Picky guest & demanding

[Alfa20]

Guest check in yesterday for a two night stay. Upon the arrival, the cleaners was leaving ( due to prior checkout) and lawn care service was there.  However, she and the other 13 members went straight to pool and start complaining about pool was clean to their satisfaction and someone needs to come now. This conversation was with my cleaners who called immediately with her the phone. Then she goes inside looking for stuff and just started a list. In the meantime, I’m doing my very to accommodate, offer one night staff refund , and suggest to leave for full refund since I cannot fulfill all her needs or demands so I immediately involve Airbnb for help especially since I just work extremely hard to earn SUPERHOST  STATUS.  So, I’m asking for advice on her to respond . I haven’t check on her since our maintenance personnel repair all he could. The real problem she can’t swim, water too cold and dirt she mention it’s pollen but the pool guy just came twice within 72hours. 

[Laura2592]

@Alfa20 first of all, I have to wonder why you are open to such huge groups. with 16 guests the nightly cost for each is a mere $25.62. Of course you are going to attract bargain hunters! These are the people who want everything free and nitpick no end. Lower your guest counts or add a nightly fee for each guest after a certain (much smaller) number and you will get a higher caliber guest. Trust me, I learned that the hard way.

As far as responding, I would just say::

"Hi-- 

Checking in to see how you preferred I resolved your requests. I want all my guests to have an awesome stay so I am willing to do X or Y. Please let me know how you would like to proceed by X time/date so that I can get the ball rolling. Thanks and hope that you are enjoying your stay!"

Keep after ABB but don't expect they will help in a timely fashion. Be prepared with solutions you are willing to offer and don't be bullied. 

[Alfa20]

Hello Laura and thank you for your advice and feedback. The maintenance guy has completed all the demands last night accept the unstable toilet. However, it’s quiet this morning so I will go ahead and craft my message... 

[Anonymous]

@Alfa20  This group fits the profile of the kind of guests who try to use complaints as leverage to con their way into a free stay.  I don't know how legitimate their complaints are (the cold pool is a weird issue since your listing explicitly says it's not heated), but it should be clear that they will only receive a refund if they terminate the booking and vacate.

On the broader question of how to prevent these types from booking, I would start by increasing the minimum length of stay. And if you leave off Instant Book and engage in some correspondence before accepting a booking, you'll have the chance to tell the appreciative guests apart from the fussy ones.