Hi all,
I'm seeking advice from the amazing experienced super star hosts in this community for guidance.
I have recently had two terrible experiences one after the other that are semi-linked - both causing me so much stress and anxiety.
The first guest notified me during his stay that one of the beds of my two-bedroom apartment had broken slats (probably from the bed being jumped on). Until he alerted me, I had no idea it was broken, and he insists it wasn't him which means my cleaners had missed it. I wasn't sure who to charge the damage to as I had no evidence of it being there prior to his visit or not so I was happy to cover it. I offered him a late check out and half of his cleaning fees back as recourse, however this was ignored. Then the day after he checked out, he suddenly requested that 2 full days of his 4-day booking be refunded because he paid for 2 rooms and only got 1 - and it was only then that he told me he slept on the sofa couch for the remaining 3 nights after he discovered the slat issue. I had the opportunity to go and fix the slats because I was getting some spare ones, but he refused access on the morning I was free and then told me that they were ok. So, all of this came as a shock to me and I was quite saddened by it because he himself is a host in another city and I would have thought of all people he would understand this was accident and could have been rectified quite easily if he had given me access (just a 30 minute job to fix). Of course, I'm sorry I didn't fix it during his stay but it was only because he said that they were ok and I also didn't know he was sleeping on the couch for the rest of his stay. He based his costs as exactly half of the booking included service fees to Airbnb as well as if the apartment was exactly split into two rooms which I deem unfair as an apartment is more than just bedrooms. You have utilities, internet, the lounge, dining, kitchen and other building amenities so splitting exactly down the line does not make sense to me. I have gone back to him with a counter offer, but I feel that if I don't give him his full request back, he now can leave me a negative review. Does anyone have any advice on what a fair resolution would be? I have offered him 3 nights at a third of the costs per night instead of exactly half - is this fair?
To add injury to insult, I attended the clean after the first guest checked out and as I want to be a considerate person I notified my next guest as a courtesy that there was a small bed slat issue and I was getting spare slats to replace it but would need access to the apartment a little after her check in time to access and replace them. I had said in my message that the beds were stable but just couldn’t be jumped on. To my utter surprised the next guest immediately cancelled her booking and then demanded a full refund without even speaking to me (even though I had sent her all my check in details earlier that morning) and she had my direct number. Being that it was Saturday afternoon already and I had held her booking in my calendar for nearly 2 weeks I said to her that I couldn’t refund her stay as I have a moderate cancellation policy and only offer refunds if she cancelled 5 days prior to her arrival, not to mention I was unlikely to get a booking in so late into the weekend and the apartment was perfectly liveable bar the slat issue which would be fixed shortly. That’s when the nastiness and name calling started, followed by threats of legal action and defamation across the Airbnb and other public forums. Even claiming that she was looking forward to taking legal proceedings against me outside of Airbnb (not sure what she meant by this as getting a lawyer would cost more than what she paid for the two nights she booked with me). I called the super host hotline and opened a case about this and as this guest was started to send threatening and harassing messages my case manager said I could block this guest from searching my apartment and future bookings, so I did so and followed the case manager’s instructions. The next day however, I received an automatic email from Airbnb asking me to review the guest which I found strange since she never even checked in nor stayed at the apartment, so it seemed absurd that she would be allowed to review me. So I called Airbnb again as I assumed any cancellated booking would immediately disqualify a guest from reviewing a host and to my utter surprise was then told by Airbnb that this guest now can review me because she cancelled on the day and are automatically qualified to leave a review and potentially ruin my super host status. I feel completely vulnerable and unprotected by Airbnb as a host, as someone who has followed their guidelines and sought their advice repeatedly that someone now my reputation is on the line for this guest to maliciously libel. Has any other hosts received this sort of treatment from Airbnb and is there any hope for me to prevent this guest from completing a review?
Such has a small issue as bed slats has been turned from a molehill into a mountain and is now causing me sleepless nights. It wasn’t that the apartment had a flood, or electrical issue or fire – we are talking bed slats here. I know I was unlucky to get two intolerant guests in a row but how does one deal in a situation like this as a host?
Would love any advice, help, consoling stories you may have for me. Thank you all in advance for all and any assistance that can be provided.
