Long Term Guest left after 5 hours.... Suggestions

[Stephanie365]

Hello everyone,

I've just had a long term guest show up today at noon and leave at 5 pm.  She made the booking because she is finishing up a residency at a local hospital and made a reservation for 6 weeks.

She was originally scheduled to arrive on Saturday, but due to a miscommunication with her mom, she wound up not arriving until Noon on Sunday.

When she arrived, I greeted her and gave her the tour of the apartment. She said it was wonderful. I told her if she needed anything to please let me know. 

I stepped out to run an errand and received a message asking me if I could come talk to her. I told her I would be home in less than 30 minutes. 

Before I arrived home, she texted me and said she thought she was allergic to something in my apartment.

She followed up with another text saying she spoke to her mom (who was paying for the apartment) and who instructed her to leave. She stated,  "I talked to my mom and we both thought I'd be fine around a horse farm since I wasn't directly in contact with hay, but it turns out I'm not."  My listing clearly states the apartment is on a working horse farm and she and her mom were obviously fully aware of this and the presence of hay before booking, but took the chance anyways.

I also know AirBNB's long term refund policy is to not refund the 30 days after the cancellation once the trip has started. She would have 18 days left after the 30 days which would be refunded.

I feel bad that she is allergic to hay. But I think they are at least partly responsible for this because they knowingly booked on a horse farm.  She said her mom would be in touch to talk finances in terms of the AIrBNB agreement.

I have not heard from Mom yet, who is on her way home from out of town so I thought I would ask the Community's advice before I have to address her.

Thanks in Advance.

Stephanie

[Emiel1]

Hello @Stephanie365 ,

i  think the responsibility is on the guests shoulder. If a guest is allergic to hay, booking a place like yours is a risk. They were aware of that risk, but they gave it a try. Which is an expensive try, as the long term policy is clear: 30 days after cancellation are not refundable. So it depends on your goodwill if you want to refund them more. I think extra refund can be offered only if your place can be rented out to another guest in same period. 

Best regards,

Emiel

[Matthew285]

@Stephanie365, you haven't done anything wrong.

Let the guest contact AirBnB and ask what their options are.

The guest clearly knew about your listing being a horse farm in advance, and stated so (in what I hope was the AirBnB messaging system).

As @Emiel1 stated, at best if they cancel you can try to rent out the remainder of their stay and refund them if you can rent it out.

[Stephanie365]

Thank you. Apparently she went through AirBNB and cancelled, but she never contacted me directly. I received the 30 day payout and the rest of her stay was refunded. She has not reached out to me since.

[Matthew285]

@Stephanie365 well it is good to hear that the policy in force was actually followed.

Are you able to try to re-rent the remaining days of her stay?

[Stephanie365]

Yes, this opened up my calendar to re-rent to others.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Stephanie365

I'm glad you got your payout and the long-term cancellation policy was respected! I also host a lot of long-term guests so this has been something I always wondered about. Still...... the guest may try to get an additional refund and ABB might side with the guest - this could lead to ABB taking money away from your future payouts to make up for what they already paid out to you, so please be on the lookout just in case~

[Stephanie365]

The guest did leave a positive review, and I did reach out to her and offer to refund days which I was able to rebook. 

Since she was long term, and I have a discount for long term guests, I would be refunding any monies at the reduced rate to her so I would still make a little on each booking for the next couple of weeks.