Hello, I am a guest that stayed this past weekend in a booking in Isabela, Puerto Rico, and I would like some advice as to how proceed with my situation, if I am in the right, or if my Host is in the right.
Long story short, the listing was accurate, had all the amenities that were listed, and had friendly hosts. I stayed from Thursday to Sunday. My original check out was on Monday (today). Everything was going ok but from Saturday night to Sunday the building lost both electricty and water. Normally I dont have issue with loosing one of the two, but in this ocasion the host had no power plant, and thus couldn't get the water pump to give the building water. Mind you, this is in a VERY hot night in Puerto Rico, where the temperature was well in the 90's, with no drinkable water (my own supplies were depleted), no way to fight off the mosquitos, and no respite from the terrible heat. At dawn I personally had to go to a supermarket and get water for me and my family to drink.
Before the utilities returned on Sunday I had decided to make an early check-out, as I was afraid of falling into the same scenario. The host told me numerous times to not cancel the trip via the Airbnb app, as it "would impose a cancellation fee on me." She wanted to resolve the refund via an external system we use in PR similar to Paypal. I found that odd, but said it was okay. But as Sunday went past, I contacted her and didn't receive either the refund or any message whatsoever.
So I decided to cancel the trip officially through the AirBnB app, and made a request for $150 (a $50 refund she wanted to give for our "troubles" with the utilities and $100 for the Sunday night I wasn't going to be there.) As soon as she got those emails she contacted me, saying that since I chose to make the cancellation officially through Airbnb she would be damaged by it and that the refund deal was off. I told her that I cancelled due to situations outside our control and that I was aware that she had lied to me. There is no fee for a guest to cancel. She still refused, gave me the $50 "courtesy" refund, and told me that it was all she was going to do.
Now, I'm not looking to exact revenge for my bad time there, I'm not even looking for a full refund. I just want the refund for the night (sunday night) I didn't spend there. I could do without the "courtesy" refund. My family and I barely slept, I am still on topical medication for all the mosquito bites I got during my stay, and I just want to know how to proceed.
So my two questions are these:
1) Am I entitled to a refund for that night that I did not stay? (Sunday night)
2) And is the host in the wrong by trying to resolve the situation outside of Airbnb? She specifically lied to me about the cancellation fee so that I wouldn't do it officially.
Thank you for your time
