Guest cancelled booking "because the property had no furniture"

[Manksco0]

This is the second Air BnB booking to go wrong in, well let's see, two bookings.

The guest has cancelled "because the apartment has no furniture". Air BnB has sent me a condescending email, saying that notes have been put on our account and that our pay out has been reduced.

The thing is, the property is fully furnished and no one has contacted us to tell us otherwise!

I suspect that the guest has somehow managed to gain access to the wrong apartment. We do have one in the building that is undergoing refurbishment. However, no one from Air BnB, nor the guest have contacted me to query the situation and the directions to the apartment were quite clear.

Our last booking went wrong too, when Air BnB cancelled a guest booking in error. It took hours to resolve and I am still not sure that we will receive our full pay out.

It is almost like we've entered a parallel universe where none of the usual rules apply. Is this what we have to look forward to if we continue to use Air BnB? I have never come across anything quite like it.

[Anonymous]

@Manksco0  Your listing confuses me. The text description says one of your images is a "stock photo" (?!) while one of your actual photos just depicts an empty, unfurnished room. So either your home is truly not ready for guests, or you haven't bothered to update your listing to show that it is. I can't begin to imagine why you decided to take a listing live in this state, instead of waiting until the home was a complete and desirable accommodation. But no one in their right mind would choose it as-is, so of course your first guests have not been great ones.

There are a lot of problems with Airbnb, but your particular problems have nothing to do with that. If you want a better experience, pause your listing, put some thought into the experience you're trying to create for your guests (hint: hospitality is not just sticking some furniture into a sad empty room), re-shoot the photos, and if you have any upcoming guests, meet them in person on arrival instead of making them find their own way through your building. 

[Manksco0]

Thanks for your response Andrew.

Yes, the second bedroom is now furnished but there has been no suitable gap between guests to do new photos. Yesterday's guest booked in the knowledge that they had not seen up to date snaps, as have a number of previous and future guests.

The photo of the empty room was to show the size, really.

You say that "no one in their right mind" would choose the apartment, but we have plenty of enquiries and bookings. So either we are getting contact from people who are out of their minds, or people who are quite happy with our ad!

Pre-Air BnB we never had any complaints about stock photos, providing the accommodation was as good or better than the photos. Hotels rarely show a photo of the exact room a guest will stay in. The law in the UK for guests in serviced apartments almost requires that a guest is not hiring a specific apartment. I won't bore you with the details unless you would particularly like me to.

As for meeting guest in person, unfortunately I don't have staff to meet people at midnight, 3am etc. which is what guests require often. But I would expect anyone of average intelligence to be able to go a building, open the key safe and locate the second floor.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of our advert, though, if a guest turns up and says there is no furniture I would expect them or Air BnB to contact me to ask what is going on. There was no attempt at contact from either of them.

I am going to go over to the property later to check that no one has emptied it of furniture. My best guess remains, however, that the guest has either not been to the apartment at all or otherwise somehow managed to access an empty unit on a floor other than the one they were directed to.

[Helen3]

I think you might be a little confused - there is no law in the UK which says that a guest is not hiring a specific apartment @Manksco0 . You need to provide them with the accommodation as advertised. 

I'm not sure why you wouldn't have taken a photo of the room furnished once this had been done.

How would the guest have been able to access another apartment?

I agree Airbnb should have contacted you first if the guest had indicated the apartment wasn't as advertised.

I agree with @Anonymous  do reshoot your photos when you go over and make sure you have a more detailed description of the accommodation and what amenities are available within the listing.

[Manksco0]

Helen

Not confused at all. Not guaranteeing a specific unit is one of the ways of defending a claim of tenancy. It's why hotels have and exercise "lift and shift" clauses. It's more complicated than that, but that is why I made that comment. It is also more of a risk with self-contained apartments than property partly occupied by the owner. We had someone try this some time ago, by the way. 

It wasn't re-photographed because there was no gap between bookings. But I am going over there shortly and unless someone has removed every stick of furniture I will take some more photos myself.

The non-contact is the nub of the issue, though. The apartment is absolutely as described, or was when we left it on Thursday. We were not given the chance to resolve the problem, which may just have been a matter of asking the guests to check that they were indeed on the second floor.

Another point that may feed into this is that we had no contact from the guest ahead of check-in. I contacted them to give access instructions. With every successful booking we have ever had guests have asked about access, before we have offered that information, or at least messaged us about SOMETHING. This time, zip.

