I’m being asked for a partial refund

[Joy1101]

A couple stayed at my Airbnb for the weekend. At around 9.45pm on the Friday evening I received a message saying that the radiators wouldn’t work but warm water was still running. I called them straight away and arranged for my father-in-law to pop straight over to try and remedy the problem. Unfortunately he couldn’t & the water was cold by then.

He put an electric heater in the bedroom & made sure that the log burner in the room next to the bedroom was stacked with wood & working efficiently (it wasn’t when he arrived and they complained that it smelled of smoke, I doubt that they’d read the online house manual with instructions to use the log burner). It was a Summer night so not uncomfortably cold.

I immediately arranged for an emergency plumber to come out by lunchtime on the following day and contacted the guests straight away explaining this and asking for permission to enter the property. I received no reply to my request. I saw them leaving the following morning and asked again for permission to enter the property. I checked with them that the key had been left in the lockbox (a house rule) and it hadn’t so they handed the key to me. The plumber arrived and said that there wasn’t a problem with the boiler, it just needed to be reset and he thought somebody must’ve tampered with the boiler. This could well have been the guests or my father-in-law attempting to solve the problem. So it was reset and the heating and water was working by Saturday lunchtime & there was no further issue for the remainder of the stay.

When I went into the property after they left the heating was turned up to over 25 degrees and it was VERY warm, I had to turn it right down so it would be a comfortable temperature for the cleaners. I guess they enjoy a hot house!

The time limit for this stays review is nearly up and I’ve just received a message from the couple asking for a full refund for the first night due to the heating issue. I feel like I’m being blackmailed as we are all aware that they haven’t written a review yet.

Should I issue a full refund for the first evening? Or partial refund-  50%? I feel that we did all that we could to rectify the problem (including calling a plumber after 10pm) and it was sorted out promptly.  
 

[Emiel1]

@Joy1101 

There was some inconvenience, so some refund for the first day can be reasonable and should IMO not exceed 50%. I see you charge GBP 100,- / night for a couple, so GBP 50,- would be generous.

[Joy1101]

Thank you for your response! I was thinking 50% too

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Heating? In UK? Already? 😮 

[Joy1101]

Yes, the log burner was roaring & electric heater in the bedroom to compensate for the heating issue. There are bed throws on top of the duvets. It was raining but wasn’t that cold outside at midnight!

[Dora486]

My head is in my hands here, I’m a new host and think your level of service is amazing.  I can’t see any major inconvenience here.  They’re not going to freeze? Report a problem, the host deals with it, sorted.  I bet they’ve not paid hotel prices, chancers!

[Emilia42]

Wow, never in my wildest dreams would I turn the heat on before October. 

[Emiel1]

@Emilia42 

The heat is on, also in wildest dreams:

(BTW wanted to add emoji, but does not work ? )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZD8HKVKneI

[Patricia55]

@Branka-and-Silvia0I had the same reaction as you! Heating in August?! I don't think so 😉
Is it cold where you are @Joy1101 ?

[Joy1101]

@Emiel1 @Patricia55 @Emilia42 @Dora486 @Branka-and-Silvia0 

Thank you for your replies.

We live next door with a 1 year old and didn’t have any heating on. It was early August and it wasn’t cold.

We put a heater in the bedroom and the log burner was roaring but there wasn’t any hot water from around 9.30pm until the following lunchtime. They claim to have had an ‘amazing’ break despite asking for money back. I’ve reluctantly offered a £75 refund in the hope that they leave a fair review. Fingers crossed!

[Sarah977]

@Joy1101  That's a very generous refund for not having hot water for a total of about 15 hours, 8 of which they were presumably asleep. 

In the future, it's best to offer what you feel is an appropriate refund for a non-working amenity early on, like when they report it and you start working on getting it fixed. "So sorry about that, we should be able to get it all working again by midday tomorrow and we'll be giving you a 50% refund for the first night for the inconvenience."

If you wait for them to ask for a refund, then you've kind of put the ball in their court, instead of acting confident and matter-of-fact about what you should do as a host in that situation.

And the ones who report a problem and in the same breath demand some refund are just scammers.

You don't have to worry that they might not have asked if you hadn't offered- guests who take things in stride without expecting to get money back for a minor inconvenience will say "Oh no, that's not necessary, we know things can go on the blink without warning, it was only a few hours, no big deal."

I've had guests who missed their first night due to overbooked flights, and since they had booked 10 days with me, even though it certainly wasn't my doing, I offered to reffund them that first night. In both cases the response was "Oh heavens no, it wasn't your fault".

But do try to avoid throwing refunds at guests for every minor inconvenience- it sets a bad precedent for guests thinking anything that isn't perfect deserves monetary compensation. Simple apologies and maybe a gift card for a local cafe can be appropriate and enough for many little glitches. Hotels certainly don't refund guests because something in their room isn't working properly- they just go in and fix it.

Nor does refunding guests, or running around trying to please fussy guests guarantee a good review, as many a host has found out.

[Joy1101]

@Sarah977 @Thank you, that’s really  helpful advice that I will remember if there is a maintenance issue in the future.