So you’ve done all your research and you’ve determined your area is a good fit for Airbnb home shares. You’ve completed Step1 – Creating Your Listing, Step2 – Set the Scene and Step 3 – Get Ready for Guests! of the account and listing set up process. You’ve prepped your place and bought all the necessary items as listed on the Getting Started page. You struggled through the cumbersome task of setting up your Airbnb account to make sure you were advertising your place as attractively and as honestly as possible as to attract guests, but not disappoint. Now what? Well, you let that listing go live and you wait…. Just who is going to be your first guest? And how will you prepare for that first guest arrival?
My very first encounter with welcoming an Airbnb guest was quite a strange one. In my situation we rushed getting the home ready as soon as possible because we were eager to get this thing started. We wanted to take full advantage of the major events were happening in the area. After much prep (cleaning, remodeling, selecting furniture, etc.) we managed to have the property ready in time for the Saturday that hosted the first major weekend of the year. I activated the site to go live. Waited, waited.. Actually just for an hour or so and I got my first hit.
The mystery of the first Airbnb guest
A single man booked the very first listing. The questions zoomed through my mind. What to say? What to expect? Who was this person? Was it going to be weird having some random dude in my place with just me? Well there was no way to predict how this whole home share thing was going to truly feel until he showed up!
My guest arrived and happened to be working the event. He said he only needed the room for the night as he only had the weekend shift. He mentioned he was going to be working for the night and would be coming back quite late. I showed him to his room and he took a shower. I thought, “ok, that was simple enough”.
The fastest guest turnaround
Shortly after his shower he left for work. He told me he would be back after his shift. A few hours later I received a very strange message from him on Airbnb. He claimed that he was going to be getting off early. My very first overnight guest no longer needed the room and wanted to know if he could get his money back. He offered to pay me via Venmo for the cleaning fee for using the shower.
Being that this was my very first guest I had no clue how to take it. Was my accommodation that bad that it had sent someone running out of here? What was the real reason that he didn’t want to stay? I didn’t think it was common place to give someone their money back. Because host success on Airbnb is based on a ratings system I needed to be very delicate with this matter.
Additionally, the fact that he was my very first guest I was scared to death of starting my hosting journey with a low rating for my very first gig. Anything less than a 5 star review can taint your future success and decrease future bookings. I didn’t exactly want to force someone to stay at my home if they didn’t want to, but I had provided my end of the bargain. It was not my fault that his plans had changed. How could I have prepared for a first guest experience like this?
How to handle a strange guest encounter?
I ultimately refunded him his money and canceled his reservation. The threat of a crappy review loomed over me and I just didn’t want to take the risk of dealing with that on day one. Oddly enough, after refunding him, he did end up Venmo-ing me my cleaning fee. Such an odd experience, but I figured I had more (and hopefully better) bookings to come in the future. Luckily, within the hour I received a new booking for that same room. In the end, I am glad I gave him his money back, but I guess I’ll never know what the true story was behind this odd experience.