Picky guest wants refund

[Steph8]

I've had nothing but wonderful reviews, people love the place.  Now we have our token "picky guest" who began messaging us with complaints of how the house did not meet their cleaniliness standard.  Within a few minutes of their arrival the wife had actually checked the ledge above the shower wall for hair, and alerted us that she found some hair up there. From having challenges connecting to wifi (our housekeeper came over to the house and helped them), to having a hard time finding sheets for their extra guests (they found them), all the way to messaging me to say we need to talk to our housekeeper about what kind of job she's doing, etc.

They've "attempted" to send us pictures of this atrocious mess they are having to stay in, both through airbnb messages and through direct email, yet we have not seen anything.

They've contacted airbnb saying they had an emergency and for us to contact them immediately, but when I ask him about this, he doesn't answer my question.

Now they are asking for a refund of their housekeeping fee.

How can I protect myself and what should I do?

[Andrea9]

@Steph8

Sounds like they are setting you up to wiggle out of their booking and getting paid for it.

I hope you kept all this conversation on the booking message page to create a record of proof for Airbnb? If not, Airbnb will most probably honor guest's wish. Always good to reiterate on the message page to reflect how you solved the problems or did your best to solve them.

If you did, then it would reflect the difficult guests actions and possibly fake complaints and thus probably enough reason for Airbnb to contact you about it.

Hopefully you replied to your guest about the emergency on the message page and not simply through another device.

Airbnb needs proof the host tried to solve the problem as best they could, and if they can't see it on your online exchange it's as if it didn't happen.

You might want to call Airbnb and discuss your problems and ask how to proceed. 

[Steph8]

Thank you, the information was very helpful. I apreciate the reassurance that I'm doing eveyrthing correct.  I've done everything you mentioned in your post.

Fortunatley all messages have been through airbnb messaging system, everything is documented.  Even his "attempts" to send pictures that have yet to actually be seen.  Attempts to solve the issues have been documented through the messaging system, along with asking him about his attempts to contact airbnb.

I called airbnb directly, not quite sure if I reached the same country I am in, but the staff person at  airbnb reviewed the case, my messages, and asked questions for clarification. The case has been "escalated to a Trip Manager".  The guest has not filed any complaints within the 24 hour period of check-in and the Trip Manager will determine later if this is a valid case or if these people just have incredibly high cleanliness standards.

Again, thanks for your help.  I will continue to document this case as it might be helpful information for future hosts encountering the same issue.

[Andrea9]

@Steph8 It sounds good, and they will have made a record of your phone conversation, so if guest tries to get a refund, I doubt they'll have much chance, esp. seeing that they are still staying there snug as a bug.

If things go sideways anyway, call them again. 

If your guest leaves an unfair revenge review, I'd try getting Airbnb to take it down. Officially, they don't do this, but I've seen instances where when there was a record of unfair guest whinings it has been known to happen.

Anyway, hope it all goes well.

[Maggie77]

I am experiencing my first picky guest. The place was cleaned but she didn't think it was clean enough. Then I had two people come to clean again and fix all the issues she had. Still it wasn't clean enough. She said she would have to clean it herself.