50% refund to guest for "slow wifi" - Hosts be warned!

[Tom2678]

After 6+ years I had my first refund experience in late-April during Covid-19.

The internet was "slow" but I have proof it was used throughout their stay. I attempted to get my ISP to resolve the issue, but they were not answering calls or live chat - due to Covid-19 of course. At the end of the booking, Airbnb reduced my payout by 50%!!!! How in the world is slow Wifi worth a 50% refund on a booking?!?!

I am a Superhost hosting for over 6 years. I have fought our city council on 2 occasions over the years, building local coalitions of hosts, to prevent short-term rentals from being outlawed here. But at this point, I have zero loyalty to Airbnb. I'll make money from my existing booking and investigate re-platforming to another service. I cannot risk the financial impact of another arbitrary refund, or worse.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, if you stay at a Marriott and complain of slow internet would you expect to see a cash refund? The policy is poorly thought out, and executed in an arbitrary and capricious manner.

To put it another way, what is my motivation to allow a guest to continue staying during a booking if they raise a complaint? With the threat of losing 50% of my income if Airbnb decides to cut my payout later, I'm in a better place to simply cancel the booking than risk losing 1/2 of my rate.

Airbnb chose not to resolve my issue in chat for over 6 weeks, and a call today resulted in a scolding on how the 'rules' worked. This company is hot garbage.

[Marie82]

@Inna22 i agreed with u but it is extremely sad after all that we have been through Airbnb keep behaving at such. I was really hoping that after the Pandemic Airbnb support/management will change their behaviour toward host for a silly issue like this.

@Tom2678 sorry to hear that honestly when guests complaints something is not working or slow I offer them to be rehoused asap or make them agreed if they refuse to be rehoused they cannot make any claims after their stay, and I keep all communication on Airbnb.

[Goran26]

Only they can and will make claims and you won't be able to do anything about it.

[Tom2678]

Followup June 15 2020-

After almost 1 1/2 months after funds were removed from my account, Airbnb has decided to close this case and deny a refund for their punitive policy.

Good luck out there Hosts! Airbnb doesn't have your back.

[Robert4820]

@Airbnb  - what is AirBnB doing to address this issue?

[Gregory-and-Carol0]

@Tom2678: It makes me SICK how AirBnB goes so out of their way to protect their renters but not their home owners. Appalling!  They really need to make a whole lot of changes.  I just had a situation where on-site security informed me that my renters were violating 3 different house rules and that security camera footage proved it.  The rules were posted on the AirBnB listing even before they decided to book my place. When I reported this to AirBnB i was told that if the renters refused to abide by the posted and disclosed house (and community) rules that they   (or I) could ask the renters to leave and vacate the property, but that I would then have to refund ALL of their money for any unused nights. In fact AirBnB would just take it from my account and give it back to the renters.  What???  Wait a minute....I would not be asking them to leave if they had not knowingly and purposely violated house rules.  It was their own choice & actions that got them asked to leave. So why should I be the one to eat all the lost income, especially when now it's much too late to be able to rent the place to anyone else for that same weekend.  AirBnB said this was their policy.  They treat their owners just horribly. So many totally unfair polices that don't protect us at all.

In terms of your situation I would just add a note to your "House Rules" that states that internet  is out of your control (supplied by the local provider not you) and therefore you make no guarantees on speed or availability and no refunds shall be given pertaining to the internet.  You can even include this is a jpg or png document that you send to every confirmed renter and ask them to sign and return it to you. I do that with my half-page list of house rules, so that a renter can't claim that they were unaware of them or did not agree to them.  Then you have some PROOF to fight AirBnB with. 

[Tom2678]

@Gregory-and-Carol0Your experience is appalling, and reflects exactly what is wrong with how Airbnb applies it's policies. There is a clear pattern of abuse of hosts for the benefit of guests.

It's easy for Airbnb to make themselves look good to guests when they are giving them your money!

