I recently got a message from Airbnb that there was a situation with one of our guests. I had informed Airbnb that I was extremely unhappy with this guest and I would send them information as soon as they required it. All I got back was a ruling that they had refunded the guest. I had no input or no rebuttal or don't even know what the guest had said to Airbnb but I got left out in the cold in a completely unjustified situation
Unfortunately the guest must rank as one of our worst guests we have ever hosted.
We have all heard of the person that waits till the last bite of pizza, just to say its terrible and wants his money back for his pizza, well that's how our experience went with this guest
Late on day 2 of his 4 day stay he mentioned slow wifi and could we check to see what the issue was. We checked our app and it showed we were online but slow speeds. We reached out to Spectrum, our local provider and they had to reset the signal from their end. Once reset, we reached back out to the guest to check if it the signal was better and he confirmed it was but still seemed very upset that his streaming had been disrupted and wanted to speak with me, as the owner.
Unfortunately, I along, with the rest of my family were unavailable that entire weekend due a medical emergency and a family member in the ER.
The guest then later that evening reached out again saying that he had just noticed that the toilet appeared to be rocking in place. Our guest relations manager put a call in to the plumber who responded saying he would get it on the schedule and as its not an emergency type call out and would let her know when he can come out so she could pass it onto the guest
The evening of the night before check out , I was notified the guest was still complaining about the lack of owner response, the lose toilet and the internet issue. I told our guest relations manger to offer him am Uber eats gift card for the issues as these were completely out of my control and we were dealing with a medical emergency. the guest declined the offer.
Guest then responded with complaints saying he could smell sewer gas from the toilet, see the trash cans from one of the windows, there was dust on the broom that he had used for 4 days, there was scuff on the base boards etc. He had a valid concern of black mildew spots in the shower that the cleaner may have missed, we do however try limit the use of bleach on same day turn overs as it can leave a odor in the air for the new guests checking in who maybe sensitive to odors.( in Florida this can appear in a few days)
When I was able to get to message him later that evening, he was still upset that I did not respond to him earlier, despite dealing with the medical emergency, so I refunded the cleaning fee and again offered the Uber eats card to which he declined. He now insisted on a 100% refund for his entire 4 night stay, this on the evening of night 4 because the owners did not respond and deal with his concerns.
The plumber checked the toilet the morning of his checkout and a bolt had come lose and re set the toilet and moved less than 1/4 inch. The plumber reported in writing, there was absolutely no way there was any smell of sewer gas when he entered and the wax ring was securely embedded and despite the movement the toilet was still firmly secured to the floor and there was no way there was a possibility of any smell occurring.
Guest then continued to bombard my daughters cell phone with long text messages and complaints and threats multiple times a day, demanding a 100% refund. There was well over 30 messages to her. On about day 3 or 4 past his departure, after we told him he was not going to get a free stay, he admitted he was being unreasonable and only threatened this to get the owners attention because they did not respond right away, all while he was informed of the medical emergency the family was enduring.
He then said he would settle for 2 days refunded of his stay because of the sewer gas problem. We sent the report from the plumber showing the findings, along with a copy of the 5 star reviews from the guest that checked out the morning of his arrival and the guest who checked in the day of his departure. The guest who checked in on his day of departure wrote in their review that it was one of their best Airbnb experiences ever, yet he was insisting on a refund due the "conditions" he had to endure during his stay.
He then said he would file a complaint with Airbnb in order to get a refund because we not only declined his request for 100% refund of his stay, but also his request for a refund of 2 days for a toilet that came lose during his stay.
This was a blatant attempt to get his stay for free.
CS did not ask me or provide me with anything, just that they had refunded the guest and closed the case and then said the would notate my account and gave me a warning that my listing maybe be removed.
I showed this to an attorney friend of mine and he was horrified that Airbnb is even legally allowed to do this. There is no input from the host and some arbitrary person, probably based outside the USA, is allowed to play judge and jury without a fair input and hearing from the host.
The more AIrbnb allows guests to be rewarded for deviant and illegal practices, the word will get out and we as hosts will continue to get penalized for no reason.
