How should hosts handle guest emergencies?

Have a plan written down before you need one, because the middle of a real emergency is the worst time to improvise. Sort incidents by how fast they have to move: life-safety first (fire, gas, a medical situation) where the guest calls the local emergency number immediately and everything else waits; then active property damage like a burst pipe, where the priority is stopping the water before you worry about the repair; then lockouts and dead locks; then comfort stuff like no hot water, which needs a workaround now and a fix soon.

The groundwork is boring and it's what saves you. Post local emergency numbers plus your plumber, electrician, and locksmith somewhere the guest can find them. Keep a backup way into the property for when the smart lock dies at 1am. Know what your rental insurance actually covers before you're testing it. And make sure a guest in trouble can always reach a human fast.

That last part is where a concierge earns its place. It can catch the emergency words a guest actually uses (fire, flooded, gas, locked out, someone's hurt) and page you straight away on WhatsApp or Telegram rather than leaving it as an ordinary message, while giving the guest the immediate safety steps and the right local number in their own language so nobody's frozen waiting for you to wake up.

The one rule that matters more than any framework: never brush off a genuine emergency, whatever the hour. Acknowledge it and act. A guest who felt looked after in a crisis forgives almost anything; one who felt abandoned tells everyone.