Guest failed to advise a problem which caused loss of another reservation and excessive water loss

[Kaye36]

My last guest managed to break the toilet flush while I was away for a few days and didn't contact me to advise the issue. This resulted in two days of constant water loss and I had to decline another reservation - if I'd known it was broken on the Saturday I could have arranged a plumber, but I didn't return home until Sunday evening (she was out) to discover it broken. Monday was also a public holiday so I couldn't contact my agent to get a plumber until Tuesday. I will now have an excessive water bill, and I also had to decline an 8 day reservation starting yesterday because the toilet wasn't fixed. I contacted the guest responsible asking her when it broke, she eventually responded (telling me it was Saturday morning). Really not sure how to handle this one!

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Kaye36

Not a lot you can do in terms of compensation - as a host you are expected to check your property over once a guest has left and not leave it for a few days. If you can't do it then someone else should on your behalf. I also find it strange that you just didn't call out an emergency plumber on the Monday - I would have done that so as not to lose an 8 day reservation. 

You would also have to prove that the guest did something wrong to break the flushing mechanism. Flushing mechanisms break over time - and again, AirBnB would expect you to have contacts and suppliers in place to do an emergency repair.

That's not of much help to you I'm afraid - you could give the guest a bad review, but to be honest if I was the guest I would be in touch with AirBnB to remove it as you could not prove how the damage arose- wear and tear, acccidental damage or deliberate damage.

Good luck

[Kaye36]

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the toilet when I left on Friday night - it is not that old and had been no previous issues. The guest obviously tried to do something to it as the lid was off and pieces of the flushing mechanism had been removed. She was not home when I returned on Sunday to query her - she got in very late while I was asleep and left very early the next morning with no explanation of the toilet issue. Had she notified me by text or called me on Saturday when there was a problem, I would have come back home to get it fixed immediately (I was at my partner's place). 

[Cormac0]

@Kaye36

Why did you not turn the water off as soon as you found out the problem?

[Kaye36]

The water loss happened while I was away - I would have come back to address the issue had the guest advised me.