Guest complaining about a "smell" and wanting a huge refund

[Jon2761]

We are brand new Airbnb hosts, although we've rented our house quite a bit through Craigslist in the past. We've  spent the last several months renovating and refurnishing our 1800s house in the Berkshires, and started hosting guests on July 1st of this year. We received 5-star reviews from our first three guests, which was gratifying and exciting, but then along came Guest #4, who booked a 3-week stay in August with her husband and two young children. She arrived on 7/31 and is scheduled to leave on 8/23, but now wants to leave on 8/15 or earlier.

When she first arrived, she texted us that the house was "amazing", but although it was clean she noticed a smell. We live in California so can't inspect it ourselves, but we have a trusted builder and cleaning person and they didn't smell anything (they tell us when they do). Our cleaner, in fact, also cleans for an Airbnb Superhost in the same town, so she's pretty well versed in what's necessary for an enjoyable stay. And we asked our builder to check for the smell when he was in the house installing a fourth air conditioner, per Guest #4's request.

To complicate matters, there were severe storms in the region, and our county along with those surrounding us lost power for over a day. This also caused the water in our house not to work, as the pump in the well runs on electricity. After putting up with this for a day, Guest #4 moved to a hotel for a night. This was completely understandable under the circumstances, and we immediately refunded her an amount that was higher than the price of one night's stay in our house.

We tried to work with her and were always completely responsive to her requests, but we can't correct a smell if it's not detected by our house managing team. And what's really galling is that when she requested the refund through the Airbnb Resolution Center, she listed "Unclean or Inaccurate Listing" as her reason.

We don't feel that we owe her the amount she's asking. We've drafted a response to the Resolution Center but are hesitating to submit it, saying we'd pay her a lower amount as long as there was no damage in the house, and we'd pay her the rest of the canceled days if we're able to book new guests for those days, but first we'd need to make the days available on the calendar again. This particular problem is completely new to us, and I'm just interested to hear your thoughts on what we should be doing before submitting our counter-offer. We really don't want conflict, but it's not right to book a prime month like August and then just walk off in the middle for what we consider unsubstantiated reasons.

Thanks for reading.

Nancy

[Helen350]

@Jon2761 I feel for you. You have my sympathy. Your guests are entitled jerks trying to blag a free stay over nothing/made-up reasons.

'Smell'? - What is it with Americans & smells?! Smells happen, tho obviously not enough for your cleaner, nor builder to smell this one...! How I DESPISE people who complain about a 'smell'!

And I don't see how you're responsible for storm damage/'Acts of God'?

-Stand your ground; You've already been MORE than reasonable in refunding her more than 1 night for the power outage. (the electric companies don't refund every household when this happens, so why should you? These things happen.)

[Helen350]

.... Run 'power outage' by the search feature....

Thankfully, here in the UK, much remains of the 'Get what you're given & don't complain' culture!  

[Jon2761]

@Helen350  I love the UK philosophy! I was friends with someone who was married to a British man, and she told me that her mother-in-law would put a stop to whining with a calm "Stop your grumbling now".

[Jon2761]

@Helen350 Thank you! We're very protective and sensitive about this house, which my husband bought in 1972 ten years before we met, when he was living in Brooklyn and I was still in college. We truly want anyone who stays there to love it as much as we do, which is obviously unrealistic but it's certainly our goal for each guest. We ended up "Declining" their refund request, with an explanation of why we didn't believe her complaint, along with some proposals of what we are willing to do since she's clearly unhappy there.

[Anonymous]

@Jon2761  Is the remainder of the original booking still blocked off, or has the checkout date already been changed?  It sounds as though the reservation is still active and the guest still on your property.  That's a terrible state of things for both of you, and it won't end well.

Regardless of whether you feel the complaints were justified, there is no benefit to having a guest who feels trapped in their booking when they're clearly unhappy with the place. Your best course of action from the beginning of the complaints would have been to offer a date change to shorten the booking and refund all the unused nights. Yes, it might mean losing out some nights of occupancy during the high season, but you have a bigger problem on your hands now:  with 3 perfect reviews under your belt, you're about to add 1 potentially damaging one. The sooner you can fill the dates vacated by this guest with a succession of short bookings, the faster her review will be buried and her presumably low rating neutralized.

I would refuse the resolution request, and instead advance the checkout date to today. 

