Guests arrived. No water in the house

[Yulianna0]

Dear hosts, need your advice. My guests were just arriving now in the evening and suddenly I have heard sounds of works from the street. Water leak in the neighbors house. Water is cut. They brought bottles of water, but it doesn’t solve the problem! They say that it will be repaired this night. But what should I do in this situation? For the time being my guests went for dinner. I’m lost. Should I cancel their stay? Should I refund this night? Feel terrible 

[Helen3]

I would offer your guests the opportunity to cancel or if they want to stay, I would offer them a large discount for the night if the water doesn't come on .

You might be able to cancel under extenuating circumstances.

[Yulianna0]

Thank you @Helen3. I am surprised but it is solved in two hours:)  So no need to cancel, I already informed my guests that everything is repaired! 

[Helen3]

Great news, glad it all worked out @Yulianna0 

I would still leave a small gift for your guest - maybe a bottle of wine or local cakes to make up for the inconvenience.

[Yulianna0]

Sounds good, @Helen3. I think that I will do something like this:) 

[Sarah977]

@Yulianna0  That's great that it's back on now.

In this kind of situation, when things are totally beyond a host's control, I'd always just play it by ear- some guests would milk it for all it's worth, demanding refunds even if the only inconvenience was that they couldn't have a shower at the exact moment they wanted to, even if the water came back on an hour later. Some guests would be totally unfussed by it, acknowledging that they know it's not your fault, and rolling with it amicably as long as it wasn't a huge inconvenience. But I do think it's a nice idea to offer some gift- a bottle of wine or some homemade cookies or something.

We had a propane crisis here just before Xmas, no deliveries until mid-January, and I ran out of both my cooking stove and hot water gas cylinders 2 days before I had a guest coming for a week. Luckily I had a small barbeque size cylinder full that I just had to keep unhooking from the hot water and hook up to the stove every time I needed to cook. So I had to ask my guest to let me know 15 minutes before she wanted a shower so I could make sure to change the tank back to heat the water. She is from this country, and she knows that these things happen with annoying frequency, and the crisis was across several states, where she lived as well. So she was totally cool about it, and even said she really didn't mind taking a cool shower (it's never actually cold out of the big black water tank on my roof.)

[Yulianna0]

@Sarah977, that’s great when you have reasonable and understanding guests! I can imagine how inconveniente it is to live without gas. I have experienced it long time ago. Everything was cooked in the oven and I was dreaming about fried potatoes:) 

[Mark116]

@Yulianna0   How reliable is your local water company that you can believe them when they say it will be restored by tonight?

I would offer them maybe either a free night or a 50% reduction for the first night, as long as there is water by tomorrow morning, it's not that big of a deal, it isn't summer, so people shouldn't be upset if they can't take a shower for one night.  You should also provide them a couple of large gallons of bottled water.

If it isn't on by tomorrow morning though, it may be a big problem and you should call airbnb and see about getting them rehoused to a different place under the extenuating circumstances.

[Yulianna0]

Thank you @Mark116 for your advice. I hope for the best. Even though I can’t promise calm rest if they will be working all night:( I’ll suggest the refund of that night. And hopefully will not be obliged to cancel. Terrible feeling when something happening 

[Yadira22]

Hi @Yulianna0 

this is great news that the water is on. 

Maybe as a back try to source a couple of gallons of water or whatever seems convenient given your storage area as to cover any future situations like this. If not for showering then for cooking and drinking purposes. 

Better to be overly stocked and prepared than sorry! 

Have a beautiful day!

yadira 🙂

[Yulianna0]

@Yadira22, you are absolutely right. I rushed for water immediately when i realized that there is no water from the tap:) And now I have 3 big bottles:) I’ll keep it just in case:) Guests could have their shower and hope they will enjoy their stay! 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Yulianna0 

So glad to hear things worked out!

I know this is different example, but the apartment I live in will regularly (once every month or two) cut the water or electricity anywhere from a few several hours  or up to all day (from 9am till 5pm) when they need to do repairs and/or inspections. This means no opening the fridge, no cooking allowed, no showers, limited electricity, no elevator (and we live on the 14th floor!), and no wifi (since we need to turn the router off). I just let the guest know in advance, the apartment management office made an announcement or there was a notice posted so make sure you take a shower/do your laundry in advance or leave home while the elevator is still operating if you don't want to walk down 14 flights, or have meals early enough to cook and clean up, or go out to cafe if you need to get work done. No guest has ever complained about this yet. 

If the host acts like it's a big deal and apologizes profusely then the guest will start to "assume" that anything that goes wrong is ALL the host's fault. 

[Yulianna0]

@Jessica-and-Henry0, your guests have to pay you extra for gym when they are going to the 14 floor:)

It is a bit more manageable when works are planned and homeowners are informed. But urgent and unexpected things can happen. I was so much in panic that my guests were tranquilizing me:) Great thing that the same came from CS rep, they were ready to help. So some positive feelings in unpleasant situation:)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  @Sarah977 @Yulianna0 

it's interesting to read comments on this thread and to see how people from some countries are used to live with some inconveniances in life and those from other countries are not, and every single problem is a big deal for them  🙂

You said "they provided bottles of water but that's not enough..." hehe, no chance anyone would bring you a bottle of water in the same situation here, you are on your own my dear 🙂

[Yulianna0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0, I’m spoiled by conveniences of Spanish life:) But as originally Russian I remember perfectly what hard life is about:) For example, they have summer cuts of hot water. For weeks. So people had to warm water for shower in big bowls:) I remember electricity and heating limitations. Worse when it happen in winter. Not very comfortable to use warm coat as a pijama:) 

So, sometimes life has to remind me about problems and I can train my unused skills:)