Guest wants a refund because of construction noise

[Luana130]

Hi, I have a very large four stories house that I'm dividing into one and two bedroom apartments (I mention that on the house manual). I have just started  renting out the first unit, the others are still under construction. We've had 3 guests so far by airbnb.

We try to do only jobs that don't make much noise when we have guests, we got 5 star reviews from the previous guests, but the current guest has a problem with it.

He booked on the first week we published the apartment, and back then we were putting all the suggestions airbnb gave us, 20% discount for first 3 guests, 50% discount for anyone staying for a month (we don't do that anymore, it barely covers the costs). I was shocked at the amount when I received the request, but since I made the mistake, I decided to not decline. He booked the whole month.

As I said we try not to make much noise, but we had a problem in one of the apartments, a pipe burst, and we had to break the wall (brick wall) to fix it or we were gonna run out of water at the building. The contracter spent two days making noise because of this (I made sure they made no noise before 10am, and after 5pm). The guest complained, I explained what happened, he said ok.

A couple days latter (about 10 days after check-in) I start to receive messages from him, saying that the noise is unbearable (I live in the building, the only noise after that was talking, walking, a car that stoped by to make a delivery and the ocasional radio on) and that he wants a refund for the rest of the nights.

I told him that the montly rate he got was contingent on a non-refundable policy for those staying for a month. If he was staying less than that the rate for the days he already stayed would be more than what he paid for (all very polite and formal). He opened a dispute about it requesting about 70% of the money back.

To be honest I think he wants to take advantage of the incident. What do you think airbnb will do? What would you have done?

He is still staying here, day 14.

[Sarah977]

@Luana130  If the guest actually finds it "unbearable" one would think he would have cancelled and left already. No telling how Airbnb will handle it- they seem to side much more with the guest, but I wouldn't wait to see what they'll do, I'd contact them myself and explain the situation, rather than just letting Airbnb hear his side of it.

That said, it isn't enough to mention the construction noise in the house manual. You need to make the situation clear and prominent in the first part of your listing description. When the work is finished, you just go in and edit your listing to remove that part.

Quite honestly, I wouldn't be pleased to book a place where there was construction noise going on all day, even if it is only from 10AM to 5PM. It would mean I couldn't enjoy the space I'd paid for for 7 hours a day. I think that charging enough to cover expenses and not a whole lot more is something that is reasonable under the circumstances. I don't think most hosts would open their listing up for bookings if they had construction going on all day every day unless they were offering guests a substantial discount. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Emiel1]

@Luana130 

What i would do:

As he is on a very low rate, change the reservation (shorten the stay based on this low rate) and refund the unused nights. Sometimes it is best to get rid asap of some guests. And maybe you can rent out the unused nights again (at higher rate)

What Airbnb will do:

They are mostly sided at the guest, so they will probably honour his demands, unless you come with clear proof his complaints are over the top.

Best regards,

Emiel