I tried searching for this topic, so I apologize if this has been brought up before. Are guests alerted by peerspace through a notification or text when they are approaching the end time of their reservation? For example, if a guest booked a space until 8 pm, would an alert be sent an hour or 30 mins before their end time reminding them that they’re approaching their departure time? I think this feature would help prevent overstaying. I do (as a best practice) remind guests the day of the event their departure time, but it would be nice during an event for this notification to occur. The next best thing would be to have the guests direct phone number so they can be notified that way as another backup option. Thoughts?
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Hi Stacy, I recommend getting cellphone numbers for two people in attendance. First, a person designated as responsible for the booking. This will typically be the person who booked the venue, but they are not always present, so they need to designate a primary contact on site.
And that person should designate their #2, a person who is helping to host the event. For example, a woman books your space for her own baby shower. Hopefully there is someone who is managing the event so the guest of honor can relax and enjoy themselves.
Get cell numbers and stress that one or both of them need to be reachable at all times during the event, in the interest of ensuring they have a great experience. Send them a test text so they have your number in their phone and can reach you if the sound system stops working, something is wrong with the air conditioning, etc.
And you need someone you can reach in case of a complaint from a neighbor, or anything that might come up, including a check-in before their end time. I would check in by text an hour before to see if they might need additional time, or to stress they must start wrapping up if there is a hard out. Here you can remind them, yet again, that overtime is billed at $XXX/half hour.
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I agree it would be nice if PeerSpace sent out a reminder at the end of a booking as they already do prior to the rental starting. I always get a cell number and text or call them 20 min prior to finishing to check if they want to extend (since I don’t always stay on-site). The problems occur when they don’t answer their phones, and aren’t paying attention to the time (even though we have a big digital clock on the wall). A Peerspace reminder might not help any more, but it would add an added layer for the guest to be notified.
I’m often showing up at the end of the rental time and the guests haven’t even started cleaning up. I usually give them a 15-20min grace period to clean (since I need to clean up too, but will charge an extra 30min if they take longer than 25min to vacate (and I’m lenient on this if they are just staying because they are waiting on a ride, or if they stayed longer because we got engaged in an interesting conversation).
Just my two cents.
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Cool idea! I always check in about an hour before the end time to see how it’s going - on time to wrap? Often they are early…I too give a 15 minute grace period before I add in any OT that I send to Peerspace. My clients all seem (so far) to get that.
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Hi @Stacy_M thanks for the helpful feedback. While we currently do not have a notification that gives guests a “heads up” that their booking is ending within 30 minutes, we do send notifications to guests immediately upon end time of the booking letting them know it is over and prompting them for feedback on how it went. This notification gets sent in app, via email, and via SMS (if they have opted to receive notifications this way).
I will pass on this feedback to our team about additional ways to notify guests about end times and impending overtime as a result.
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Thank you all for your responses! I understand why Peerspace doesn’t give out guest cell phone numbers, but it would be nice if it were an option so at least we wouldn’t have to ask for them. I’m not onsite for my bookings but I can see on the security cameras if guests are in the process of cleaning up or not. They’re not necessarily logging into peerspace either to see if I sent them any messages, which is why having access to their cell phone number would help, unless peerspace builds an alert feature (and that way it still protects from cell phone numbers being shared between host/owner). My last event, for example, was supposed to vacate by 9:30, but by 9:45 pm, they hadn’t even started cleaning! I had no way to contact them as they wouldn’t be looking at peerspace during that time. They didn’t vacate until 10:45pm and never bothered to notify me or message for more time, which I certainly would have accommodated. I even asked before the booking if more time would be needed, and the guest declined but still proceeded to overstay. When I charged for the overtime, the guest justified it because “cleaning took longer and didn’t arrive until 6pm” 
. They gave me a one-star review as a result when I’ve done nothing but go out of my way for this client. I just think an alert like this would be helpful, and I would be interested in being a beta-tester if that’s an option.
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I do think it would be a nice option to have Peerspace message guests 15-30 min prior to finishing a rental period to ask if they’d like to extend their rental time (if feasible). Might make the communication easier than each host needing to call/text the guests themselves to ask. A customer could just have a notification with one button to push for extra 30min, or 60min, etc. As long as it wouldn’t create an overlap booking (which could be adjusted by the host).
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That’s a good point about adding extra time as long as the time is available and it doesn’t interfere with the buffer time in between events or the closing time. It would need to be built in a way where the buffer time is still available (in my case) between events so that events are not bumping up against each other and that time cannot be extended past the closing time (in my scenario, our building must be vacated by 11 so I wouldn’t want a guest adding extra time then).
Hi @Leon_S,
I understand! As a host, let them know you have someone after the moment you do the intro/walkthrough. I usually send a message 30 mins before reminding them.
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Just responding here to bump this topic back up.
I always find it awkward to knock on the door of a meeting to remind them that their time is up.
It would be great if Peerspace could automate this to remind them 15 minutes before that their time is coming to an end.
Otherwise, I just guess I need to get better at saying, “Uhhh… could you please leave now?” 
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Agree! It would provide a great guest experience if an automated text message alerted them on their phone that the reservation is coming to an end and to allow enough time for takedown before their check out time, and it’s in their best interest to avoid overtime fees.
Have there been updates on this feature and if Peespace is exploring it? As hosts, it would be really helpful and especially now that the service fee has increased, this would be a nice feature to justify adding to help make the hosts’ process easier and more efficient.
I used to stress about reminding guests that their time is coming to an end. I stopped doing that and now charge the OT without reminders. I don’t feel “bad” or responsible if the guest didn’t follow the listing details that were clear on the booking details before their arrival. That said, I would welcome your suggestion for Peerspace to send an automated message to the guests about booking coming to an end.
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I feel similarly. If guests can’t keep track of the time, it’s on them. Especially productions.
For DIY events I’ll send reminder the guest about an hour out from end time, but after it’s their responsibility
I like it when they need to stay extra, or don’t finish in time. I want them to find more to create on the property. It is challenging to know, and schedule exactly how long it takes get a scene to work. I usually don’t schedule productions so close it becomes a problem. I hope for them to stay extra.
Do you worry about a poor review though as a result for charging the overtime? I’ve had that happen to me and customers then dispute it and threaten to write a bad review, even though I verify proactively that they understand they are paying for time. Despite that, they seem to forget what they read or agreed to and then make me feel awful for charging for the extra time. Thoughts? Thank you!
I no longer worry about a retaliatory negative reviews but I am human and do feel bad if the guest is not satisfied but the rules are the rules, as long as it is clear for all parties prior to the booking you likely won’t have an issue. And, if someone does leave a retaliatory review, message PS; bring it to their attention and they may remove it. Also, I believe reviews are not weighted as much compared to the abnb’s and Vrbo’s. In my region its rare to see less than a 5 star review for both guests and hosts.
Don’t ever feel bad about charging OT, especially to a professional video/photo crew. They know exactly what they pay for and know how to push the boundaries.
I do usually remind them though. If it is about 20 minutes to their end time and they are still shooting and haven’t even started packing up gear yet, then I will politely remind the contact that are approaching the end and OT is going to kick in. My space has a high rental rate so I don’t like to ‘surprise’ them (have them act like they are surprised). I usually want to get out of there too! Some of these crews will act like they have until the last minute to shoot and the load out is not part of the rental. They absolutely know better. They are BSing.
We are a production company ourselves and also rent our studio… nothing bugs me more than unprofessional crews that pull this BS. But they are definitely out there and will try to take advantage of a host who seems a little unseasoned in the business. Don’t feel bad about charging the OT. Every second on a shoot costs money in every way… crew, talent, location.