The reservation was for Saturday night, but she did not contact me until today. The previous guest had disconnected the portable ac unit from the window (for reasons unknown) and the girl that cleaned early Saturday did not know how to reconnect it. I got in touch with the handyman I use and when he got off work (after 6pm) they went there together. I could see on the driveway camera that the Saturday night guest had not arrived yet, so I told them to go in & fix it. Had I seen the guest there, obviously I would have asked them if they’d like someone to come by to reconnect it for them. Of course, for the 10 minutes they were there reconnecting the ac the guest arrives. They explained to her the situation & said it should take a few more minutes and the place is yours, unless you prefer we leave now. The lady told them they’d come back. The handyman left and that was that. On Sunday, the girls that clean went and cleaned the place & all the linens/towels. She had text me and said the last people that stayed were nice they made the bed. I should have known then, but didn’t think anything of it.
Today she sends me this message saying she did not stay because random people were in the cabin & it was unsafe. She said the property was abandoned & no one lived there. I responded with my home is not abandoned. Then she said a local friend told her it was abandoned. In my listing I’m clear that I am only there 1x a month for a week or 2 at a time & if I plan to be in town during your stay I’ll let you know in advance. I told her if she wants a refund based off town gossip, I’m not sure what to say. Then she says stop trying to make this personal I demand a refund.
Sure enough, I went back and checked the cameras and she never came back that night. Problem is I paid the girls on Sunday to clean because this woman didn’t bring up her “concerns” until today. I explained to her I paid for cleaning because she did not contact me before her checkout time. I explained I can’t give her a full refund because 1/2 the money was spent on cleaning & she’s threatening me with a 1 star review and stated if she does not receive a full refund by Wednesday she’s leaving that review. Considering I only have a few reviews to even it out, it’ll hurt me. She’s claiming I misrepresented the property because I should state the main house is abandoned because no one is there & the cabin is behind the main house hidden (to her a bad thing) & that it’s not in a state park. Not sure where she got that from. But we are located within a national forest. The whole town is.
i read a lot of the posts on here and it seems that the consensus is that Airbnb sides with guests and hosts are basically on their own.
So the questions are:
do I issue the full refund?
Do I issue the refund minus cleaning fee? And if I choose this route, what is my recourse (if any) to protect myself from receiving a bad review?
As a side note, I split the 1 night bookings with the cleaning crew 50/50. Therefore the amount I paid out of her booking is $65. Meaning she would only receive a 50% refund out of what I received.
