Oven stopped working

[Gemma290]

I am new to hosting and currently hosting a guest from Jan 20- April 15. The oven stopped working while preheating last Sunday.  My place was purchased less than a year ago and is currently under a 1 year warranty for appliances and construction. I put in a warranty claim. Appliance repair came and confirmed that the oven was not getting enough power and required an electrician. I submitted another warranty claim to the builder with the invoice stating it was the power supply. Builder not able to get original vendor out for 3 weeks but approved a third party electrician to come out earlier and will not void my warranty. Third party can’t come out until Wednesday. Tenant asking if I can compensate her for not being able to make meals for 10 days. Stove top and microwave are working and I had offered to pick up and electric toaster oven which she declined. Side note I did find out from tenant that she has been basically running a side business of baking and selling bread out of my condo that I was unaware of.  Wondering what some others would do in my position. I appreciate your feedback. 

[Emiel1]

@Gemma290 

"Side note I did find out from tenant that she has been basically running a side business of baking and selling bread out of my condo that I was unaware of."

i would tell the guest to stop running a business from the accommodation !

But you can compensate for the not working amenity. Please note it is not interesting for the guest which kind of guarantees or repair options you have, just make the oven work again asap.

[Gemma290]

Thanks for your response. I realize my guest doesn’t care about the repair options there are. I’m doing my best to get the electric repaired. What do you think is a fair compensation? 

[Patricia1375]

@Gemma290 I can see why you would want to get the warranty to work on your behalf, but you are running a business.  If it were me, and this has actually happened to me, I borrowed a neighbor's truck, and purchased a stove the same day that our guest notified me the one in my unit wasn't working.  Then I brought the stove to my rental that same evening and our guests had a new stove. I still refunded her one of the nights for the inconvenience. 

If you don't want to buy brand new for a rental unit, then see if there are higher end ones on facebook marketplace, but guests need working appliances. 

With regards to having to offer a refund:  our log home is in the mountains.  When we loose power, even for just a night (due to heavy snow and power outages) we offer our guests refunds for that night.  They still have a working fireplace, but a lot of southern's want that gas furnace on top of the fireplace, and I don't want to do anything that might result in negative reviews.  Every once in a blue moon you are going to get a negative review no matter how lovely your rental is, but at least in this case you are going to want to bend over backwards since she doesn't have a working appliance for more than a day.

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but the fact that your guest is using the oven to cook things she can sell isn't really your concern.  She is an entrepreneur, as are we, and as long as she takes good care of your rental, how she uses the stove is not relevant.  You are blessed to have a long renter.

[Gemma290]

Thank you for your response. I bet your place is beautiful in the mountains. We are in sunny Southern California although it’s raining today. Unfortunately it’s not the oven. It’s the power going to the oven. It’s a building issue and might be beyond me financially to repair so I need to use the warranty while I can. This is a brand new condo just purchased in August. What do you think is fair compensation to not be able to use the oven when everything else works? 

[Sarah977]

@Patricia1375  "don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but the fact that your guest is using the oven to cook things she can sell isn't really your concern.  She is an entrepreneur, as are we, and as long as she takes good care of your rental, how she uses the stove is not relevant.  You are blessed to have a long renter."

Sorry, but it absolutely is the host's concern. Running a commercial business out of a place you rented as accommodation, without the permission of the host or landlord, is not even slightly okay. She should be paying commercial rates, for one thing. I'm quite sure @Gemma290  does not base his pricing on expenses which include a guest using the oven all day for commercial baking. 

What she is doing probably also requires a health dept. inspection. 

[Gillian166]

agree. A guest using  electricity like this (an oven!!) to run a business is not part of the agreement. 

[Colleen253]

@Gemma290 “Stove top and microwave are working and I had offered to pick up and electric toaster oven which she declined.”

The offer of a counter top type oven, along with the other cooking amenities available to the guest, means she can continue to cook, and is a reasonable solution. Her unhappiness with that, likely due to the interruption to her unauthorized commercial use of your space, is not reasonable. Since she’s unhappy with your solution, I would advance her checkout date so she can find a more suitable accommodation (or commercial kitchen) and refund her the unused nights. 

[Kelly149]

yep, who's to say that if guest had been using oven as it was intended "for residential use" then maybe it wouldn't have gone out....

I'd be telling her that unfortunately your HOME wasn't designed as a bakeshop and she should be looking for other accommodations

[Gillian166]

and here we go, another line to add to my Guest Manual that I never would have thought needed to be written.... 

"please don't use my residential property to run your business, we don't have appropriate local council permits". unless you're distilling gin, then maybe we can come to an arrangement... hahaha

[M199]

@Gemma290 

Does your commercial insurance on your Airbnb rental cover this type of activity??

Maybe read your insurance policy.  Just a thought.