Power out

[Katelyn68]

I am having an issue with a guest demanding a refund due to a short power outage. Our unit is on a ski hill and it went off around 10am today. We were in communication throughout the day I offered to bring them anything they may need due to the loss of power. They skiied all day and then at 445 said they were planning on leaving as they couldn't cook their food. I offered to give them $50 to pay for dinner at the local restaurant as the power company anticipated it to be back on by 930pm. We had candles and flashlight and a wood burning stove. He said if we wouldn't leave a bad review IF we refunded him. He then never replied to my offer for dinner on us. The power came back at 7pm. He has then replied to me saying he was back home and demanding a refund. I don't know what to do. I feel like I did what I could to be accommodating and helpful in a stressful situation that was out of my control. Any suggestions? Does he deserve a refund for his stay. He was there for 1 night with power and then a day where he was skiing majority of the day and the power was out for 8 hours. 

[Alexandra316]

@Katelyn68 If he threatened you over Airbnb messenger with a bad review if you didn't refund him, you can show that to Airbnb customer service and have any review removed. 

I think the guest is being difficult in this situation and your offer of dinner etc. was very nice, and power outages happen in the winter. However, I wouldn't really call 9 hours a short power outage. If they're just seeking a refund for one night they didn't stay, I would consider giving it to them. If they call Airbnb customer service and explain that there was a loss of power for that long, there's a good chance they will be refunded anyways. 

[Dale711]

@Katelyn68 

I’m sorry to hear the incident happened.

Obviously, the guest is being difficult to you. Enforce to you for a full refund or else to leave a negative reviews in your listing.

You are doing well and  right with your efforts to offer a dinner to the guest.

Short power outage and power off for 8 hours was definitely not under your control. It is not necessarily for a full refund.

You can try to communicate with the guest with the maximum of one night refund or the dinner offer thought to the “ Airbnb Resolution Center” by sending the payment.

Meanwhile, doesn’t matter the guest agree or refuse your suggestion. 
Please do acknowledge to the Airbnb Support Help Center immediately, “ live Chat” with the Airbnb Ambassador ( not an Airbnb bot )

Usually, you will have an answer from them within minutes.

Do report to the case manager for the incident happened and request them to save the file to protect your right or to avoid future complaint from the guest and resolve the problem immediately.

In addition, contact Airbnb via social media Twitter, Facebook for attention with fast respond.

You can find more detail to contact via Airbnb by following the below link : 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/m-p/413245

Hope you can resolve with your guest soon

[Anonymous]

@Katelyn68  A reasonable percentage of a night's rent to refund for a power outage would be equivalent to the proportion of listed amenities that were not usable. Your offer for a comped meal sounds exactly on point for that, considering that the guests were still able to use most of your home features during the 9-hour outage (which fortunately occurred mostly during daylight and didn't present a safety hazard).

Don't back down to review extortion . This is just a sleazy tactic for guests to con their way into a free stay.  If anyone ever asks for a refund of any kind before their stay is even complete, there's an easy way to call their bluff:  say you'll refund the remainder of the stay under the condition that they cancel their booking and vacate immediately. Nobody has the right to hold you hostage over fear of a review.

[Lorna170]

@Katelyn68   Power outages occur and are out of the host control. Here in the North Carolina mountains, an 8 hour power outage is considered short.  It was fortunate that your outage was during the day, and you responded appropriately with candles, etc. and the offer for dinner.  I have a rental agreement that is sent to every guest.  They don't have to sign it as in NC, payment through a platform such as Air implies acceptance.  My rental agreement states:

MAINTENANCE AND ACCOMMODATIONS: Every effort is made to keep the cabin and its equipment in good working order. The cabin is inspected by our cleaning and maintenance staff prior to every rental. Please notify us or our staff immediately of any difficulty you experience during your stay so that repairs can be made. There will be no refunds or rebates given for inoperable appliances or faulty equipment, unfavorable weather, interruption of utilities, or minor maintenance problems. No rebates will be given for malfunctions of cable equipment or reception that affects the TV or Internet access. Repairs will be made within 24 hours, when possible. Owner has no control over the response time of local utility services. Owner or owner’s agent has the right to enter the premises to inspect and make repairs, with reasonable notice to the Guest.

Without a rental agreement that has the necessary provisions, you are stuck with what makes good business sense.  In this case, I would refund for only the night(s) that the guest was unable to stay at your cabin, however, because they did not vacate immediately in the AM, I would pro-rate the refund to account for the day that they were away skiing, but they had not "checked out".  I am assuming that their stuff remained at the accommodation all day.

[Katelyn68]

Thank you everyone for the help and the  great suggestion. In the future I will ensure guests are aware that refunds won't be issued due to power outages. Not something I had even considered. We are new hosts and this is only our second guest! He was aware of us being a new airbnb and feel like he was trying to use this against us by trying to bully us. Airbnb support has given them a one night refund for the night they chose to leave which I don't agree with but it's out of my control now. Lesson learned I guess. 

[Anonymous]

@Katelyn68  Yes, this is unfortunately the typical way that Airbnb greases the squeaky wheel. As you've now seen, it's not worthwhile to let a booking continue once the guest has expressed such discontent that they feel entitled to a refund. They get a free stay, you take a loss for all the costs they racked up, and at the end you still get a bad review. The best possible outcome is that you reach a mutual agreement to terminate the booking and let the guests move elsewhere before they can abuse any more of your resources.

You'll still be able to review the guest, and you should do so honestly - both as a warning to future hosts that this person is a grifter, and more importantly as a bit of insurance against any damage done by his review (which will be published whether you write one or not). People can cross-reference to see the other side of the story, and that can only help your case.

[Mary996]

Exactly @Lorna170 ... using the property of @Katelyn68  as a storage facility.

I wonder if this is what they wished for. An impression is gained that they were avoiding meaningful dialogue and had some sort of deliberate agenda.

Can you  request via the chat facility @Katelyn68  that Airbnb charge the Guests on your behalf for failure to fully vacate? Its not necessarily over if you ask for further consideration of the Guest's conduct.  And of course leave a review very close to the end of 14 day window cautioning others. Personally in view of their 'prank' I don't think it would be unreasonable for you, prior to reviewing, to make the above points and to message the Guests inviting them to make a contribution for storage and for your other expenses including food preparation the building of a fire... etc etc ...and do list everything(!!) . They might have some sensitivity to their reputations and might possibly offer a fairer contribution. What do you think? 

[Christine615]

You made appropriate offers, you were threatened. The power outage was not in your control and likely hit other homes in the area. Tell customer service the guest threatened you, refused your offer of accomodations and you will not offer a refund for an act of God (or the utility company) as the outage occurred while they were off property skiing.

This is a known scam that Airbnb needs to fix. If their AI bots can scrub our private emails when we're trying to call or verify potential guests, surely they can program in a bot that detects the guest threatening to leave a "bad review."

[Anonymous]

@Christine615  That is a brilliant point - and really, when a stay is in progress, any mention of the review is usually going to be inappropriate, so it would seem worthy of a flag.

Granted, the words "review," "rating," and "stars" have multiple meanings, so I wouldn't trust an algorithm to parse the subtleties  (I'd hate to get suspended for asking someone to "review the checkout instructions" or "check out the shooting stars tonight." . Airbnb is relying on automation to detect potential party issues, and it's very often getting it wrong. But I don't think they're planning to invest in more human analysts handling this sort of thing.