Guest wants full refund, but didn’t ask till 3 days after their stay.

[Daeja0]

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. 

[Richard531]

Absolutely do NOT refund her a single dime.  

Did she try and extort you for a refund threatening the 1-star review on the Airbnb message app?  If so, you're in the clear.  Airbnb will wipe the review in short order.

Do NOT allow entitled people like this to continue to be guests on this platform (or anywhere).  Deal with them aggressively and without remorse.  

[Daeja0]

Is this considered a “threat”? 

[Stephanie1933]

Agree @Richard531 what a scammer! Make sure all correspondence is through the App and you have proof of extortion. All the best. 

[Kate867]

@Daeja0   I absolutely agree with @Stephanie1933 and @Richard531  that the guest should not be threatening you with a bad review and this really is unacceptable behaviour on her behalf.  However, playing Devils Advocate here, even though you checked that the guest had not yet checked in, your Handyman was there at a time after the official start of the reservation and as ‘Murphys Law’ would have it, the guest turned up while he was there.  You cannot have someone enter the property during an active reservation without permission from the guest unless it is an emergency and you should have contacted the guest first to let them know.  In addition, surely your cleaner, upon entering on Sunday would have realised that the guest had not stayed?  Even if she thought the guests were nice by making the bed, there would have been no disturbance in other areas such as the bathroom etc.  I can also almost understand the guest feeling a bit concerned under the circumstances and most likely she had the additional expense of booking somewhere else to stay at the last minute.  However, the guest should have cancelled immediately citing her concerns to Airbnb.  As she did not cancel, she can leave a review (which hopefully you can get removed if she threatened it on the app).  If she did not threaten the bad review on the app then I would probably refund her in full in case she complains to Airbnb for a privacy violation.

[Daeja0]

This is exactly why I am contemplating refunding her. I know I was in the wrong in allowing the handyman to enter the property after her check in time although she wasn’t physically there yet. But she was wrong for not addressing her concerns immediately to avoid costing me $$ by having the place cleaned again. 

[Helen744]

@Daeja0 you are so hands off that you need a puppetmaster . Seriously a phone call to let the guest know that someone was fixing the aircon and another to check they were in and all was okay . That is the bare minimum .H

[Helen744]

@Deaja0 If it only took ten minutes to fix then there was no reason for her to leave after she had already arrived The presence of a handyman should not prevent  a guest accessing the place and she should have been notified that ;so and so ' would be there 'fixing the aircon .If she turned up and strange people were in her accom then maybe she did have a case. It does not sound expensive and the cleaning by the same person should have picked up that she had not stayed at all.The cleaning fee cannot be charged like that at all. She cannot threaten you but seriously you were a bit remiss. Refunding will not stop the review or change it so take your chances but I would give her money back and count it cheap to be rid of her, chalk it up to experience . Also make your bookings two days , not one. Also if your handyman is particularly ugly maybe warn guests H

[Helen744]

If for any reason a guest cannot access a property on arrival then Airbnb can and will cancel and provide the guest with any other available accom , so instead of splitting a fee for something that never happened you may be refunding without being able to make any claim , no matter your cancellation policy.It should not be your handy mans job to know and follow Airbnbs rules . H

[Lorna170]

@Helen744   I can agree that a text message to the guest who has not yet arrived about the presence of the handyman should have been protocol for @Daeja0  host duties.  However, the cleaning people cannot determine whether or not the accommodation has been used.  They are there to clean, period.  I have had guests who were so incredibly tidy that my housekeeper has called me and asked if they had cancelled.  Unless I advise her otherwise, she will do the cleaning from top to bottom even if the guest left it spotless, as that is her job.  

[Helen744]

@Lorna170, It is not the cleaners responsibility Lorna  and some people can seem incredibly tidy but we all know that all humans leave traces in more ways than one, but Daeja should have checked that the lady was in , not left it to a handyman . It is not the cleaner or the handymans job unless they are co hosts .H

[Lorna170]

@Helen744 that’s right, it is not the cleaners responsibility to do anything except clean.  I never said the cleaner should know if the guest had been there or not.  She is there to clean.

[Lorna170]

@Daeja0   The guest had not yet arrived and the handyman was there PRIOR to the guest arrival trying to get the accommodation A/C operating.  The guest arrived and told the handyman to continue and the guest leaves, saying she will be back.  There was no entry by the handyman AFTER the guest had taken possession, so NO violation of guest privacy.  We have had many a guest show up while we are cleaning a property in preparation for their arrival.  

The guest never came back and to the OPs knowledge, did not cancel their reservation or call AirBnB.  The reservation continued and the OP paid for cleaning, assuming that the guest had stayed in the property.

NO REFUND.  Do not freak out about the review.  Be straightforward with the review or response to this guest.  "The guest arrived while the property was still being prepared for their stay.  An A/C unit was being installed for their comfort by a staff member.  The guest left and did not return.  The guest did not contact the host or cancel their reservation."

End of story.  If you post this type of response, no matter what their review says, the next prospective guest will understand.  You can also hope that the guest is so outrageous with their claims that AirBnB will remove the review and rating as spurious.  

[Sudsrung0]

Perfect, I would say the same 

[Sudsrung0]

One of my main rules is "No Refunds" and dont freak out over bad reviews they happen I think it's how you reply to them.

I have to give Airbnb full credit for backing me up, over the years we have only really had two very nasty guest one was recently but fair play to Airbnb they took my side, A nasty review was in bound Airbnb didn't remove it, they said my reply was good so they left it there, Other guest have picked up on it but also sided with me the guest before them wrote it's the best airbnb he had stayed in then the guest after them supported us by saying it's the complete opposite to what they wrote, then another guest made a comment to me what was up with that crazy woman?