I've also had an experience where a space was not as advertised and I refused to stay there. Airbnb did not help me find another place, and I had to fight them for about a week to get my $2k back from a place I never stayed at. Apparently it's not just hosts that get poor treatment.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 · Accepted solution]

@Tom2678 

Airbnb has decided to close this case and deny a refund for their punitive policy.

Does this mean they upheld the guests claim? I'm unsure, but to give a 50% refund for one amenity being judged as inadequate is just an abuse of position.

The only way to stop any abuse such as this is to confront it. The changes to the EC and T&C's are an abuse too and in comparison to a 50% refund because of a Wi-Fi issue, the Wi-Fi is a tiny abuse compared to the total loss of EC cancellations. IMO, if you let the EC cancellations pass unaddressed you can expect this type of petty abuse towards hosts to continue forever.

@Tom2678 Then you have some PROOF to fight AirBnB with. 

I do agree. A completely different set of 'rules' are required for Airbnb and those rules are not designed with the guests in mind but as 'PROOF' for Airbnb when they try on one of their tricks. The necessity of this I would question in its entirety as this 'preventing abuse' thing has been going on far too long.

[Danielle476]

Good grief.  I'm sorry this happened to you!

I always have scenarios like these in the back of my mind when I experience issues as well.  Last night a guest tried to check in but my August lock jammed (first time in 2+ years thankfully) so I wound up sending her on a bit of an adventure in the building to get a physical key elsewhere.  I sent her a $30 partial refund for the trouble, without her asking.  I've found if you send someone a token of your appreciation without prompting, they're more inclined to let it go without issue.  (I've only had to do this a handful of times, fortunately, and guests have always been quite pleased with the offering and have never brought up the issue in their review as a result.)  I'd rather lose a few bucks than have someone step in after the fact like what happened to you, because clearly they have no issues doing so.

I'm not sure the same would have worked for internet connectivity issues, but 50% refunded?!  That's insane.  

[Penny334]

I’m also a super host and just had a similar situation. The guests waited until the night before check out to alert Airbnb of complaints, most of which were just their word. Guests should have to follow the policy rules if they want a refund of any amount and vacate the premises at the time of the complaint!!! If Airbnb isn’t careful about how the policies are worded and interpreted by the staff, they won’t have any hosts to cater to the guests.

[Goran26]

Sure, I don't see you closing your account. Airbnb knows they got you and they can do as they please.

[Feedtaleone0]

I don't blame the guest for being frustrated or moving on. I doubt they even asked for a refund. It was apparent that Airbnb simply decided to cut the rate as part of their process.

[Feedtaleone0]

I did complain about it immediately. Started a support chat immediately after the deduction was applied. https://get-vidmate.com https://instasave.onl

[Melodie-And-John0]

Folks might not be surprised to hear that Bearpath Lodging is in the boonies at the end of utility providers capabilities.  We actually always have slow internet (2-4 Meg Per Second DSL,) and I put that in my listing so nobody has any thoughts they will be streaming hi def content on one much less multiple devices, so far, nobody has dinged me on it, yet. Im guessing those who are complaining about slow speeds haven't been subjected to dial up or they would be happy with anything near a Meg per sec!   

Not sure how Airbnb thinks they or hosts must somehow warrant giant ISP reliability and should not be refunding a dime for this without setting standards for what is fast and what is not and what is proof of failure to provide sufficient connectivity.  As another person wrote, a guest can use a speed checker application that will tell you the story and prove it to others if you share a picture of it with something Identifiable to the listing in the picture to prove your in the listing when you test it.  At the moment Ookla says Im screaming slow at 2 Mps, you can zoom fine with 2 meg and do most low to mid BPS required things perfectly well at that speed.  BTW, low or high bit rate aside, almost nobody ever stays here because of our internet, just sayin....   Stay well, JR

[Bidenpriece0]

I would recommend to all host to periodically do a speed test on you Wi-Fi signal to make sure that your service provider has not "throttled back" your download  speed.

[Bidenpriece0]

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