Should I give a refund?

Leslie7
Level 10
Port Angeles, WA

Should I give a refund?

Hi there, I need some advice about the right thing to do with a guest who decided not to stay after seeing the place. Sorry about the long post but I want to be sure to provide plenty of background info. I have a funky little guest cottage on our property which I rent on Airbnb, and I try to be very honest about the place in the listing. Also, before confirming any reservation request I send a message to the prospective guest that says, "Thank you for your interest in the cottage. I just want to make sure that you read the listing very carefully and looked at the pictures. Our cottage is clean and cozy, but it is not fancy. It's definitely a funky little fixer-upper. I also want to make sure you took note of the small hot water heater, which is good for two quick showers at time. If you are aware of all that and you still feel that our cottage is a good fit, we would love to host you".

 

Every once in awhile a guest decides not to stay after they go back and look more carefully, but most of the time they want to proceed. Our prices are really low for this area, and all accommodations around here usually sell out for most of the summer. As a result I am usually booked every single night from May to September. What I am doing seems to be working because I am a Superhost, and have been for all but one quarter in the past three years since I've been hosting. 

 

A couple booked the cottage for three nights over the weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I was not here when they arrived (we are busy and are often not home when guests arrive, which is mentioned in the listing, and I have it set up so that they can let themselves in). They sent a quick message letting me know they had arrived. A couple of hours later she sent me the following message: "I am sorry but we can't stay here. The mildew smell is just too intense. We left the key under the mat at the main house". After a couple of texts back and forth where I confirmed that they were in the right place, communication suddenly ceased. This completely perplexed me because in three years of hosting I have never gotten a single comment about a mildew smell. There is no appearance of mildew anywhere, and it hasn't rained here in a month. When I got home I went into the cottage to check, and I didn't smell anything. I asked the neighbor girl who cleans sometimes to come and check it out in case I was "nose blind". She came and brought her mom, and both of them agreed that there was no mildew smell. Both my teenage daughters agreed, and when my sister stopped by I asked her to check too. They all agreed that it smelled clean, with no odor of any kind. I also checked in with the guest from the day before and they said everything smelled fine. We currently have a guest as well, and when I checked in with him this morning he said everything was fine (I didn't specifically mention a smell of course, just asked if everything was ok).  I didn't hear anything back from the guest who decided not to stay until this morning (Tuesday). She sent me the following message: "Hi Leslie, can you confirm we'll get a partial refund (50% of day 2 & 3)? Sorry it didn't work out as your location is wonderful and the cottage cute. The mildew may be recent. We also noticed large black ants (carpenter ants maybe) which are also an indicator of moisture in walls or ceiling. Some signs of swelling in the osb board visible from outside too". (note: no ants were evident when I checked the cottage).

 

My cancellation policy is moderate (5 days). I definitely missed out on a booking by this incident, and some other guest who would have probably loved to have the cottage (based on my history) during a prized weekend in this area. So not only are they asking me to give up some income from those days, they also denied a really affordable place to stay on a prime weekend to some other group. I know it probably seems silly for me to worry about that, but it's one of the reasons I host and I really enjoy being able to provide that service to others.

 

Here are my thoughts, and why I keep going back and forth:

 

She is being civil and friendly, and not asking for a full refund. She is at least trying to be reasonable, which makes me think that she is not a "refund seeker" because they didn't stay and then complain or try to get a discount, they arrived and then left again, which indicates to me that they really didn't feel they could stay there.

 

Because she didn't cancel her reservation she would be able to leave a negative review or a low star rating if she wanted which could put my Superhost status at risk.  I know that Airbnb will remove a written negative rating if a person didn't actually stay, but they can't (or won't) adjust a low star rating once it has been added into your total.( I know this because a recent guest accidentally clicked the wrong star rating and immediately contacted me to let me know and ask how to correct it. Airbnb said they could delete a written review, but didn't have the software ability take it out of my overall star rating once it had been posted, even though she told them herself it was a mistake.)

 

They seemed like such nice, low-maintenance guests from the communication we had before the booking. When I sent her the usual message before confirming to make sure she understood that it was a funky little place, she said they were simple people and that it sounded "right up their alley". Maybe there was some wierd, environmental incident that created a sudden, temporary mildew smell? It just doesn't make sense. As I said, in three years of hosting I have never gotten any comments about a mildew smell, or any other kind of smell. I've had several people in there to check it out and they all said it smelled fine. But these folks obviously didn't want to stay there for some reason, and didn't change their minds until they arrived. Also they aren't asking for the full amount, which is what I would expect if someone was trying to scam me.

 

I am inclined to give them the requested refund just to be nice and keep the peace, but if they are the kind of people who are just never happy, then perhaps they aren't right for Airbnb and I would just be encouraging them to be "that kind of guest". On the other hand, I think because of the way events unfolded, they genuinely didn't feel that the cottage was habitable. Not to mention the fact that there were two of them, and apparently they both smelled this smell, so it's not as if one person just got this idea in their head.

 

Anyway, I don't know what to do and I keep going back and forth. I would appreciate advice from any other hosts. What do you think is the right thing to do? I am less concerned about the money and more concerned about doing the right thing.

 

 

 

 

2 Replies 2
Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

@Leslie7

 

I would let them cancel and not reimburse more than their due according to your cancellation policy. Remember the cottage was off the market the whole time, and you have no chance of re-booking.

Keep any exchange on the booking page or at least repeat it there, so it's on record. Let them know you went to the cottage and got a second opinion who was not able to discern any malodorous smell.

 

There's always the chance that the guests contact Airbnb and describe the problem as very bad, which you can counter by calling the helpdesk first and describing the situation, so that Airbnb doesn't just reimburse them.

 

It may not be about the money for you, yet so many guests pull this kind of stunt with lies despite having booked accepting the cancellation policy, it simply shouldn't be fostered. 

Jann3
Level 10
Santa Rosa, CA

I would - as well - give them the refund policy due. You can make this up money in no time if you just don't rock the boat. I would never, ever NOT honor the refund if a guest requested one according to the rental terms. Just make THEM cancel the stay. They're within their rights to ask for what they are asking for...just not the reason for asking for it. BUT there doesn't HAVE to be a reason. You chose the moderate policy. Missing out on other bookings should've been taken into account if the money is bothering you. That isn't meant to sound mean. It is realistic.