Guest refund

[Shilpa5]

Good morning,

This is a first for me as I have never had a major issue where I could solve it by working with the guest, however, your guidance will be greatly appreciated in a difficult position I am in.

I have a guest who checked in approx 1 week ago and due to check out tomorrow. 

Unfortuantlrey and a big inconvenience for guest and I was the hot water tank stopped working 1 week the accommodation. I reside in Australia but have a local  caretaker who manages the villa full time. I promptly instructed the caretaker to fix the tank or get a new one but being Fiji, things move slowly.

10 days in the guest did not have hot water and to make matters more challenging the continuous rain did not help the solar power.

Off course i apologized to the guest and offered free extension and accommodation for 1 week without any charge coupled with partial refund. 

I think the guest is expecting the full refund and this is something that is confusing me only because the caretaker and electrician are saying to me that the guest did not let them into work and fix the issue but and guest is saying the electrician is incompetent. I other words i am getting a scenario "he says, she says".

Furthermore the guest mentioned that they did not have water for 10 days but when the caretaker went and spoke to him and turned the taps on, it was working fine without hot water.

Things would be so much simpler if I was in Fiji but I am not.

Your thoughts team?

Warm regards

Shilpa/Kulvindar.

[Clare0]

@Shilpa5 Ultimately it is the host's responsibility to make sure all the amenities work, including hot water.  Bottom line, if the guest did not have hot water, despite what caretakers / plumbers say, this will fall on you. If I were out of the country and my guest said there was no hot water, unless I had some sort of documentation (receipt for a new water heater, for example) that proved the situation was fixed quickly, I would offer a sizable refund. 

Imagine booking a place only not to have hot water.  Guests don't want to be tangled up with caretakers and repair people.  They just want the problem fixed.  Wouldn't you? 

I would imagine that Airbnb would side with the guest in this situation especially if the guest did not have hot water for 10 days. 

My 2 cents.  🙂

[Cormac0]

@Shilpa

Did your guest, once ask to move to more suitable accommodation? or were they quite happy to stay in your place even with the inconvenient of having no hot water, Fiji is a very warm country if I'm not incorrect and not having hot water should not be a that big an in convenience, could they not have boiled a kettle?

I'm getting alarmed with the magnitude of compensation people are requesting while quite happy to remain on the premises.

Did you asked your guest would they like to find alternative accommodation? that would put the ball back in their court.

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer's Club Krakow III

The Explorer's Club Krakow VIII