Dear fellow hosts -
I have been an airbnb host for the past seven years, running a small seasonal glamping site at the back of our garden. I am a superhost and have over 340 reviews, averaging 5*.
This morning I got a refund request from the guests who stayed in one of our bell tents for 10 nights. Rather inconveniently, I am away at the moment on a rare family holiday, having a friend of mine managing the site. The guests stayed for 10 nights. My friend checked on them daily, asking if everything is ok, if they need anything etc etc. No complaints, comments, requests during their stay whatsoever.
After checking out they complain about three issues, claiming the inaccuracy of my listing.
1: The mattress is not big enough being a double mattress in the king size frame or something along the lines. There is a small gap between the mattress and the bed frame but no guest of about 200 has ever mentioned that before.
2: We used to have a wood fired outside bath but due to a flooding last year we had to abandon it as a bath and filled it with herbs instead. I’ve also taken the ad for the bath off my listing but I guess they must have seen it on my listing beforehand.
3: And most importantly, being the only comment that actually worries me - as they were leaving they stripped the beds and found a small patch of mould on the mattress corner. They say their daughter has asthma and the mould aggravated her situation and she had to use additional medication for the last couple of days.
There was nothing wrong with the mattress when I set up for the season in May and I can only assume the mould has appeared due to the mattress being in the tent, in a naturally humid and warm situation.
The guest has requested £500 refund from the total of £820 for their ten nights stay.
She emailed me via Airbnb yesterday, complaining about these issues. I responded in what I think in a very sympathetic and apologetic way. 15 minutes after my email she put her refund request through without responding to my email.
So - what would you do? Pay all? Pay some? Pay none?
This has never happened before and I have no idea how Airbnb resolution Center would deal with the case. In favour of the guest as it’s always an easier option?
All help and advice much appreciated,
Tuuli