Guest requesting full refund, a month after a 2 month booking

[Christopher187]

One of my most difficult guests ever, is now requesting a full refund for his 2 month booking.  He checked out nearly a month ago and left this review: "Great place to stay in Champaign-Urbana."

I left him a negative review at the end of the 2 week review period because I found him impossible to deal with and just not suited for Airbnb.  I expect his request for the entire 2 month booking price is retaliation for that.  

Should I just ignore his money request, or is there some chance Airbnb takes him seriously?

[Emiel1]

@Christopher187 

I think your review is too much details and can imagine V.  is not happy with such a long story on his profile. Allthough he has the opportunity to comment on it. Review mentions also Airbnb was involved, don't know if this will be considered of a violation of their content policy for reviews (in case V.  requests a remove of the review). Did he asked you for full refund or did he involve Airbnb ? It seems to me an odd request and clearly a retaliation, without any valid reason for a refund..

[Donna651]

Hello

[Kelly149]

@Christopher187 never ignore any communication from a guest or ABB, I believe they could use this to somehow construe consent. Even if you feel you're being repetitive you should continue to reiterate that: yes, he stayed for his entire stay, that you offered multiple times for him to cut short his stay but he did not, that you all found him more bothersome that he found you and that, no, he should not receive any refund.

repeat as necessary and keep in mind that yes, abb can do anything they want, so I'd go on the offensive

[Christopher187]

I don't see how my review of the guest might violate the Airbnb content policy.  Are you refering to restrictions against "Content that provides specific details or outcomes of an Airbnb investigation" ?  I don't regret the long review for one moment, as the guest was absolutely infuriating and I would not wish him on any other host.  

Also worth noting that the guest gave 4/5 stars for cleanliness and 5/5 stars for accuracy. Now, weeks later, he is asking for a full refund because he claims "Unclean or inaccurate listing".

I wrote a full response to the guest/Airbnb, declining the money request.  Also urged Airbnb remove the user from the platform.

[Anonymous]

@Christopher187  For the content policy have a look here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546/

The relevant prohibited item is this one:

• Content that provides specific details or outcomes of an Airbnb investigation

In this case, "investigation" can be taken to refer to any dispute over payments or refunds that gets escalated to a case manager. So although it seems credible that your review was honest and relevant to future hosts, the mentions of Airbnb's mediation would technically put it over the line in terms of this policy.

Bear in mind, though: nothing in the Content Policy suggests that a breach of it is grounds for any kind of refund. Your guest's refund request is utterly ludicrous, and in your response you can refer to the Guest Refund Policy at https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/544:

• Contact us to bring the travel issue to our attention. If you notice the issue during check-in, contact us within 24 hours. If the issue occurs during your stay, contact us right away. We'll ask you to provide photographs or other documentation that show what you're experiencing.

That is, within 24 hours of check-in, or immediately during the stay, and not two months after check in and certainly not after check-out. 

It's at Airbnb's discretion whether to remove the user. Your review should have done the job, but I'm afraid its reference to the dispute will result in it being deleted outright, thus setting the bad guest loose again. Perhaps you might ask for a few lines to be redacted.

[Christopher187]

Hmm, well word for word, I can't see how merely mentioning mediation constitutes "specific details or outcomes of an Airbnb investigation".  I guess we'll see.

For anyone reading this thread that doesn't feel like making all the clicks to find out, here is the line in question: "I ended up contacting Airbnb support to help mediate."  I can't see how that violates the policy.

In any case, Andrew's point is well taken - I should have written the review more carefully so that it would have less chance of being deleted.

[Christopher187]

Somewhat hilarious update: turns out that the guest trying to get a full refund actually had his housing cost fully paid for by the professor/department he was visiting for his two month stay (the guest was a visiting professor at the university where I live).  So the guest is trying to get a full refund of someone else's money.  The professor who paid for everything was really surprised when I told him what his associate was doing.

[Christopher187]

Another update: Airbnb closed the guest's money request the next day.  Unfortunately, when I asked the rep what they do with users like this who are pretty obvious just trying to commit fraud, the rep would not answer any questions.