A long term booking left after 3 nights, and is set to be refunded for all the nights that they didn’t book because a complaint about vermin was validated by Airbnb. I feel like they were just wanting to try out Airbnb, but after deciding it wasn’t right for them, they complained in order to get a refund. I feel this way because they have 0 reviews and have family in the area, and are between leases. I also am a super host, have followed Airbnb guidelines for hosting, and have received nothing but 5 star reviews for several months of bookings. They asked me to meet them for check-in and show them around, which I was happy to do even though I have a self check-in set-up. I thought it was unique that their mom who was not staying with them came to the check-in, but understandable given they were booked for a month and it’s a new experience for them. The next evening I got a call that my washing machine was broken. Myself and my housekeeper have used this same washing machine to turnover Airbnb’s as recently as the days prior to their check-in, and long term guests have used it without issue, but somehow on the second night of their stay, they were able to break the washing machine. I came over at their request that same night with extra towels and tried to fix it myself, but told them I needed to schedule an appliance repairman. The damage was suspect, and I also found it odd that laundry needed to be done upon check-in, but I still offered to pay for any laundry that they needed to do offsite while I sorted out the repair. I understand that Airbnb’s host timelines for unexpected damages getting resolved was 72 hours before they would get involved. Before I left they told me everything was going well. It was Friday night and I wasn’t able to schedule anything but did work on repair estimates the next day. Saturday came, and I messaged the guest to let them know I would drop off additional towels, at their request, and they said they were out but I could leave them, which I did. I got a call a few hours later from an unknown number and a voicemail was left by the guest’s mother. She was angry because I hadn’t fixed the washer yet, and she brought up a new issue about roaches and said I needed to also schedule a spray. At this point I had been to the house 3 times in 3 days and felt like the guest was being unreasonable, and that communication had crossed a boundary and had become a bit threatening. I read some articles on the community page about what to do in this situation and decided to message the guest through Airbnb, documenting what had occurred and what solutions have been presented, and stating that I would like to resolve their issues, and I asked them to please communicate through Airbnb as well. My hope was that Airbnb could offer me some support, however I then got a message from Airbnb saying that the guest had left because of vermin, which had been documented by the guest and already validated by Airbnb. My house was recently deep cleaned. It backs up to a green belt and neighbors a park so there are bugs. It’s in Texas, and in the summer, and the ac is good so those bugs could potentially be roaches, but no amount that should have immediately validated their reason for cancelling. The documentation was two pictures of two separate bugs they had killed, provided to airbnb on the third day of their stay after I had told them to communicate through Airbnb. I was fine with them leaving as their being there was stressful, but questioned their refund, thinking at most it should be partial and take into consideration missed booking opportunities given they were booked for a month at a home that is filled 50%+ of available nights at least a month in advance. Airbnb later told me that they actually didn’t leave that night, and would be checking out the next day. I was surprised and extremely disappointed by the Airbnb response, having been given this little protection and immediately discredited by a guest without much investigation. It’s a huge financial hit and because of how this was handled I am reconsidering hosting through Airbnb all together. Even now, 2 days after their check out, their reservation hasn’t been updated and I still can’t recoup the days with new bookings, plus Airbnb support is not responding to me. Has anybody else had a similar experience with a validated complaint? Is my frustration with AirBNB warranted? Any recommendations on where to take this from here to get some actual Airbnb support?
