Guest cancelling mid stay for 100 reasons

[Rebecca93]

Help - I have a guest who has just cancelled after one night. 

She stayed last night, and then rang me at 2.10pm.  She had left my property and rang me to ask for a refund.  On the phone, she gave 100 reasons - including bad phone signal, uncomfortable beds, wifi internittent - the list is endless and then said if I can't get a refund I suppose I will have to stay. 

Since the conversation she has cancelled the booking and then sent me a long email of complaints.

Not being funny - I have yet to have a complaint.  Everyone says how comfy the beds, how great the house is are, etc, etc.

So do I or do I not refund the two nights they are now not going to stay.

PS: it is her first ever AirBnB booking - does she think she is staying in a hotel or that I invited her into my home.  She has moved on to the Holiday Inn.

All help/advice welcome.

[Eileen4]

Go by your cancellation policy and don't contact her unless it's necessary. If you do, then you go through the Airbnb system. Hopefully, if she goes to the resolution centre, they will not cede a refund to her. If your reviews have been good up until this point you should be fine.

I did have a guest who cancelled apply for a full refund via the resolution centre. However, the days she cancelled were not rebooked and so I didn't give her her money back. I wasn't forced to either. 

Ignore the 100 reasons. She's just trying to guilt trip you into offering a refund. You have your cancellation policy--stand by it. 

[Rebecca93]

Thank you Ellen.  I am really baffled, its a gorgeous house and I feel really offended by this person who has come into my home.

I have just double checked my cancellation policy and I have strict cancellation therefore "If the guest arrives and decides to leave early, the nights not spent are not refunded."  Thank you I would not have thought to look at the cancellation policy.

I am going to stand by it.

Thank you.

[Rosa70]

Hi Rebecca! Just though I would let you know what happened in my situation. One of my guests had booked an apartment 8 months before her arrival (she booked the apartment for 25 days). This means that during this time, I couldn't offer the apartment to other potential guests. When she finally arrived, she confirmed everything was alright during the check-in, and then the next time affirmed to have found several problems (lies) that were external to my responsability, and (after many attemps from my side to solve the situation), she decided to leave, asking for a total refund (when she already had stayed for 6nights at the apartment). Airbnb did give her the refund even thought I had a Flexible cancellation policy. The center of resolutions of Airbnb needs to improve its way of solving problems.

[Rebecca93]

Rosa - sorry to hear your experience.  It is just so boring.  Like you, this guest was full of lies but very happy during check in. 

I am lucky because I have a strict cancellation policy which I think was not read. 

Good luck in the future.

[Patricia251]

I just had the same thing happen and I've never had anything but five star reviews. The guest had a list of reasons why it would work for her; stick to your description because mine said small cottage and then she said it was too small. My guest sldo threatened to give me a bad review if I didn't refund mid trip on a holiday weekend no less! This is a 100% violation of the Airbnb extortion policy. Keep all texts! I turned the issue over to Airbnb on July 11th for review. They said it would be a few days...still waiting; meanwhile the negative review was posted!

[Rebecca93]

Patricia- thank you for commenting.  It is just so disappointing.  Good luck resolving your issue.

[Caitlin15]

I have a feeling that the bigger AirBnB grows and the more recognition it gets the more people who "don't get it" will be booking with the wrong expectations. The service is opening up to a much larger crowd now, and it's going to lose that happy startup feel it had in the beginning. Hosts will have to be stricter with their rules and the trust factor will deteriorate.

I only hosted one night so far so maybe I can't really speak on this stuff yet, but I have friends who have been hosting for years who see this happening.

[Rebecca93]

Caitlin, I couldn't agree more.    We are not offering a hotel room but a room (at a very affordable price) in our home.  I really took offence when she complained there was no lock on my bathroom door, I don't want a lock on my bathroom door!!

Such a shame. Good luck for the future.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

Most households do have a locking bathroom door.  The door knob locks from the inside.  On the outside there is a little hole in the center of the knob and there is a small metal instrument (that comes with the door knob) that can open the door from the outside if it is accidently locked when no one is in there. 

I can understand feeling uncomfortable using a bathroom in someone else's house without locking the door.  I lock the bathroom door in my own house because I hate having someone walk in while I am on the toilet.  Someone in the shower would feel vulnerable if the door could not be locked.

If you don't want to change the knob, just install a hook or a slider on the inside.