Wifi/ internet Outage

[Kelmany1]

Hi, my internet went down while guests are here. The technician arrives tomorrow. It’s been off for two days total.  

We offer free wifi. We have a McDonalds down the street that provides free wifi. We instructed those who need it to call family to go there. I made sure to message everyone on the Airbnb app so I have clear history of how long it’s down.

Do I need to offer a discount for the days it’s down or leave it as is since it’s due to construction down the street?

Advice please.

Thanks 

[Jackie148]

Hi kelmany, things  out of our control happen you have informed and directed people to an alternative FREE service at McDonald's please don't let guests guilt trip you to give them a discount or refund some people play on it you have done the right and responsible action just my opinion Cheers jackie 😊 

[Sebastien175]

IKR, things out of our control happen like no hot water or no electricity you have informed and directed people to an alternative FREE lake where they can bathe or an alternative FREE power outlet in the neighbour's yard while it's raining please don't let guests guilt trip you to give them a discount or refund some people play on it you have done the right and responsible action just my opinion.

Why provide internet at all when there is a McDonald's nearby? They had planned a quiet night in after enjoying their vacation all day, they can just go watch a Netflix movie at McDonald's.

On a business trip? No problem! Just go make your conference call at McDonald's for FREE! Just don't mind the drunk teenagers. I'm sure the company wouldn't regret using AirBnB instead of an hotel with accountability and customer service.

General outage affecting a wide area is understandable but specific problems affecting only your service is completely different.

Fun Fact: Roaming data rates in a foreign country can easily end up costing more than the place itself.

Trying to raise self-awareness, one reply at a time. Cheers 😊

[Sebastien175]

IKR, things out of our control happen like no hot water or no electricity you have informed and directed people to an alternative FREE lake where they can bathe or an alternative FREE power outlet in the neighbour's yard while it's raining please don't let guests guilt trip you to give them a discount or refund some people play on it you have done the right and responsible action just my opinion.

Why provide internet at all when there is a McDonald's nearby? They had planned a quiet night in after enjoying their vacation all day, they can just go watch a Netflix movie at McDonald's.

On a business trip? No problem! Just go make your conference call at McDonald's for FREE! Just don't mind the drunk teenagers. I'm sure the company wouldn't regret using AirBnB instead of an hotel with accountability and customer service.

General outage affecting a wide area is understandable but specific problems affecting only your service is completely different.

Fun Fact: Roaming data rates in a foreign country can easily end up costing more than the place itself.

Trying to raise self-awareness, one reply at a time. Cheers 😊

[Sarah977]

@Sebastien175  When it comes to humans, there are the ones who are adaptable and those who aren't. The adaptable ones manage to have fun pretty much no matter what- everything's an adventure. The city water pumps fried in the mega storm 5 days ago so Sarah's almost out of water in her storage tank? Hey, let me help you hook up those 3 heavy 100 ft.hoses to attach to your friendly neighbor's outside faucet that runs off their well. And no problem, we can just go down to river to bathe in the meantime or stand under the water spout that drains the balcony when it rains this evening. How cool! This is a holiday we'll never forget.

Then there are the ones who need everything mapped out, need to know what to anticipate at any given moment, can't think outside the box and consider any adversity or unforeseen circumstance to be cause for dissatisfaction and complaint. 

Take a guess which ones I like. Take a guess which ones are happier people. Take a guess who'll be the survivors in a disaster situation.

[Ute42]

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Hi @Kelmany1 ,

I disagree on what @Jackie148 has said.

Wifi is one of Your listed amenities and it does not work. You will certainly agree, that it is more inconveniant for Your guest to go to a local McDonalds to get wifi compared to have it inhouse.

Lets make an example: You go to a restaurant and order fish and chips. Waiter comes, serves You, but on the plate there is only fish, no chips. Would You pay the full price for the meal? It does not matter what the reason for the absence of the chips is. Maybe the Chip delivery truck had an accident, maybe the 80 year old mother of the chef put the chips somewhere and she can't find them again. All that doesn't matter, the point is: There are no chips and that's it.

Conclusion: Your guest is entitled to a parcial refund of the rent. How big should that refund be?

And here's the meat. There are guests out there that check out, and after check out they claim 50% or even 100% of their rent back bc the wifi didn't work for 3 days. That of course is unacceptable.

Talk to Your guest now and come to an agreement on how to handle the situation. Maybe You can agree to a 10 to 20% discount for each day the wifi doesn't work, then document the agreement through the airbnb messanger and have Your guest confirm. If Your guest doesn't want to agree on anything, offer him or her to leave in exchange for a full refund of all nights not used, again through the messanger.

