Airbnb did give me a full refund. However, this left a bad taste in my mouth at how inflexible and dogmatic this host was. As a highly rated long-time customer of Airbnb who has used its service on many occasion both domestically and internationally, I was surprised at how poorly I was treated. The Airbnb host couldn’t be bothered to wait an additional hour for me to arrive? Knowing that unexpected events do occur and people may arrive late, the host should keep top of mind that great service is when you go above and beyond for your customer. In this case, the host just operated under normal procedures because it was clearly easier for her to do so.
PROS:
1. Great location, can’t be beat
2. Very reasonable prices
3. Communicative and responsive host
CONS:
1. Convoluted check-in process that requires them to send you a link for the entirety of the directions because the directions are pretty long. The process also requires the host to physically meet with you to exchange a parking pass. I’m not sure why she couldn’t stick the pass into a lockbox and have another mailbox in the condo to drop it off upon departure.
2. Inflexible check-in window and host. If you arrive outside the time window, life will suck for you and she will likely cancel your entire reservation, leaving you frustrated to figure out accommodations. Your reputation as a historically great Airbnb guest isn’t factored into their decision to cancel the entire reservation on you last minute.