Long term guest early departure

[Erin5717]

This is my first long term stay booking and the guests have departed 23 days ahead of schedule. The stay was ended with less than 12 hours notice and the apartment kitchen was jammed with left over food and supplies. The guests are asking for a weeks refund. I know I am not required to accommodate the request but this whole situation is leaving me less than thrilled. Is this a common occurrence? Is there a way to add a fee that kicks in if such a large cleanup results from a long stay?  Any long term quest advice appreciated. 

[Emiel1]

@Erin5717 

According to the "long term stay " cancellation policy there is no refund if there are 23 nghts left in the reservation from the moment of cancellation. Guest have the right to cancel and you are not obliged to any refund. If there is damage or excessive cleaning needed, you can charge the guest via the resolution centre. Maybe inform the guests about the mess they left and  therefor extra refund is not an option. As a guest you can not have it all: asking for extra refund while leaving the place in terrible state.

[Sarah977]

@Erin5717  I would advise you not to refund, regardless of how the guest left the place. It sets a bad precedent for guests to think they should get refunded, in contravention of the cancellation policy, just because they want that.

There seem to be a lot of guests who try this on with long term bookings. They book long term because it offers a discount, then cancel partway into the stay and demand to be refunded.

As far as the mess, I would just chalk this one up to a learning experience. If you are going to accept long term bookings, it is advisable to set some conditions that may up the price a bit, but ultimately be to your advantage, like a mandatory once a week quick cleaning, say half an hour, so you can make sure the guest isn't living like a pig in there, and keep the mess at bay if they are slobs, rather than letting it accumulate over the course of a month. You can couple this with a clean linen and towel drop-off and take away the dirty stuff to wash.

Guests will likely be more respectful of the space if they know you'll be coming in once a week and seeing first hand how they are living.

[Erin5717]

Thank you. I hadn’t even considered a long term booking simply for the discount. Your suggestions about interim cleaning visits and laundry was a service I had offered but they refused. I’ll not make that optional in the future. THANK YOU. 

[Sarah977]

@Erin5717  Of course you should arrange a convenient time for both you and the guests for a weekly quick clean and I'd keep that time set for the duration of the booking. 

If you end up with a guest who you find is a clean freak who keeps the place immaculate, you could always decide to give them the option of the weekly clean or not. 

Although my max stay is 2 weeks, and I do offer to change the linens for guests after a week, most say they will do it themselves, which is fine with me. All they have is a small bedroom and private bathroom (they share my kitchen), so even if they were messy, there's not that much space to clean.  I do get a lot of single female guests who seem to keep their space really clean and tidy- they don't like living in a mess.

And my cleanest guest was a man in his late 20's who stayed for 3 nights and left his room and bathroom so immaculate, it didn't even look like anyone had stayed in there since I cleaned, aside from the used towels left neatly hung over the bar. My jaw dropped when I went in there after he checked out. He even made the bed perfectly 🙂

[Susan4475]

We're new at hosting and we had a guest leave one day early and tell me "I should show grace" and not charge her  or she'll "reflect this in her review." We realize that a bad review now will really hurt us so I told her we would credit her. What are your thoughts, please? 

[Normen0]

Extortion is against the review policy.  I hope the comment was made in AIRBNB messaging for proof. 
A refund is entirely up to you. Should you decide not to , and I wouldn’t just based on this guests request. 
But if you do, be sure to wait until you have fully cleaned and inspected the unit.  Nothing worse than giving a refund and then find out they broke, damaged or took something. 
Should you decide not to give the refund and a bad review is made, contact AIRBNB and ask the bad review be removed based on the evidence of extortion in messaging. You could also let the guest know about the review policy when you decline the refund.
You can also report the guest from messaging.