Guest Cancelled on Arrival

[Daniel38]

Here is the context:

I have been hosting in this particular location for about a year. I am a Superhost. I almost never get bad reviews. 

My place is an old townhouse. Charming, if you will. I mention in the description that the floors are 140 years old. It is nice and clean and well-located, but if you are expecting all the lines to be square then it may not be the place for you.

Guests arrived last night. They had booked the place for 8 nights and they booked it months ago. They arrived and I suppose it wasn't their taste. They wanted a full refund. They came up with a lot of BS reasons. They took like ten pictures. One was a place where the floors were patched and the new board did not match the width of the old board. I'm not sure what they were trying to show with this. They complained that the attic was too hot, and that outside was 62. My listing says that the attic is not on the central heat/air and that there are Windows. In another they showed a picture of a corner where the paint was coming off with a caption "mouse?" There were no mouse droppings or hole or anything. It was just BS. Obviously, it wasn't what they expected and they kind of bullied their way out. 

I didn't want a bad review, so, I bargained with them and they paid a little over a night's stay. I didn't want Airbnb to adjudicate this because I don't know who they would side with in this instance. The cancellation policy would have made them pay half.  I won't make up the rest of the money ... I mean the next weekend I can fill, but it is doubtful this week will fill.

This morning I feel like a sucker. Has anyone else faced a similar situation and allowed Airbnb to resolve it. Who would they tend to side with in this kind of case?

[Brian345]

Agree, do what it takes to get them out. 

Just had a guest send me a long rambling text message, just after midnight, with false complaints including that the unit hadn't been cleaned and there were hairs all over the duvets. Also included the threat that they would not be able to give me a good review. This was around 10 hours after they checked in. Fortunately my phone was in sleep mode. 

I responded later in the morning asking for photographic evidence and suggesting they should vacate.

They chose to vacate. I did send them a refund for the 2 remaining nights on the basis that they would have no grounds for complaint. 

Close inspection of unit after they left revealed still spotlessly clean and no sign of any hairs.

I did contact Airbnb support (joke name - the last thing you will receive is support!). The first attempt by chat resulted in it being rejected as an old issue. The second attempt by phone had me talking to a man in the Philippines who has worked for Airbnb for  couple of months, didn't seem to understand the problem, and had a dog howling and whining in close proximity. Would be hilarious, if it wasn't so serious. Anyway he was going to accelerate the issue - haha!

I went to the Reservation/Booking and clicked on Report this Guest, which lead me to complaints that only a guest would make about a host and mainly seemed to be about protecting Airbnb's revenue.

[Daniel38]

What?! A guest has stayed in your place for 4 years and running? Is that correct? I feel for you. Laws in Australia must be different than here. 

[Louise1073]

The guests left your house, you got to keep some money for your effort, and you ended up not wasting too much time or stress dealing with them. So not the worst outcome… Remember to place some $$$ value on your own sanity and peace of mind!!

I am very curious to see what they leave as a review (if any). As a host I would definitely appreciate if you could communicate a warning in your review that this is a picky/difficult guest who will change their mind and cancel if they don’t like the look of a place.

[Huma0]

@Daniel38 

I really feel for you. I have an old house and I really, really try to communicate this in my listing descriptions. In fact, it's even in the titles, which all include 'Victorian house'. 

For most guests, this is a selling point and exactly why they book with me. However, sometimes you get guests that seem to expect something completely different from what you have described. 

I have had guests down rate me on cleanliness, stating in their feedback that the floors were not clean. The floors had just been vacuumed and mopped before they arrived. That was not the problem. While they were here, they complained that the Victorian floorboards creaked.

The worst though (my guests from hell), complained about anything and everything that they could, although at no point during their eight day stay did they indicate that they would like to leave. Instead, they made full use of every amenity that they could, and also plenty of my personal stuff that is not offered to guests.

In their review, they stated that the house was 'dangerous' and a 'building site'. This is simply untrue. If it was true, why did no other guests mention it? I work from home and have a small area where I kept my crafting tools, e.g. chalk paints and brushes for up cycling furniture and some rolls of wallpaper nicely stored in pretty baskets. This is what they described as 'building materials' and 'dangerous'. ????!!!! WT???

I don't know what advice to offer you. The guests are gone and the refund has been offered. Whilst it sounds like your guests were in the wrong and didn't deserve a refund, in hindsight I wish I had asked those awful guests to leave rather than be subjected to eight of the worst days of my life!

[Daniel38]

What a story. It is hard to know what lines to draw in the heat of the moment. But, yes, you should have asked them to leave. 

[Inna22]

My policy is not to purchase reviews with refunds