Remediation for inconvenience/bad night

[Amy19]

Hi everyone, so after having it for 7 years, my 10 year life carbon monoxide detector decided to start chirping at 3am in the morning to let our guests know the lithium ion battery had reached the end of its useful life. They couldn't find it all night (after disconnecting all my smoke detectors). They didn't let me know until morning, and then I told immediately where the CO2 detector was plugged in. (The chirp is hard to follow, it's once a minute). Anyway, it kept them up all night.  They weren't angry per se, quite nice about it, but did make a point of telling me they were up all night and it upset their dog. They didn't ask for reparations but I feel we should. Should I refund a whole day ($375) or is this more a $100 thing?  On one hand I feel it only needs to be enough to recognize the inconvenience, but on the other hand I'm wondering if we should just do a whole day to ensure we avoid a bad review. Thoughts?  

[Veronique271]

@Amy19  hi Amy! In my everyday practice I always refund 100$ for every inconvenience ( on a 380$ night). This way my guests are happy I acknowledged their problem and they are super prompt to give a 5 stars review.. Just my 2 cents 🙂

[Amy19]

Very helpful, thank you!

[Inna22]

@Amy19 

If the stay is not over, I would at this point just say something general without committing to specific amount and would only refund when they left for several reasons. Something else may go wrong. Hopefully not, but it may. You do not want to set a dollar amount precedent for every little thing that happens. They may turn out to be terrible guests and you may need every penny to fix something they broke. Again, hopefully not but better safe than sorry. Also, but the end of the trip they will be full of good memories and the sleepless night long forgotten so $100 will feel like a treat

[Amy19]

That's great advice! Would hate to commit to something and then have something else go wrong. Thanks so much.

[Paul154]

@Amy19 

You just reminded me when I bought my luxury condo. After 3 days the fire alarm would chirp this awful loud piercing chirp. Intermittent like yours. But it was way to high on the ceiling to fix.

Because I'm lazy I let it go for about 2 weeks. Then my friend refused to visit me, because of the chirp. He really was right - it  was truly annoying.

For your case, $100 might be a reasonable credit. In good faith, the guests tried to remediate the problem, but it was very difficult to solve the problem. 

[Sarah977]

@Amy19   Although it may not happen for another 7 years, it would be a good idea to post somewhere in your place or the house manual (and point it out to guests) instructions for where to go to unplug the detector should this happen again. It was very respectful of them not to wake you up in the middle of the night, opting for a bad night instead, and to speak about it with you nicely, rather than being irate. That indicates to me that they are decent pople who won't leave a bad review. As others have said, some compensation would be in order.

[Monika64]

@Amy19 

Future 100$ sounds about right. 

Also, I believe most manufacturers advise to change batteries every 5 years in these detectors as a precaution ... even though they should last longer. At least that is what I’ve read in our instructions. 

[Sarah977]

@Monika64  Battery life is dependent on a few things- the quality of the battery to start with, whether the thing has used up battery by actually going off at some point, and here in the tropics, batteries don't last at all. The high humidity destroys them. If I had a CO detector, which I don't, I'd probably have to change the battery every 2 months 🙂 Car batteries also require replacement far more often than they do in temperate climates.

[Emiel1]

@Amy19 

A CO-detector has a lifetime of about 7 year for working OK, so better replace the device for safety reasons. Some CO detectors even start chirping after 7 years not because of battery, but to remind you the  end of lifecycle for the device has reached. BTW You can order one for free from Airbnb, but it takes about 7 year to process the order, so it will chirp already at time of delivery ;>).

[Sarah977]

@Emiel1  I'd probably be dead by the time they sent one to me here in the boonies of Mexico 🙂