I am not, by the way, suggesting that we have done everything right here. Air BnB is a new thing for us, and we are learning, but I don't think we are fundamentally responsible for this situation.

[Helen3]

Sorry but I do think you are confused about our laws. @Manksco0 

People do not get tenancy rights in the UK unless they have been resident for three months or more so this is not a concern for STR.

If you offer specific accommodation for short term rentals then you need to provide exactly what you advertised.

You are not a hotel offering rooms you are offering a short term rental as advertised for a specific property.

By the way of course you had a gap between bookings - you have this when you turn over a property and could have taken the photos when the accommodation was prepared.

[Manksco0]

Hi Helen

Please point me to the legislation that says occupancy has to be for over three months for it to become a tenancy.

Nothing would have changed if we had taken a photo of the second bedroom between the last stay and this one, because the guest had already booked. However I have now taken some more snaps.

I have just been to the property and it is fully furnished as it was left. Nothing has been touched.

[Anonymous]

@Manksco0  One point I think you might be missing here is that if a guest complains that furniture is missing, a listing photo showing the room unfurnished is all the evidence they need to get a refund. That would also be the case if they never checked in at all.

We are constantly hearing from new hosts who jump the gun with incomplete listings, get a lot of bookings quickly due to the temporary new-listing boost in search results, and then find that all the first guests are problematic. By the time they finally get their act together and sharpen up the listing, that search boost has expired, and the host wonders why suddenly they're not getting booked anymore. You are currently making the same mistake.

[Manksco0]

@Anonymous

To be clear the second bedroom was showing as unfurnished, however it has since been furnished. The guest was claiming the whole apartment was unfurnished.

I have asked the guest for photos to support this claim but none have been forthcoming.

I sent Air BnB photos taken this morning evidencing a fully furnished apartment.

[Anonymous]

@Manksco0  I guess I'm talking to a brick wall here, but I really don't think you're in a good position to be fighting for a payout on this very unsuccessful booking. When you've got a fully completed listing and an established reputation with lots of great reviews, you can make a solid case that you delivered exactly what was advertised and the guest was in the wrong. But you're not there yet, so this is a really dumb hill to die on. 

I'm sure the guest bears much of the responsibility for this stay not working out, but trying to keep their money when you failed to prevent this SNAFU is a dead end. If I were in your shoes here, I'd be redirecting that energy into making the listing airtight and organizing a much more thorough and personalized check-in experience for the upcoming guests to earn the great reviews needed to move forward. 

[Manksco0]

@Anonymous 

You aren't talking to a brick wall, I am listening. We thought the situation was fool proof, it turned out not to be. We take responsibility for that and need to make sure that it is impossible to mess up in future.

With regard to the personalised check-in. The guest has now contacted me. They arrived at 2:30am. How would you suggest a personalised check in experience at that time? 

Positive reviews: Both guests who with failed stays have written us good reviews. They know that we were not to blame, clearly.

@Helen3 do you have a source for your comment about guests not gaining tenancy rights until 3 months? We aren't aware of any legislation saying that, but stand to be corrected.

[Helen3]

Actually you are correct it has to be over six months to have an ASL and tenancy rights @Manksco0 

although I have seen others claim three months .

if it was as easy to claim tenancy rights as you state for STRs   - there would obviously be many more claiming tenancy rights by staying in an STR for a few nights .

I suggest you speak to a property lawyer to clarify the position. 

[Manksco0]

@Helen3

You've got that completely wrong I am afraid.

As for speaking to a property lawyer, we have one working for us at the moment. In two weeks time he will be in court with someone who is in one of our short-term rentals, and who has tried to claim a tenancy.

Which is why I am a great deal more familiar with the law than I would prefer to be.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Helen3 Please do let us know where the 3 month figure comes from. I still can't find any UK legislation that suggests tenancy rights exist after 3 months. The closest I have come to finding out the UK situation is an insurance company document that suggests 6 months

[Helen3]

Hi @Mike-And-Jane0 

you are right there are references to six months for AST 

tenancy rights certainly don't apply to STR as @Manksco0  believes.

i have seen references to three months stays having tenancy rights but other references saying six months so it is confusing 

what is clear though is that tenancy rights don't apply to short term rentals .