Long Term Guest was unhappy and wished to cancel asking for a refund.

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

Long Term Guest was unhappy and wished to cancel asking for a refund.

I recently had a long term guest check in and upon my return from dinner he asked to chat to me and said that he needed a private bathroom (despite my listing stating that the bathroom is shared with other guests). He then left the listing on his own volition and is now asking me to refund him. I had suggested that since I was not at fault, if he cancelled the reservation and I was able to get new guest in for at least part of the month I would be willing to let him have that guest payout as a refund. This way, I will still get what I budgeted for this month and still allow him to have some sort of refund. Notably, I am not obligated to offer him any refund due to airbnb's long term cancellation policy. He booked about a week prior to arrival and therefore my calendar has been blocked for a while. He has also been extremely rude in his interactions with me because he wants a full refund. What do I do in this situation (note, he still has an active booking and has not cancelled despite leaving my listing), he has also complained to airbnb that my place is dirty which is a lie because I have a cleaning crew come in prior and after each booking. He even went as far as sending airbnb a picture of the second door of my property which is on the main road - so of course that door has a bit of dust and some leaves in front of it.... I guess guests will look for any excuse to circumvent policies they agreed to.

10 Replies 10
Solveig0
Level 10
Lørslev, Denmark

Hi @Priyanka7 , 

 

Sorry about your experience. I don't have much to contribute, just make sure that you keep your communication with the guest within the airbnb messaging system, so that when needed you will have easy access to proof for airbnb customer service. 

Yours, 
Solveig 

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

Thanks Solveig, he has been communicating with me on whatsapp but I have been sharing the conversation with our case manager on the app. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

@Priyanka7 You shouldn't be corresponding with the guest on What's App. You should confirm to your guest that all messaging should be kept on Airbnb and that you won't be able to correspond with him any further on what's app.

 

Confirm via Airbnb your kind offer to consider a partial refund for any days re-booked (pro-rata'd on your monthly rate) if he cancels and you are able to re-book, remind him he needs to cancel through Airbnb and then leave it.

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

Hi Helen, thanks. The guest started the conversation over WhatsApp so I just continued. He has now gone ahead and complained that my listing was unclean - a total lie! I have offered him a 15% refund due to pressure from Airbnb! I really don’t understand the point or their cancellation policies if they refuse to follow them

Betsy16
Level 3
Sarasota, FL

Totally agree with you, I have guests cancel and want their money back, I have a strict cancellation policy and sometimes I do give a refund, but I have been hosting for over 5 years, and have also been a guest, the first thing I look at is the cancellation policy. 

I would not refund him a dime. 

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

I was coerced by airbnb into refunding him because he then claimed my listing was "unclean". He eventually got close to 15% back and also left me a 1 star retaliation review that is malicious. Airbnb are giving me a hassle to remove it and I honestly feel so despondent about this. Us hosts are the reason this platform is so successful and its a pity that we are not treated accordingly.

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

His problem was that he didn't understand what private room means. All your other reviews are great . I would leave a brief response saying something like guest thought he had booked a whole apartment, not a room. Please read the listing before booking to avoid confusion.

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Priyanka7 

i am so sorry this happened. 
Just letting you know that I checked your profile and the review is not there, at least not currently.

i would also add to when responding only mention and reply to the negatives he publicly posted on the review. Keep it professional and concise and reiterate the need to read the full listing and rules before booking as this will help in establishing expectations. 
good luck to you 🙂

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

thanks for the tip Yadira, I actually ended up contacting another Airbnb agent who was so much more helpful and ended up removing the review as I had produced messages where my guest specifically threatened to “escalate things” and “lay a complaint against my listing” amongst other things like asking for me to return specific amounts of cash before he reports me. I always knew this was going to end up in a retaliation review- what I find strange is how one case manger can say that these messages don’t fall within the bounds of the extortion policy and then when I try contact someone else they can clearly see that there’s a causal link between me not offering him a full refund and the retaliatory review. I wish there was more consistancy in these cases. Anyways, I’ve noticed that despite it being removed- my rating still has tanked? 

Priyanka7
Level 6
Cape Town, South Africa

Something very strange just happened. After getting a case manager to remove the retaliatory review - i get a call a few days later stating that the review will be reinstated because that case manager was wrong. I'm not sure why this happened and after providing them with the same documentation they said that they will be reinstating the review. Airbnb's customer service seems to disregard the effect that this has on the hosts. The guest loses nothing from this but the impact on the host is extremely disproportionate. I find the lack of certainty extremely prejudicial to hosts and am actually considering no longer hosting if this is the way hosts are being treated