Finally an off topic question. You are renting Your room for $11 a night and offer 23 amenities including shampoo, heating, washer, aircondition, microwave, fridge and, quote: „Wifi Continuous access in the listing“. How can You make a profit or at least break even under these conditions?

[John1080]

@Kelmany1, I agree with @Ute42 here. If it's listed in the amenities, pariticuarly in an urban location, guests should expect it to work and if it doesn't, you should do something to make it up to them, whether that be a discount or a meal or something, you can decide depending on the guest.

Also, I took a look at your listing and see you're charging a very low rate and I too wonder how you're making any profit. I would compare surrounding properties and raise your price accordingly. 

[Sarah977]

@Ute0  For the first time ever, I disagree with you! Well, I disagree with your analogy. There have been many times I have gone to a restaurant, and been informed by the waiter that this and that,which is on the menu, is not available that night. That doesn't mean that I should get some form of compensation from the restaurant, only that I have to order something else. 

As Wifi is listed in the amenities, and it isn't working at the moment, considering that the place is $11/night,  I would hope that most guests would be understanding that it is not the host's fault and just go down the street to get a Wifi signal. Those that like to use any excuse to obtain a refund, well, as John says, treating the guests to a meal, or buying them a bottle of wine, as a goodwill gesture, would appease reasonable people.

[Kelmany1]

The good news is the internet company says they will compensate us so if the guests ask for money back the internet company is going to pay. 

As for pricing that’s what Airbnb recommended. Thanks for mentioning it because I am going to review the things we offer as amenities and raise the price

[Ute42]

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Hi @Kelmany1 ,

yes, good news that the internet company will compensate You. Did they say that or did they write that. And if so, did they say how much? Maybe it's only a credit of 50 cts per day.

By the way: This is the first time in my life that I hear that an internet company will reimburse customers for an outage. Normally a waver for internet outages is written across their TOS and the letters are bigger than Texas.

Again I suggest You come to an greement with Your guests regarding the wifi fail.

Don't take the airbnb price suggestions too serious. Noone does.

[David126]

This has come up before and I currently do show on my listing that I have Internet that Guests can use.

I do not charge for it, so there is nothing to rebate if I do not have it.

Costs about $1.50 a day and there are 4 rooms I rent and of course me, so if I did get a rebate it would be 30c each.

We all know that you can not rely on anything logical from AirBnB CS, I have read some horror stories and if that ever happens to me I wii jsut delete it from my listing, most Giests never read the details when the book anyway and if somebody asks I will tell them I have ot and do not charge but do not guarantee either.

To use the Chippy example, if I ordered fish and chips and then found out they were having issues with their wifif I would not expect a discount from my food. Maybe a free portion of mushy peas?

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Kelmany1

I host a private guest room in my home and I provide wifi - this is what I have in my "guest access" portion of the listing description. 

Internet/wifi service is primarily for hosts personal use and shared with guest during stay at no additional cost. Thus hosts cannot be held responsible for unsatisfactory internet connection but we've had no issues or problems to date.

I don't think you really need to refund money......but just a nice gesture or small gift of some sort to show that you are sorry the guests have to experience the inconvenience could be nice. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

hm... we offer free : parking, wifi, electricity, a/c, heating... I mean we do not charge extra for it ... but if heating wouldn't work guests would probably ask for some refund , I don't think my recomendation to go in McDonnalds to heat up would pass 🙂

but in your shoes I would not offer a refund for wifi if they wouldn't ask. You already offer more than you charge.

[Paul154]

@Kelmany1

Will your internet company refund you for the lost days?

If so, pass those 2 dollars onto the customer. 

Most likely the internet company will refund you nothing, cause bad things happen.

It's out of your control. When you say 'free wifi", it's assumed you are a layperson, not a pro.

A nice gesture on your part would be a $5/$10 card to MacDonald's. 

Don't let guests guilt trip you. "I'm just a humble innkeeper. I flunked Physics 🙂   "

[Marie21]

@Kelmany1 if u have option to buy a dongle with credit on it and have it for guests

i always have few dongle in case any wifi go off for any reasons 

but i refuse to give discount for anything is out of control and can happened in any resential situation, when it happened we need to fix it but not rush to give discount 

1 day i was staying somewhere and the boiler broke down and i needed to catch a flight i took my shower with cold water and never crossed my mind to ask for discount or compensation 

i think sometime we are creating a world of discounts for guests little bit too much as we so terrified if they complaint to ABB they will get 50% money back

[Antonio-Luis0]

If it happened on my apartment, I would sure do a discount on the stay. 10% off for each day Wifi ast not working maybe? I'd do the same if there was a temporary outage of water or electricity, even if it was not my fault directly. I would not wait for a customer to complain and ask for the discount, just offer them the discount directly.