[Jon2761]

Thanks Andrew. I agree with you, it's not good having an unhappy guest in your house no matter what the reason. We did decline the refund request because it would have been an automatic deduction from our checking account if we'd agreed to it. We explained that as far as we could tell there was no "smell", and therefore we couldn't correct the problem. We did offer some compensation that we'd pay as long as there hasn't been damage to the house or it's contents. I did not know that I could manually change their end date on the calendar, that's something to consider. As far as the inevitable bad review, we're assuming that she'll give us a low rating no matter what we do, so we might as well defend ourselves first and make sure that our version of the situation goes on the record. I truly appreciate your thoughtful reply.

[Anonymous]

@Jon2761  In order to make any changes to a booking (checkout date, number of guests) open the booking in your Reservations tab and select "Change." You'll then see the option to revise the checkout date and manually adjust the refund accordingly. This generates a request, which goes through when the guest confirms it. 

If your guest is trying to con their way into a cheap stay, you've called their bluff. And if they're just legitimately unhappy and want to leave, they should accept your offer and allow your calendar to open up for the remaining days.

[Ross648]

Hello Nancy, 

You have a difficult guest -- there seems to be more of them now that covid has pushed them out of hotels which they view as less safe.    I had a couple a few months ago who insisted on a full refund AFTER THEY HAD CHECKED OUT, which of course I declined, and in return they gave me one star, etc.  It is of course quite right for you to keep their full payment but do not be surprised if AirBnB unilaterally decides to refund their stay.   

However, my suggestion would be to offer to refund them the rest of their stay ON THE CONDITION THAT THEY DO NOT REVIEW YOU.    I don't know if you could keep their money until the 14 days after checkout period is over, or if you can just trust them not to give a revenge rating.  Its the rating, rather than the review, that feels more damaging -- AirBnB really should drop the system, as it is weighted unfairly against the host, but the AirBnB algorithm (do not think of it as a company) favors guests, as you will slowly learn.  

[Sarah977]

@Ross648  "However, my suggestion would be to offer to refund them the rest of their stay ON THE CONDITION THAT THEY DO NOT REVIEW YOU."

Offering anything in exchange for a good review or for not reviewing is considered to be extortion, and if the guest reports it to Airbnb, they can delist the host.

So that isn't a very good suggestion.

[Ross648]

Hi Sarah, 

Extortion would clearly be offering money for something, or asking for money with the threat of a negative review.    In this case, there is a mutually agreed severing of the contract, which would include the possibility of a punitive review.   Are you able to find the AirBnB algorithm language for this situation?   That would be helpful for many of us.... 

[Anonymous]

@Ross648   The language directly from the link I provided:

This policy prohibits:

• Guests threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force a host to provide refunds, additional compensation, or a reciprocal positive review.
• Hosts requiring a guest to leave a positive review or rating, or to revise a review in exchange for a partial or full refund, or a reciprocal review. Hosts also cannot offer a free or discounted stay in exchange for a guest revising an existing review.
• Hosts or guests asking someone to take specific actions related to a review in exchange for the resolution of a dispute.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry to say this @Ross648 , but @Jon2761   please DO NOT follow this advice! 

You would be in direct violation of Airbnb's review extortion policy and could get yourself swiftly banned from the platform. Under no circumstances are you allowed to set a condition that a guest not review you.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/548/airbnbs-dispute-moderation-for-reviews

[Alexandra316]

@Jon2761 Not only could it get you removed, but there's absolutely nothing preventing them from taking your refund and reviewing you poorly anyways. It's just a really silly thing to do all around. Many's the host who thought a refund would help smooth things over, only to find the guest absolutely pasted them anyways. 

[Debra300]

@Jon2761

The thing that smells is the guests claim.  If the odor was so bad to impact the enjoyment of the family's stay, then she should request to leave right away, and not be willing to "suffer" through it for three more nights.  It sounds like she planted that seed at check-in just in case they wanted to bounce early.

In regards to the power outage. My following suggestion is a bit of an investment, but will be greatly appreciated by your guests.  Purchase a dual fuel inverter generator, and have an electrician install a  tap box that has a quick connection to a subpanel of the essential power outlets (refrigerator, stove, ceiling lights/fan, modem/router, well pump, etc.).  We run ours off of a 30 lbs. propane tank, because it doesn't cause fumes and can be stored in a more secure container than gasoline.  You might also think about having a cistern or above the ground water storage tank that feeds into your well pump as a back up.