Reviewing Guests who seek discounts

[Stephanie365]

The dryer in my AirBNB went on the fritz and my repair man wasn't able to get parts yesterday. 
I have a local guest checking in tonight for a romantic getaway evening. As a courtesy, I notified him the dryer wasn't available even though in my listing I say the washer and dryer are available for longer term guests. (I put this language in after I had one guest stop over and used my place as a laundromat, running loads  non-stop for 6+ hours) So, technically he doesn't even qualify to use it. But I would never stop a guest from using it either.

I receive a message immediately saying this would be a terrible inconvenience to them and what kind of a discount would I be giving them. 

I've been doing this for 4 years and the only people who have ever used the washer/dryer have been week long+ stays with the one exception. No one who lives local coming for a one night stand is going to even be thinking about doing laundry. Clearly this person is the type who looks for reasons to get a discount.

Should I mention this in my review?  Something along the lines of "Joe was a great guest and I would be happy to host him again. He will, however, look for opportunities to request a discount so make sure everything is perfect."

I have no problems giving a discount when it's warranted. I've even given discounts when the guest has declined my offer to do so. So this isn't about being cheap as a host. It's about letting future hosts know this person will pounce on any opportunity to ask for a discount, no matter how minor. Because if we decline their request for a discount, it can affect our review.

[Mark116]

@Stephanie365  You could just say 'would not host again' or 'don't recommend to other hosts' or that the guest was somewhat high maintenance considering it was a single night stay.  I would not get into the issue of what he 'might' do in the future or try to get into the details of what happened with the dryer/short term v. long term guests etc. 

Technically, the washer/dryer is a listed amenity and the dryer isn't available for this guest.  It's even possible that Airbnb would give a refund for this.  Even though, realistically, the guest never intended to do any laundry on the one night romantic getaway.

[Colleen253]

@Mark116 Like @Stephanie365, I also limit use of laundry to longer stays only, as our elderly septic can’t handle the added strain.  It needs to be noted clearly in ‘amenity limitations’, that use is limited, to avoid problems with Airbnb and refunds and such, in a case such as this. 

[Stephanie365]

@Mark116  This is in my listing description:

[Linda108]

@Stephanie365   To stay on track with your reason for the post, you are anticipating the review process, which means the guest is accepted by you and you did not give the discount, right?  In that case I would think if the guest turns out to be lovely in all other ways, you could give him the benefit of the doubt and write a positive review with a private message telling him how off-putting the request for the discount was.  On the other had, if the guest remained as a nit picking sort and was upset about not getting a discount, you could acknowledge a problem with communication related to understanding the amenties available.  Afterall if he had clearly read the listing he would have realized the washer and dryer were not available for a single night stay.  How does that sound for you?

[Stephanie365]

@Linda108  Yes, I am pro-actively seeking advice on writing the review.  As quick as he was to jump on the Discount Bandwagon, I want to make other hosts aware of his behavior. He literally messaged me within 2 minutes about how this was going to be a "terrible inconvenience" to him. 🙄 (rolling my eyes)  I'm calling BS because who even thinks about doing laundry when you're doing a quick weekend getaway and you live less than an hour away?  

Obviously if he's a horrible guest, I will blatantly call him out for it along with everything else. But if he's good otherwise, I still think it's important that other hosts be given the heads up he will pounce on the opportunity to get a discount like a cat pounces on a mouse.

[Linda108]

Apparently you have the direction you would like to take for your review.  Interesting discussion, though.

[Sarah977]

@Stephanie365  I think you messed this up by letting him know the dryer wasn't working- there was no reason to do that, as his one night booking didn't qualify for dryer privileges anyway.

If you felt you should mention a non-working amenity, you could have said the dryer wasn't working, but that's really not relevant to his stay, since, as stated in your listing, laundry facilities are only available to guests staying 5 nights or more.

Because  you muddied the waters by even mentioning it in the first place, I don't know if calling the guest out in the review is a great idea. If he leaves a review complaining that the dryer wasn't working, you can leave a brief response making it clear why this wasn't relevant to his stay.

[Emilia42]

@Stephanie365 I agree with @Sarah977. Be aware that if this guest were to call Airbnb and complain about the 'broken amenity,' Airbnb would likely give him a discount (at your expense) because you have a dryer listed as an amenity and it is not available. To those guests staying under 5 nights, the washer/dryer does not exist so I would remove it from the amenities list to avoid confusion.

At the very least put this info in your house rules and under the "Amenity Limitation" section to cover yourself if Airbnb ever intervenes. 

[Colleen253]

@Stephanie365 Because of the unfortunate way this went down, I think it’s going to be difficult for you to mention it in the review. You might wait until the stay is over, and see how the rest of it goes, before deciding how to review. If you still feel you must mention it, “X was blah blah blah. I was slightly taken aback however, by their request for a discount for a non working amenity that was not advertised as being available to them.”

[Brian2036]

@Stephanie365 

How about: "Guest was quick to demand a discount for unavailability of an amenity which he was not entitled to use anyway."

If I saw that I would decline his booking.

I personally removed washer, dryer, and dishwasher from my amenities list because they are elderly and will probably need to be replaced soon.

People who really want them ask, and I tell them that yes, they are available at the moment as a courtesy but if they break I will not offer a refund.

This resulted in discouraging a recent applicant who exhibited other suspicious behavior and had clearly not bothered to read the listing.

He also wanted to know about parking for his Prius.

Good Lord Almighty. Yeah; there's 160 acres here and you can park on any of it you can drive to. Your Prius, however, will not make it more than fifty feet off the highway, so you're going to have a 4-mile walk to get here.

I think he was hoping to come, stay for a couple of weeks, then break something and demand a full refund, and I don't trust Airbnb not to give it to him.

[Stephanie365]

Well, the reason I mentioned the non-functioning dryer in the first place is it's located in the guest suite proper. And while it's only advertised for use for longer stays, the fact that it's in the unit means someone could still try to use it.  On the off chance someone did try to use it and found it was shut off, they would then complain about that even though they weren't technically supposed to use it. And like I said before, if a short term guest were to use it, I wouldn't tell them they couldn't. 

[Sarah977]

@Stephanie365  Going forward, you might want to firm up your attitude about the laundry facilities. While it's true that you couldn't physically stop a short term guest from using it, saying you wouldn't really care if they do is at odds with your rule about it only being available to bookings of 5 days or more.

As far as your reason for mentioning it to this guest beforehand, that doesn't really make sense to me. When the guest arrived, you could have just said "Oh,  by the way, don't try to use the dryer, it's not working at the moment, and as stated in my listing, the laundry facilities are only available for use by guests who book at least 5 nights. I can't imagine you'd need a washer and dryer on a one night "romantic" stay anyway, haha."

[Laura2592]

@Stephanie365 how about:

So and so left our place clean after his weekend stay. (If true.) Communication was a little difficult as he was quick to ask for discounts for items that were not included in his short term booking per our listing information. Overall a decent guest  (if true). Future hosts may want to be very clear on available amenities.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Stephanie365 @Sarah977 @Laura2592 @Linda108 @Brian2036 I like this for the review

he will pounce on the opportunity to get a discount like a cat pounces on a mouse

[Clara116]

@Stephanie365 How did you respond to his saying it was a "terrible inconvience" - and then about a discount?? Was he perhaps joking?? What did you respond?? That's really important to know.