Ok, so we are new at the hosting process and we do appreciate that it can be a bit of a learning curve. We recently renovated our 400 year old cottage and fitted it out to what I would consider a superior standard. We went live at the end of June 2019 and our seventh set of guests are currently staying there. The first six sets of guests left excellent reviews and rated five stars on everything. One even left a hand written note behind thanking us.
All has been well to date with the exception of the occasional message asking about local walks etc and other routine things and I have always responded to any calls or messages immediately and I would hope satisfactorily, even updating our house manual accordingly.
The thing is, I am feeling a little uncomfortable about our current guests and am not sure if I am just being a little paranoid? The guest has been a member of Airbnb since 2014 and there is only one review which is basically just a neutral one line. Our check in times are from 2:00pm and check out by 10:00am. Their booking was initially for two nights which he then amended to three nights a couple of weeks ago. Three days before check in he messaged stating that they may need to amend back to two nights and would that be ok, I said it would be fine. Then, the following day he confirmed that they would stay the three nights, but due to the current heat wave they would prefer to leave London and check in a little earlier if at all possible? I said that would be fine as well, he then confirmed that they would arrive at 10:00 on their due day (which is more than a little early I thought, but doable as no other guests the day before)
The day before they arrived, our gardener noticed a small wasps nest in the lawn when mowing. I immediately messaged the guest stating the problem and advising him that it would be dealt with that evening when cooler and the nest non active, but I would mark the location with a brick so he could avoid it. He messaged back saying that they planned to spend the day in the garden, they had a child and could I confirm when done. Which I did that evening.
They arrived early the following day and immediately messaged saying that the nest was still active with a few wasps. I messaged right back stating that the wasp killer took 24 hours to be completely effective but the gardener would treat again that night. If that did not work then to let me know and I would get a professional company out on the Following day.
The following day I messaged asking about the nest and asking if the gardener could access the garden to inspect. Had no response. Several hours later I rang to ask again and call was ignored.
Today, they messaged saying hot water was not working. I called right away and was able to quickly talk him through resetting the immersion heater which had tripped out. I asked how everything was and he said fine, but his response seemed a little cool. I immediately informed him that I was going to refund him £20 for this minor inconvenience (charge is £100 per night, five guests and no additional fees) Total time from his message to refund was 12 mins.
The thing is, I have this really uneasy feeling, like he is going to claim his kid was stung by a wasp or exaggerate the hot water issue or something else... just a gut feeling, and am now wondering if I did the right thing by giving him a small refund in the first place? I feel as though I have been as helpful as possible but suspect he is going to leave a stinking review and demand full refund.
Help? What can I do and has anyone had a similar problem?
