Hi everyone,
I have had straight five star reviews and have just gotten a first "bad egg" guest who is listing untruths to demand a 50% refund for her stay. So far, she has requested one night out of a two night stay's refund with me directly and I have until tomorrow to respond before this could potentially be escalated to a case manager.
A few examples from a long list:
-Guest claimed only one towel was left when I have a photo of the two towels that we were both used over the two night stay.
-Claimed no shower amenities were left and I left both shampoo/shower gel.
-She was advised if she arrived at the typical check-in time of 4:00pm, she would pick up the apartment keys at a five minute walk away key cafe exchange and if she was able to check-in early before that time, she could come directly to the apartment and I'd show her in directly to avoid going to the key cafe. It was clear in my airbnb inbox email communication to her that she was going to come to my apartment directly because we set a (early) 12:30pm check-in time, however, she went to the wrong address to the key cafe. She was hostile and yelling at me on the phone "why did you tell me the wrong address" but settled down upon meeting me, apologizing verbally that she read through the emails and realizes she was in the wrong and it was her fault. Now, she claims in the request for the refund that once again I told her the wrong address.
-At 9:47am on airbnb email Saturday morning, the guest agreed to change my proposed (early!) check-in time from 12:15pm to 12:30pm as I asked for 15 minutes longer if it "made no difference" to her. She agreed no problem. She now claims that I did not tell her until 12:15pm that I wanted to change the time to 12:30pm and claims at that point she was "already in her lyft car" and had to pull over to a cafe until 12:30pm. I do have the back-up emails to show airbnb should we escalate to a claim center. My hope is that if they see she has clearly lied about already being in a car and pulling over - she claims i asked her "minutes before," not true, that they will see her other claims such as a shower head not working which is entirely untrue are also untruths.
-Claimed there were no covers on the pillows, there are pillowcases. Just so odd. The guest really made up a laundry list of untrue claims.
-Even though it was not my error, since the guest went to the wrong address at check-in, I wanted to make check-out very easy so I offered instead of a 10am listed check-out, a late check-out until 2pm and if the guest could advise what time she was leaving, based upon the time she could conveniently leave the keys inside the apartment or under the mat outside (I have a neighbor lined up to collect key under mat but it depended on the time and I never heard from the guest on her check-out time, or any email with any of these complaints during the entire stay for that matter. If the shower head was truly not working, which it was of course, wouldn't you reach out with a question on how to work it? Also there was a claim wifi didn't work, which is also false, however, she never reached out about that during the entire stay. She claimed the checkout was unprofessional that I said she could leave keys inside or under the mat. I've never heard of anyone complaining due to trying to accommodate and make things easier for a guest...
I used the same cleaner and laundromat the weekend before the guest for another guest and got a five star "amazing," "clean apartment" review. Do I refund the cleaning fee to show airbnb I am trying to work things out (even if a lying guest) to when it's escalated to a case manager as I have to assume it will be?
Or, do I bite the bullet and give the half refund even if I could still get a bad review?
Do I point out the inaccuracies to the guest and ask for clarification i.e. attach the email at 9:47am agreeing to the 12:30pm 15 minute later check-out time?
I appreciate advise on how I respond to the guest.
Best,
MG
Please help! Do I
