Hello fellow hosts. I have a long term listing that I encountered a puzzling situation with. Basically I had a guest who instant booked and has an odd rating (only 2 text reviews and both good, but generic, but with some questionable stars... 4 for house rules, 4 for communication). I checked and she didn't leave any reviews for those 2 stays. I didn't know how can that be, so I had probed with a couple questions that she was a bit slow to respond, and she had to admit she booked alone but will come with someone, but the answers and some google-ing didn't raise flags. She was insistent on self-check-in.
Long story short, halfway through the stay she started complaining about losing wifi connectivity. We figured it was transient, a modem reset was resolving the issue, I offered free alternatives (booking work space in the condo complex common area's co-work room with super fast internet, using an ethernet cable - my unit has live rj45 jacks throughout, even using my other unit one floor above as an office between bookings) which she all ignored and also ignored to give me info on how they need to use the internet so I can think and suggest a workaround. All I would get is: wifi is down again.
I also contacted my ISP and they set an appointment for a tech to come they had availability a week later. From my monitoring, the wifi was going down between 1 to 3 times some day, never in weekend, for anywhere between 3 to 15 mins. Tech came in, said there is no issue with the modem/router or the connection to the unit and the problem is their usage in the context of my internet plan. She recommended an upgrade in the plan, but because they were so close to the checkout, that was not have taken effect before their departure a week later. As a note, my internet plan specs are clearly stated in the welcome letter that gets sent out before their arrival and they never said anything about that being an issue or tried to ensure their needs are met, unlike other guests who asked and then requested for plan upgrade if they knew they need more. On the other hand I had a guy stay for 2 mths, work almost every day 9 to 18 and had no issues.
Anyway, this whole thing lasted a week, out of which I have documented 4 days they had issues with the wifi and offered the alternative every time, being ignored.
After the tech outcome, she challenged their findings with me, but, to my advantage, she admitted there were no problems the first 2 weeks and the past 2 days (conforming the short number of days there was any issue), and when I replied that I cannot speculate and have to believe what the specialist that my ISP sent out, she stopped communicating. To the point that she ignored the check-out procedure and had no communication about the keys handover. So at this point I am just hoping she locked them inside, but I can't check for a week bc I am away. She never reached out for relocation or escalation to airbnb during the stay.
She tried to find fault with some smoke smell she felt, but I asked her to bring security to document the issue. That was that.
The outcome is that the day of checkout, the ABnB support contacted me that she wants a partial refund for not having wifi HALF of the time, which is a lie. I explained to them what happened, with screen prints and all (haha I don't know if at that point they just wanted a yes or no from me, but I sent all I had anyway) and I said I will give her a 20$, even though she is not justified to any compensation. Support said it is at my discretion.
Can she reject this and escalate? Is this settled and the case closed?
How do I best go about giving her a review that would not get removed but that would signal other hosts she might be difficult?
Thanks! 🙂
