Guests arrive for a 3 day stay on a busy summer weekend. They arrive at at about 10:15 after making special arrangements to arrive late outside the normal arrival time.
I followed our normal check-in process and told them they could contact me at any time if there is any problem. I live downstairs and we rent out the second floor.
At 9:00am the next morning they left and sent me a cryptic text message saying "we have left and are not coming back". I emailed them immediately (via Airbnb) to make sure there was no problem. Later that day they emailed me back and requested a refund for the nights they would not be using, claiming the towels were dirty, a tablecloth had lint on it, the woman could not sleep and they were just not comfortable.
The rooms were professionally cleaned earlier that day and the towels were NOT dirty although they were not folded especially to my liking and upon examination seemed a bit "stiff" (I sometimes hang them on the line and sometimes they get a bit stiff from that). There was indeed a small amount of barely noticeable lint on one of the tablecloths. But to me I don't think this merited leaving in midstream, especially given that we put out extra towels, sheets and other bedding on a table/rack in a foyer and explicitly tell guests they can use anything from that rack. Also this guest could have contacted me: i'm directly downstairs, I would have brought up different towels immediately.
Our rooms are very nice, with oriental rugs and antique stuff, they were freshly cleaned and we even put out chocolates for them and the latest New York Times.
Nonetheless one school of thought would be to give them the refund for the 2 days they did't stay to avoid a bad review and avoid potential trouble. My *sense* is that something happened with these guests having nothing to do with me and that's why they left early. They booked at the last minute, they changed their arrival time twice and then left abruptly after only the first nights stay. I don't think I should have to pay for their own changing of plans (it indeed that is what this was).
Also notable is that when they left they didn't immediately state that there was a problem. The initial message was simply "we are leaving and will not be back". I could have just left it at that. They had already paid, if they want to leave early then fine. But I reached out to them to make *sure* that there was not a problem (I was pretty convinced that there *wasn't* a problem!) and then they turned around and ...well you heard the story already.
I'm sort of leaning towards giving them the a refund for the third night but not the first two. That somehow seems fair. They stayed one night. However the last time I had a "difficult" guest and bent over backwards for them (including a giving a full refund), they turned around and gave me a terrible review *anyway* and that reminded me of my dads lesson: stay away from bad people/bad customers but do not totally give in to them. With certain types of people if you give in apologize/refund it just reinforces their sense that you were wrong in the first place - and maybe owe them even more. Luckily such people are not very common - but cause a lot of trouble. Would I be to nice in giving the a refund of one day?
I'm *very* confident that the condition of the place did NOT merit leaving, although (as I stated above) we were not perfect. Fabric softener or drier sheets can make a difference in towel softness.
Thoughts?
