A guest is arriving at 1am. How to make a late check-in painless

Most check-in instructions are written by someone standing in the flat in daylight, who knows exactly where the door is. A guest arriving at 1am is in a taxi, tired, probably with a dead-ish phone, looking at a dark street for a door they've never seen. That gap is where late check-ins go wrong.

Get two facts as soon as you can

When a guest mentions they're arriving late, ask for:

• A rough arrival time. Not to hold them to it, but so you know whether "late" means 10pm or 3am.
• A phone number that works where they're travelling. Some guests' Airbnb numbers are home numbers that won't work abroad, or work numbers they won't check on holiday.

That's it. You don't need their flight number or an itinerary, just enough to know when to expect a message if something goes wrong.

Rewrite the instructions for the dark

Read your check-in message as if you were arriving at night. Things that are obvious in daylight disappear:

• "The blue door" is not blue under a streetlight.
• "Round the side" doesn't say which side.
• "The lockbox by the gate" is invisible if it's behind a bin.

Use landmarks that still work at night: "the door to the left of the lit shop sign", "the second gate after the lamp post". A photo of the door taken at night, if you can manage it, is worth more than a paragraph. Our check-in instructions template lays out the order that makes sense: how to find the building, how to get in, then where the key or code is.

Send the instructions on the day, a few hours before they set off. A message sent a week earlier is buried under booking confirmations by the time it matters. Our post on check-in messages guests actually read covers the timing in more detail.

Leave the lights on

A lit entrance does more for a late arrival than any message. If you can, set an outside light on a timer or a dusk sensor. Inside, leave one lamp on near the door so the guest isn't fumbling for a switch in an unfamiliar room.

If your cleaner finishes the turnover, add "leave hallway lamp on" to the checklist for nights with a late arrival. It's a two-second job that saves a guest standing in the dark.

Test the entry before they arrive

The night a lock fails is always the night someone arrives at 1am. The day before a late check-in, check:

• The lockbox opens with the code you've sent.
• The smart lock has battery and the guest code is active for the right dates.
• The key is actually in the lockbox.
• Any building door or gate code hasn't been changed by the landlord or managing agent.

If you can't check in person, ask your cleaner to try it at the end of the turnover.

Decide whether you'll pick up the phone

Be honest with yourself and the guest. If you're asleep at 1am, say so, and give them what they need not to need you: the full instructions, a photo of the door, and what to do if something doesn't work. A neighbour, co-host or nearby friend who can be called in a real emergency is worth arranging if you have one.

If you will be awake, say that too. "Message me when you're outside and I'll stay up until you're in" turns an anxious arrival into an easy one.

Make the first five minutes easy

A late guest wants three things once they're through the door: Wi-Fi, the bed, and where the bathroom is. Leave the Wi-Fi card somewhere visible from the entrance, not in a welcome book on a shelf. Make sure the heating isn't off in winter. Anything else, like house rules and checkout instructions, can wait until morning.

Check in the next morning

Send a short message the next morning: "Hope you got in OK. Let me know if you need anything." If something did go wrong overnight, this is your chance to hear about it before it turns up in a review.