Bogus Guest Claims No Hot water

[Matt4212]

Hello all! 

I had a recent guest and here is the scenario: 

Guest booked for 5 days and had reached out before he booked to see if he could get a lower rate on the room which I said no to. He decided to book again. The guest was a repeat customer and this was the 4th time that he would be staying with me. 

The guest claimed on the second day that there was no hot water in the bathroom. I was away from my house at work when he messaged me. I assumed he was right and was willing to reimburse him an amount that he thought was fair. He suggested 40.00 a night for 5 nights, totaling 200.00. Keep in mind that it’s 59.00 a night to stay at my Airbnb.That would take his stay at my Airbnb to 19.00 a night. 

Although a big ask, I was willing to reimburse him. I thought he was being honest and I’m big on customer service.

I came home on the 4th day and turned on all the water. It was working perfectly fine. When Ryan came to the Airbnb that evening I had him walk me through what he did in the first place to find no running water. He didn’t turn the knob the right way, although he seemed to have figured it out the 3 previous stays he had booked with me. He realized the water was perfectly hot but I already given him the asked refund. 

When I asked him via Airbnb messenger if he had hot water this morning on his last night/day he said he didn’t take a shower. Strange for someone who seemed like a shower was a big deal.

I believe this was all a scam on his side to get a lower price. If this is true it was brilliant. Here is why:

There is no evidence of “damage” and therefore I can’t provide proof that it wasn’t cold for him when he stated it. 

Has Anyone experienced this before with a guest? 

[Anonymous]

@Matt4212  Yes, I think you're right that this guest is a bit of a scammer. When you (rightly) denied him a discount on an already inexpensive room, he just grasped for another way to squeeze you for a discount. An even bigger one. Perhaps his status as a repeat guest made you more inclined just to go with it.

Anyway, all you can do now is write an honest review and decline to host this guest again. In the future, never transmit any kind of refund while the stay is in progress. Instead, if an issue comes up, give the guest two options:  vacate immediately and accept a refund for the remaining nights, or let them stay under the condition that any refund will only be calculated on their checkout date. It's only at that point that you'll know how much the problem truly affected their stay, and your calculation might be affected by damage or other incidents.

[Esmeralda131]

Always have a helper or a cleaner who lives near your property and is willing to go there first hand when you face this type of reimbursement request.Ask your cleaner to take pictures and videos of shower steam. This helped me avoid this very scam from the very root.

Guests response: I apologize I had the knob facing cold the entire time!! Haha!!! She wanted to stay an extra night for free!! Said it didn’t matter because she was late for work anyways thanks to not having hot water.

She didn’t expect me having a cleaner go straight to her within an hour to debunk her claims!!

My advice: never ever argue with the guest. Just give them benefit of the doubt and tell them they will be provided with assistance with one of your staff members. If they refuse to be helped, you can use the dialogue as refusal to accept help, therefore you could deny any request from them either way. And if they leave any bad reviews you could easily void it using the dialogue on the chat or texts for reference.

Work smart. Not hard!!!!

and always be kind.

even if you’re dealing with a dishonest person!

Goodness always prevails just as long as you don’t allow yourself to be tainted by fear or hate.

Let the scammer think they’ve won, or lie about not having  known the right way to turn the knob//

just smile and wish them well.

Don’t feed their darkness:)

I hope this helps someone who hosts.

Xoxo

Esme

[Marc9880]

I'm going through a very similar situation. Guess complained that there was no hot water. I sent somebody to check with the infrared gun and there was hot water at every fixture. Guest was not present at the time. Next day guest complaining again about no hot water. I asked that they be present when I sent somebody for a second time and they have been playing cat and mouse all day as though they cannot be present. Trying to figure out what Airbnb wants me to do as I believe this to be fraud. 

Keep in mind. Water heater is one month old as is the building in terms of it's completion. In addition, guests in 2nd unit that runs on same system have been there more than 3 weeks, as they are mid term renters, and have not complained once. 

Highly frustrating, as obviously guest will leave a dishonest bad review.