unhappy guest

[Thomas669]

We have a guest that has booked with us for one week. After the first night I received a complaint that they found a bug in the bed, a spider in the bathroom and that the bed was uncomfortable. All of our linen, blankets, pillows, and beds are new. We have never had a complaint about the beds being uncomfortable. In fact just the opposite. We have a wonderful professional cleaning crew that had just changed the linen etc. that morning. 
We are new to hosting and are not quite sure how to handle this issue. If they are uncomfortable staying there should we give them a refund and let them find another place to stay? They have traveled from the mainland to Kauai for their vacation.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Tom and Debbie 

[Paul154]

Smile and deflect. "I'm sorry.  Are you enjoying the wonderful sunshine today?"

Do not discuss refunds or cutting short their stay. That is what you pay Airbnb for.

If they are really bothered, they can cut short their stay or formally complain to Airbnb.

[Kelly149]

@Thomas669 at this point you will be reviewed either way, so best to do everything based on what you feel is right without feeling hostage to the reveiw, bc that is out of your control.

Bed comfort is subjective

Bugs happen

So... My tack would be "thank you for letting me know. Is there something that you'd like me to do for you?"

And then see what they say. None of us can eradicate bugs from the planet & certainly not in the tropics. 

I wouldn't necessarily offer to refund anything but I would almost always offer to let a complaining guest leave. Why? bc either they are complaining bc they like to hear the sound of their voice and they won't leave but you will have offered (covered your bases with CS). Or they are complaining as a way to fish for a discount. No, no discount, but if you're unhappy you may go. (covered your bases with CS) Or they feel strongly enough about their complaints that they want to go. Well, then I'm glad they're gone bc otherwise they'd keep complaining, quite possibly cause problems for your unit & maybe even complain enough after the fact to get CS to refund them. And the only thing worse, in my book, than not getting paid and not hosting someone is not getting paid even though you DID host them.

But, I'm a host that would rather have an empty unit than have a bad guest. Every host situation is different.

[Gillian19]

@Thomas669 And remember to put any verbal conversations in writing through Airbnb. As Kelly says, the worst that can happen is that they stay then complain to Airbnb afterwards who decide to give them a full refund - it happens.