A First Time for Everything--guest complained and walked out

[Mark116]

What a strange experience.  I'm interested in people's thoughts.

We had a local guest, 2 adults, 2 children, booked for the weekend.  They were having trouble parking, and when we went outside to offer them our space, they seemed shocked to see us on site.  They sat in their car for several minutes, then came into the house without any bags.  Five minutes later they had contacted Airbnb directly asking for a refund because they felt the house was not 'clean or fresh' and their children 'felt uncomfortable'.  They sent Airbnb photos of 3 chairs, two chairs with throws on them, and 1 of the dining room chairs.  The dining room chair had a small scuff mark on the back, that is literally the only imperfection I could see on any of the 3 chairs even using zoom.  

We had a discussion of whether we should stick to our policy or just give them the refund.  Since they are local, we decided on the refund.

In the five minutes they were in the house they managed to leave crumbs in the kitchen, mess up one of the beds and threw a candy wrapper on the floor.

So, I'm wondering...are throws somehow bad?  Why would someone think that throws on a chair=dirty?  No one has ever mentioned them before in 5 years.  We have them on the cream chairs because they are cream and expensive, one is West Elm the other is Ethan Allan.

Is a tiny mark on the top of the velvet dining chair really a deal breaker?  It seems more like wear and tear, surely Airbnb would never have reimbursed us for the cost of a chair that had a barely visible mark on it.  Was this guest planning something at the house, failed to read the listing, and as soon as they realized we lived upstairs they bolted?  Should we replace the dining chairs if we can't get the spot out?

I kind of feel like if people are looking for a reason to be unhappy they will find one, and if the worst thing they found in the apartment is a mark on the back of one chair, we're doing pretty well. 

What say you?

[Mark116]

Anyone?

[Colleen253]

@Mark116 Sounds bogus to me, and seems pretty clear these guests were trying hard to come up with a reason, any reason, for a refund. Like you say, changed their minds when they realized you were an onsite host, for some reason. 

If I were you, I wouldn't change anything.

[Mark116]

@Colleen253  It was really strange.  I also can't tell if they left a review or not, since today appearing under reviews in the side column was a note 'feedback cleaning/common area'...  There is nothing showing they left a review and since the cancellation there is no option for us to leave a review.

I'm trying not to be defensive.  It was really strange that they contacted Airbnb, no joke, within 5 minutes and didn't message us until after they'd sent the photos.   They had a blank profile and no reviews, so perhaps they were expecting the Four Seasons, I don't know.

The whole experience makes me very, very uncomfortable with hosting people who are local.  There always seems to be something going on and those stays overall are more work and stress.

[Emiel1]

@Mark116 

Please note, as the guest has vacated the accommodation, you lost the right to dispute such a "travel issue", as mentioned under article 4.3 :

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2868/airbnb-guest-refund-policy

But i would still dispute the "travel issue", otherwise you risk Airbnb comes with penalties (like an official  warning or even temporary suspending your listing)

[Mark116]

@Emiel1  Thanks for the link.  Yes, it was a highly chaotic few minutes, where we had to decide whether to refund them on the spot, according to the CS rep, which I think was incorrect, of course he also told us the guest couldn't review if it was an Airbnb cancellation which is also wrong.  We decided we basically didn't want them back in the house after they complained to Airbnb without contacting us first.  We did put in writing yesterday that we dispute the guest assessment of the space.

I guess I'll have to telephone them to try and find out what black marks Airbnb has put against the listing.  Strange how everything can collapse because of one jerk.