Guest claiming a refund

[Lynette46]

Good evening all.

We had an incident where a guest booked one of our listed houses. We stay in a big 5 reserve. Ellies caused some damage to the Jo Jo tank of the house which could not have been repaired before the guests arrival. I offered the guest alternative accommodation (not one of my own). The guests accepted the offer. As we had very little time to prepare the new lodge the cleaning crew was still busy preparing the lodge for the guests when they arrived. Because of this they now demand a nights refund stating they had wasted a day...

This was not true.. yes maybe the guests was a little inconvenience because the cleaning crew were still preparing but not much we could do in such a short time frame. Not only are they demanding a night's refund but wants us as the host to refund the service fee charged by airbnb. 

I dont want to refund them as they had a 2 night stay in a much bigger lodge than they orginally booked and they did not lose out on anything. I feel they are opportunistic. I see that they have posted a review on the house that they originally booked with us but dont wish to post my comments as yet in order to read theirs as a poor and unfair rating from them would jeopardise our listing. I feel we are being blackmailed. Any suggestions please?

[Letti0 · Accepted solution]

@Lynette46  My guess is the review will be bad either way. Though you may be able to get it removed as they never actually stayed in your place. I would not refund them anything. How much time was involved? If they complain to AirBnB they will contact you for information be ready for it by documenting everything in the AirBnB system. From them agreeing to stay in a much more expensive rental and the amount of time the cleaning crew actually was there after check in and why this all happened including the damage to the other house. Actually you could have just canceled on them due to extinuating circumstances and really made a mess of their 2 days, which is what most hosts would have done. You went out of your way to find them new housing and are getting slapped in the face for. Review them honestly.   

[Sarah977]

@Lynette46   You won't be able to read their review unless you post yours or until 14 days after check-out, when theirs will be posted and it will be too late for you to leave one. Reviews are blind- both are published when both are submitted. If only one party writes a review,  that review will appear after 14 days. 

BTW, What's a big 5 reserve?

What's an Ellie?

What's a Jo Jo tank?

I consider myself fairly literate, but I've never heard any of those terms before.

[Letti0]

@Sarah977  The Jo Jo tanks are water storage tanks similar to my 30K and 40K rain tanks, but usually smaller. The only reason I know about the  big 5 reserve is my daughter went to South Africa and a safari guide told her and she told me. It's the five large game animals the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo. The permit costs are huge think $10k TO $100k depending on the animal. Ellies I believe are baby elephants. 

[Sarah977]

@Letti0   Thanks for the explanations- You really are a wealth of info. It's funny that what people consider to be normal English terms that any native English speaker would understand, can be like another language, depending on where you're from. Whenever I've read English novels, I run into the word "biro". I was told it's a term in Great Britain for a ball point pen. But in fact, it was a brand name for ballpoints, like Bic, and used like we say kleenex, when the tissues might be a totally different brand.

[Letti0]

@Sarah977  Exactly. I had a cashier tell me to use the Biro in a  pharmacy in London and I looked at him like a deer in the headlights. Had no clue he wanted me to sign the receipt lol with the pen proved. This was pre-chip days. 

[Rachel0]

@Sarah977 @Letti0 Years ago when I lived in Tanzania we were playing a game of Yahtzee with some American friends (you had to make your own entertainment out there).  I asked him if he had pencil with a rubber on it ..... he was a bit baffled!

[Catherine232]

As a Canadian kid, who grew up in NZ until 13, and then returned to Canada, I amused many of my Canadian high school peers by asking for a rubber in class!

[Letti0]

@Rachel0  I think my daughter would disagree with you about the fun. She claimed she was never bored. Her second night there her and her best friend got caught in a gunfight in a bar. They had to dive behind the main bar. A local and a Swedish couple they had meet helped get them out the back door bribing the bouncers to let them out. They then went to the local's house (a mansion by the way) and continued on like it never happened. They became really good friends with the Swedish couple and have gone to Sweden and stayed with them and also had them hosted them here in the US at her home. The whole week they were there all kinds of exciting things happened to them. Of course she didn't tell us any of this until she was back home. This was about 6-7 years ago. They had gone out to South Africa to work/volunteer at an orphange for the first month of summer and then spent the next month hoping all over. To this day I still send a supply of soccer balls and flip flops there once a year as her first day there she used her satelite phone to tell me to send them up a bunch as they had nothing to play with and were all mostly barefoot. My mom who loves to shop (I hate to shop)  looks for the $2.99 sale on canvas gym shoes here now and we buy them then in a varity of sizes in addition to the flip flops and send them also now in addition to some other things when my mom scores a deal she thinks they can use. It gives her a reason to constantly shop and bargin hunt lol... We pack it all up once a year and ship ot out there, they only have like 30-40 children at this orphange so it's not a lot of money. 

[Rachel0]

@Letti0 Oh no, I was not bored!  I lived there for 6 years with my ex husband (Scottish) who was doing his Doctorate on Intermediate Technology and brought up my two eldest sons, who were toddlers at the time.  No time to be bored.  I am so glad that you daughter is helping to supply some much needed equipment for the children.