The internet is not a toaster!

[Ange2]

Access to internet should not be set to the same standard as the amenities that are within the hosts control.

Internet like electricity, water and gas is a "Utility"  NOT an amenity.

WE have no control over it if a service povider is having problems or there is a system wide outage.

I am shocked that as per a post Airbnb would refund $1600.00 to a guest because the internet was not working for a few days, despite the fact the guest was quite happy to take advantage of the hosts listing for the full duration of the reservation. Yet when it comes to leave they want all their money back because the internet did not work. They want a free vacation and it appears that Airbnb is only happy to oblige. It's beyond completely unreasonable if not worse.

And this is not the first time this has been reported in the 'forum'.

It also goes against Airbnb policy, which states that a complaint has to be made within 24 hours  –  not a week, two weeks, at the end of teh reservation,  after the fact.

The internet is NOT a toaster, if the Service Provider has a problem, NO ONE but the Service Provider can rectify that problem.

Access to the internet is not perfect.

HOTELS do not even refund a nights fee, at best they offer dinner, or  a cocktail on the house.

Hotels will not cover a guests roaming fees nor data charges for hotlinking to a telephone.

Airbnb's willingness to return hosts fees to guests  (across the board, not just for internet) after the guest has taken advantage of the hosts listing and  on the filmsiest of complaints and outside Airbnb policy of a  24 hour window encourages guests to take advantage of the sytem. It has apparently become a known scam – in circles that are so inclined it is known as  "how to get a free vacation on Airbnb" .

[Anonymous]

my god !! is that true ???? come on this is a shame !!

[Wei-and-Ting0]

Haha tell me about it, got a bad review from a guest once saying the internet was "extremely" flakey because it went down on the ISP side for 30 minutes one morning during their 3 day stay (a 0.7% downtime for those keeping track). This is accomodation in an average house (in a country known for bad internet no less), not a google data centre, get a grip.

[Ange2]

@George0 This problem of refunds sometimes for the whole reservation because the internet is slow or there is an outage has been posted quite a few times in the forum. People do not have control over their service provider. It's tantamount to Airbnb refunding guests because the sun didn't shine for their vacation.

[Lois-and-Darryl0]

I don't know whether to place a Thumbs up or not on this posting.  I don't quite understand the purpose.  At the start of this message, it says that Internet is a utility, like water and gas, and then the rest of the message makes the totally opposite point.  Obviously, I'm easily confused because this already has 11 Thumbs Up's, and I don't know what is being asked of Airbnb; I only hear a message, not really a request.  If there is a request, it is based upon a wild-sounding story that really should be confirmed as accurate by Airbnb, before other Hosts agree that it's a good idea and needs to be implemented (once we all know what that is).  Thanks!

[Ange2]

@Lois-and-Darryl0

Regarding your message

"Start of message"  = A statement, Internet is a utility.

"Rest of message" = Airbnb says the internet is an 'amenity', Airbnb rules have penalties for 'amenities' listed but not provided.

ASK: Internet should not be treated as an amenity, nor subject to penalties for outages or sluggishness, it is beyond the host's control.

As for wild sounding posts, yes indeed, wild, but that doesn't make them untrue. To reiterate, the host is subject to penalties for any 'amenity' listed but not provided, so whether the wild-sounding posts are verified or not is irrelevant to the fact that Airbnb's listing of the internet as an amenity is a risk to the host because as an 'amenity' , even though beyond the hosts control, the host can be penalized, the guest refunded, even when the guest decided to stay for the duration of their reservation with internet outage.

Back to ASK: The internet should not be treated as an amenity nor fall under the same rules / penalties applied to non-working of listed amenity that is within the host's control. The internet is not a toaster!

[Edwin57]

the problem here we as Host have to black list bad Guest as well as some Host, and Airbnb have to paid attention to there workers to see if they are  doing there job, you know what i mean, befor it gets out of hand or the .GOV gets in involved you Know what i mean Airbnb we work with you and Guest, Airbnb works with us as well as guest