refund for no hot water

[Liz138]

My 2 adult guests arrived (Dec 26th) for the first night of their 6night stay to discover the hotwater cylinder in their accomodation was not working. Unfortunately unbeknown to me the HWC element had failed. As it was Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) an electrician was unavailable until the following day. HW Cylinder was repaired but guests did have to make-do for one night in the house without hot  water. Clearly this was a totally unexpected situation and not ideal. After i was contacted, I did manage to get it repaired as quickly as possible.  By the way it was hot, mid-summer and around 20degrees so guests could swim in the sea nearby, use outdoor facilities at the beach etc.

After several texts and my profuse apologies I have given a $100 discount. Unfortunately My guests have made it known that they expected more than this ($150)....

Having conferred with a number of people, most thought this amount was fair/generous.

Now Im really interested to know what do other hosts think? what would you have done in this situation?

[Paul364]

Hello Liz.

Your offer of $100 refund is extremely fair. Yes, the guests were inconvenienced a little, but such things in life happen. Even the big hotels have such issues. A friend on a long business trip here in Boston had to relocate with no notice after his suburban Hyatt had a hot water issue which closed the entire hotel. No refund except for unused days was offered.

All the best.

Paul

[Russell49]

 I think this is far beyond fair. People need to remember that Air BnB is someone's home and the unpredictable can occur. Sure, Hotels have access to maintanence employees, but even they clock off at some point and problems can arise.

We have a 250 liter water tank and wanted to upgrade to gas-unlimited hot water all day/night, but the reality is in a townhouse apartment strata will not let you change this, so we are asking guests to conserve hot water by limiting showers to 10 minutes-which is fair and a reasonable amount of time to shower...

The reality is that most people's homes in an ideal situation will have similar flair as a hotel, but air BnB rentals are not hotels and the discounted prices should leave a small amount of wiggle room or understanding for the unforseeable.

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Liz138 These things happen and are completely out of your control as host. Guests should understand that it goes with the territory. I think $100 was very fair. We had a similar situation - the furnace at our place failed on the coldest day we'd had so far, the day before guests were to arrive. A part was needed but the repairman was able to get it running to keep the place at a consistent 18 C, not ideal but at least they didn't have to wear their parkas indoors! We have a fireplace and our guests used that to get the heat up to 20C & they had to contend with the repairman interrupting their early family Christmas dinner celebration by coming back to install a new part. I conveyed this to them before they checked in, and gave them $100 as compensation. They were wonderful about it -  they said I didn't have to give them anything! It all comes down to guest temperment/pickiness/irritability - we lucked out, it sure could have been so much worse.

As you asked - in your situation, I likely would have given them the additional $50 to try to placate them & make them happy. But I think you did more than enough. Happy New Year! Karen

[Coln0]

50% off on the day they are unable to use the hot water will be more than sufficient.

[Rachael171]

I know this is a really old post but I just had this happen and I refunded the rate of the unit for the two days they were affected. $150

[Ioana47]

What are the rules, in the case when the host is traveling and he is not able to reply on time because the is on a different time zone?

Would it be fair to request 1 night of the stay (as shown on AirBnb price) as refund because I had to move to a hotel to have proper showering conditions?

I stayed at my host 2 or of 3 night because of this issue.