Need immediate feedback

[Martin53]

We have guests who told me when they checked in that they would be leaving early on the day of check out.  I received a message the day before check out that the installers would be coming to our home between 7 and 9 am to start installing our solar panels.  This had been scheduled for 6 months but we did not know the day or time.  I wanted to respect our guests privacy by not stopping by the house and communicate with the guy who set up the reservation through cell phone.  I texted him the night before to let him know the situation and since he said they were going to leave early, I did not think it would be a problem.  I did not get a response. I told them my husband would probably be stopping by around 7:00 am to pick something up before going to work.  He said no problem they would be out early.  When my husband contacted them on Monday morning, our guest indicated that he and his friends were really upset because they got awakened at 7:00 am and they wanted to sleep in and were not planning to leave until at least noon.  Our check in and out is flexible.  Our guest believed they should be compensated for not being able to have full use of the house until they were leaving.  When my husband spoke to him, he said he would see what we could do.  When I didn't respond soon enough because I was in class, he told the guest that maybe we could reimburse them $1000.  He admitted that he was totally wrong because he had not talked to me first about what had already transpired.  In fact, they did not leave until 12:30 so they still had full use of the house.  They were very nice people and left the house pretty clean.  We feared that if we told them we would not compensate them, they may have not left the house in tact (just an assumption).   Are we wrong to not compensate them?

Please advise.

Thanks!!!

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Martin53,

I would compensate them a little bit but not $1000.  

[Marcus0]

@Martin53 i am assuming $1000 is a typo, most likely you meant $100 given your night rates seem to be $100.   I guess the decision on the amount is up to you and of course it should be fair and reasonable.  It is always best to communicate any changes through the airbnb message system rather than texting.  This allows Airbnb to possibly mediate in the future on any new matters.  Regarding advertised check-in and check-out times, i am always pretty strict with this.  Airbnb defaults to flexible but unfortunately this is always open to abuse especially if you get a new booking on the day they depart.  I see though you may have changed it to midday now?  I prefer 10am officially on Airbnb and any later can be negotiated after so you are legally in the best position to dictate until when they have paid.

[Čestmír0]

Hi Martin, 

I think the high of compensation depends on you. Flexible check in and check out means that both sides should arrange the time in advance - not that guests will say when they wanna leave and the host must adapt. It´s better to communicate just via Airbnb but I believe it were your guests who changed the rules during the game.