Complaint and refund help!

[Elaine936]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me. 

We've been hosting for 3 years only a few months a year and never ever had a problem like we do now and I'm so frustrated!

A guest booked in Monday to Friday, everything was good well I assumed it was because the only contact he made was Monday after checking in to ask where to WiFi password was.

4pm Thursday and he messages saying they have left the property with a huge list of issues, ones that had he called me I would have gone straight round and fixed and ones that were just outright ridiculous, and that he didn't want to go through airbnb or leave me a bad review.

I messaged back and said I'm sorry he feels this way and that he really should have contacted me because there was nothing I could do about it now. 

He was so rude and said he had given me a chance to compensate him but because or my reply we was going to seek more compensation. 

I just replied and said to please go through airbnb because i wasn't going to be threatened with a bad review for not offering a refund straight away.

He did and airbnb have said he will get 30% back for the nights they stayed and the night he left fully refunded.

But airbnb policy says he should have contacted me or airbnb within 72 hours and he didn't at all, I wasn't even given a chance to fix the issues he was complaining about and to do that 18 hours before checking out and having 4 full days at the property just seems so suspicious to me! 

Is this really how airbnb treats their hosts! 

I'm worried now because every single guest could do what he has and basically get a free stay! 

Is there anything else I can do? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sybe do you know why Airbnb is not complying with its Ts&Cs and giving hosts the chance to correct issues? @Elaine936 seems to have run out of road with this one short of taking Airbnb to the damsel claims court.

[Elaine936]

Thank you! You're all so lovely on here 😀

[Vivienne90]

Sorry, what is the damsel claims court? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Vivienne90 Its a typo/autocorrect I only noticed when it was too late to edit. It should say 'small claims court'.

[Elaine936 · Accepted solution]

Not sure how to do a post on here without replying to one but it might be down to this thread and the lovely people who have given advice! I just got this message. 

Again thank you all so much and @Vivienne90 don't give up it can be resolved if you try!

 

[Bob297]

@Elaine936 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Kia272 @Helen744 @Maggie-and-Norm0 @Sybe 

I can’t believe that Airbnb made this decision.

If there was an issue, the guest should have contacted you immediately, allowing you to remedy the issue. That’s part of the Airbnb policies.

The link Airbnb has sent you says:
Airbnb encourages guests to promptly report violations of these ground rules. When a guest is dealing with a suspected or actual violation of these ground rules, we ask that they:

• Communicate with the Host—the Host is in the best position to quickly resolve issues.
• Document the issue using the Airbnb message thread, photos, etc.

The issue was not significant enough or nonexistent.

This is an easy way for a guest to stay at a discount.

[Elaine936]

That's what I was thinking, why stay somewhere for days not say anything then decide you hate it and need to leave but for some money off they won't involve airbnb or leave bad reviews 🙄

It's only been back on the site for about a month and had all good reviews before and after this guest.

I'm so glad this is just a few months of the year thing for me I feel so bad for full time Hosts that have to deal with things like this and get no support from airbnb! 

Thank you for being so kind and helpful!

[Yvonne41]

Make a rental agreement that your guests sign at the time of booking that spells out your policy for addressing issues during the stay, and before check out. Add that language into the listing description section somewhere that guests can read it before they book too. I have had all my guests sign my rental agreement and provide copy of current photo ID before I approval their booking. In house rules state that all guests will have to provide ID and sign your rental agreement within 48 hrs of a booking, so if they don’t then you can get support to cancel it, no penalty to you.

Best of luck!

[Amy1554]

Do you have minimum days for booking? I know it’s a good idea for protecting us , but if guests only stay three days, asking to sign contract seems a little bit too much work? 

[Yvonne41]

I have them sign an agreement for just one night stays. The safety and security of my investment has value. In 8 years, only 2 guests of 100s have refused to provide ID and sign the agreement.

[Elaine936]

Thank you for the advice 🙂

I think I'll just have to give up and take the loss.

I've come to the conclusion that because we only list one property a few months of the year airbnb just don't make enough money from us to care and most probably aren't going to change their minds which is terrible really. 

I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get my bad review because I plan on leaving this guest a review with everything on it and if it stops them from doing this to even 1 more host it'll be 100% worth it! 

I should have trusted my gut when they were enquiring, 10 years on airbnb only 5 host reviews the last one in 2017, I cannot imagine how many times they've done this and how many times they'll do it again if I don't at least try to say something.

Thank you all for being so nice and trying to help! 

[Vivienne90]

Trusting your gut?  I have just had a similar awful experience with a man who set out to scam me from day one.  And I feel that I should  have listened to my thoughts when I was very suspicious of him from the start when he tried to negotiate the price in various ways. in the weeks leading up to the booking. After I offered him the chance to cancel and be refunded in full as he told me he couldn't aford the it, he told me his wife had an appointment to  have a brain scan but they'd cancel it in order to come on the holiday.  He claimed a huge sum in compensation with staged photographs and claims about smelly premises and goodness knows what - all utterly untrue.   He claimed his wife had purchased cleaning products and cleaned the place from top to bottom.  I asked to see the receipts - not forthcoming (because not true.)   Then they checked out and left the place in the most disgusting mess and in his review he called it a slum.    I am beside myself upset and cannot believe that air bnb simply took all his lies and manouevers at total face value.    Why would they beleive his staged photos and not look at my previous reviews which make a point of saying how lovely my place is?    I am thinking of taking my property off air bnb. or even selling it.

[Elaine936]

Oh wow!

I'm really sorry that happened to you! But totally not surprised. This isn't my job I just do it to help my dad out and I enjoy it, I work for a company not sure I'm violating any policies so wont name it, it's basically an airbnb but a million times better but it's not global just local and my boss was telling me about these groups people have discussing how to get money off stays and things it honestly makes me sick the way people treat other people just to save a few pounds. Some of them may be owned by companies but alot aren't it's my actual father's home I think that's why I've taken it so personally!

Don't give up! Don't let miserable greedy people stop you doing what you want to do! X

[Mar125]

@Elaine936 

In this situation, you can only recover your costs through money request and reflect the extorting behavior of the guests in the review. 

it’s unfortunate that guests left due to issues, but indeed airbnb has this unfair policy to discount past consumed stays.