Renter left early said to ‘dirty’

[Vicki451]

Hi, I am a super host since I was able to be one renting fir last 3 years. I just had a te yet stay 3 days of a 77 day stay where I gave them almost HALF off. They stayed 3 days then called and now texted via personal phone, not Airbnb forum saying it was SOOO dirty thru had to leave. Mind you I have excellent feedback and clean it myself and my guy was there to witness my pickiness. They left without giving me proper notice to maybe address any issue. The JUST washed shower curtain the liner still had some hard water stains, Omaha and hard water sucks but it was clean. Then she complained she had to ready all the dishes all dirty which I know is a lie I just emptied the dishwasher and towel touch up any spots on silver ware, etc. Also said had to wire front of microwave which I DID! Final straw for me and I wouldn’t listen anymore is she said the so d in laundry room was dirty and the washer lid had dirt in the rim. Sink s in an old an old furnance room and an old original sink that is NEVER used. They seem to be looking for an excuse to get

out of 77day contract and did not even give me a chance maybe send a pro crew to clean to her crazy stipulations. My guy helped me clean and it was shiny clean! The laundry room is. It great but it is acceptable as a furnace room. Never had a complaint before. Now I’m worried about loosing $6k on bogus claims. What do I do!? They tried to get me to feed bad and I told them my feedback speaks for itself and I wont give a refund, i had to turn down another long term stay for theirs. I even added new rugs for long term stay, new pans & new TV downstairs in finished basement and new sectional sofa. Am I protected? What do I do! I can’t lose this revenue after the horrible year we have had. They left without taking to me and I suspect a family member that lives close (they just found out) is putting them up for free & they just wanted out of the long term stay. HELP! My stomach is in knots! This has never happened in 3 years and 2 rentals!

[Alexandra316]

@Vicki451 Really sorry to hear that happened to you. Sounds like a very stressful situation. 

Normally under these circumstances, the guest would not be refunded for the first month under the terms of the long-term stay. See the cancellation policy at Airbnb Cancellation Policies. However, as you say, it seems that the guest will be angling for a full refund by claiming the place is "dirty". Whether or not you will be protected depends very much on the customer service representative that gets involved in the case. If they decide to side with the guest, there is definitely a possibility they could be fully refunded. However, they are supposed to contact Airbnb within 24 hours of discovering an issue, so if they haven't done that, it could work against any claim they may try and make. 

First of all, bring all communication back onto the Airbnb platform. Be clear that it's the only way you will communicate with them. Offer to come over to clean immediately: make sure you do this via Airbnb messenger, if you haven't already.  If they are not open to you coming in to clean the space to make things right, encourage them to cancel the reservation if they are not happy: that will at least open your schedule to other bookings. They will be refunded for any days after the first month if they cancel, but if they're going, the more time you have to get new guests, the better. One carrot to dangle is letting them know that if you get a rebooking, you will refund them for those nights. It might get them moving, if nothing else. 

Good luck with your guest! I hope they're not able to get an unfair refund. Hopefully you will get a replacement booking.