How to handle a guest that request a refund after his stay is complete with bogus claims

[Craig633]

We have a guest that is requesting a refund of 1 night for totally bogus reasons which he did not mention during his stay - he waited until he got home from his trip to say anything.                                                                                                              

1. He said the heater downstairs was not working and it got very cold at night.  Once his group checked in, he called to let us know that the thermostat downstairs would not come on.  My husband told him that the thermostat may need to be charged and that we would send our maintenance man over to take care of it but our guest said that he had already started charging the thermostat and that everything seem to be working fine.  We reached out a couple of hours later just to make sure everything was still working.  We never heard from them again so we assumed the problem had been solved
2.  He complained that the jets in the master bath did not work.  Due to some safety concerns, we keep the power to those jets off but we do not list that bathtub as a jacuzzi, just a regular tub.  We do have a giant hot tub downstairs with functioning jets and a light show that we do advertise in our listing.
3. He said he was bitten twice while he was sleeping and mentioned that he was not sure if the bites were from bed bugs or not.  We had our exterminator inspect our property today, he found no signs of bed bugs or any other type of pest. 

1. We have a no pets policy but our cleaning crew found obvious signs of a dog in the house.  When we asked him about it he said they did not have pets only service animals.  We do not ever take issue with guests having and using their service animals, however, because some people have serious sometimes severe allergies to animal dander so it's somewhat important for us to know if animals have been in the house.  That being said, we understand that guests are not required to disclose that they will have service animals for their stay, in this situation though, it is the courteous and responsible thing to do.

[Huma0]

@Craig633 

When the guest contacted you about the refund, was it more than 24 hours after he checked in?

The refund policy states:

"(b) you must report the Travel Issue to us in writing or via telephone within 24 hours of discovering the existence of the Travel Issue, and you must provide us with information (including photographs, videos, or other written or tangible evidence) about the Accommodation and the circumstances of the Travel Issue;"

That's not to say that Airbnb CS won't completely override this. It really depends on the individual rep.

I'm just asking because, if you refuse the refund (which I believe you should), the guest will most likely then contacted Airbnb about it (perhaps he already has).

[Huma0]

@Craig633 

I would forget about the service animals. Yes, it would have been polite for the guest to have informed you but there's not much you can do about it.

I would respond something along the lines of:

"Dear X, thank you for your feedback. We strive to provide a comfortable stay for all our guests and therefore take all complaints seriously. 

However, when we last heard from you about the heater, you told us everything seemed to be working fine. We did not receive a response from you when we messaged to check about that a couple of hours later. If there was still a problem, we would have happily sent someone over to fix it as we had suggested to you earlier, but you had told us this wasn't necessary.

The jets on the master bath do work but are turned off for safety reasons. That is why we do not list that item as a jacuzzi, but rather as a regular tub. Had you informed us at the time, we would have happily explained that, but I trust you were able to enjoy the hot tub downstairs. 

We sent an inspector to the listing to investigate but he found no evidence of bed bugs or any other pests and issued us with a report confirming this. I am happy to send this to you if you like.

Based on the above, I am afraid you would not be entitled to a refund on this occasion."

OR, "Based on the above, you would not be entitled to a refund. However, as a goodwill gesture, I'd be willing to offer you a partial refund of $X."

If you refuse to refund, the guest may well leave you a bad review, but he's quite likely to do so either way and I personally don't believe hosts should be held to ransom by the possibility of a bad review. If he leaves one, you can easily respond to clarify matters.

[Felix-Lam0]

@Craig633  There is no reason for you to refund him when you made attempts to resolve the issues he has by reaching out to him. You can make this clear to Airbnb support should the guest take this to Resolution.

[Lisa723]

@Craig633 I agree with @Huma0's advice.

If you are reconciled to a bad review in any case, you could also file a counter-claim for excess cleaning (don't mention the animal, though). It's unlikely to be granted, but it might increase the odds of this unfortunate episode ending in a draw.