restitution

[Hans192]

Hi!

Our guests booked 5 nights. The neighbor is renovating and an infestation of wood-lice appeared in the area. Some were found in 1 bedroom, other on the terrace/pool. The guest decided to cancel after 1 night. A restitution of 970€ is asked for, which is 15€ less than the amount to receive for the 5 nights (5 nights plus cleaning-costs). Is it normal to refund like that? Is Airbnb still going to charge me? It's hard to calculate, maybe the guest thinks this way they pay 1 night.

Thank you, @Hans192 

[Anonymous]

@Hans192   See:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2868/airbnb-guest-refund-policy

sec 1. (c) (iii)   lists "vermin...not disclosed in the Listing"  as a Travel Issue eligible for a full refund of all unused nights. That would generally include termite infestations. If the guest's calculation differs from yours, it might be because they factored in the hefty Service Fee that Airbnb charged them.

I don't know if the outcome would be better or worse for you if you asked the guest to go through Airbnb instead. They might come up with a more favorable calculation, but they could also suspend your listing due to the reported infestation.

[Hans192]

Thank you @Anonymous Andrew for your feedback, I see what you mean. The guest is asking the refund through Airbnb already though. They asked if I could refund the nights they didn't use, no problem, but do I divide the total received from Airbnb by 5 and then multiply it by 4 nights for the refund? As Airbnb probably will not refund any service-costs, there will always be a loss for the guest, isn't it?

The infestation is not very big, but not convenient either. With the proper treatment it will be gone in a day or 2. The main issue was the construction-work at the neighbor's place, not sure if that can be a reason for cancellation.

[Anonymous]

@Hans192  Noise from construction work isn't one of the Travel Issues listed in the Guest Refund Policy, but if the guest was able to persuade an agent that the construction zone created a safety hazard your property, it might be considered grounds for a refund. Wood lice aren't known to be a health risk, but I think there's no disagreement that the experience fell short of what was presented in the listing due to this unfortunate combination of factors beyond your control.

If Airbnb were to refund the guest's service fees, it would be at your expense (see sec 4.2 in the link above), but that usually only happens in extreme cases where Airbnb has to intervene to relocate the guests. It's hard to predict how a dispute would be resolved if the guests escalated their resolution request, but if you decide to make a counter-offer, your calculation (guest's total payment divided by 5, times 4) seems completely fair to me.

[Hans192]

Thank you again Andrew, this is most helpful. In 5 years of Airbnb experience, nothing like this ever happened. There was no safety hazard, just noise from drilling, which understandably can be very annoying. I will indeed propose the 5:4 calculation.