Guest demanded undeserved refund and early check out, Airbnb agreed without consulting the host

[Marietta53]

I am a Superhost with 4,98 rating, having host more than 100 reservations over the past decade.

My latest customer, complained about the cicadas, on the trees of the yard, claiming that two of them had insect phobia and couldn't even visit the pool and that the noise wouldn't allow them to sleep. As i kindly explained them, cicadas are not harmful to humans, and are native to our lands (Greece), as in many other parts of the world and they only sing during daytime. Never the less, customer wanted  to check out early, and as i was told by Airbnb support, i was not obliged to any refunds, as a natural occurence, such as cicadas, are not my fault. I even offered to find them another villa in the area, but they declined unless i gave them a refund for the nights they would not use the villa.

Two days later i received notice, that Airbnb has accepted their refund request, and gave them more without consulting me, claiming video evidence from the customer that justified it. When i asked for the video to be sent to me, Airbnb support claimed that they cannot send it for technical reasons and i should contact the customer to provide it, who of course never replied back. No matter how i tried, via phone or via messages, i did not manage to speak with AirBnB support, i only had to deal with automated messages and call centers, who were rushing to shut down every ticket i opened regarding this case.

They based their decision to accept the refund claim, upon that we broke the rules of cleanliness, description inaccuracies and problem with check in, all of them being preposterous and absurd reasons. I never had any complains for the cleanliness of my villa nor with my check in manager. As for the description inaccuracies, i do believe that ours is adequate enough, showing a garden with trees, which implies that insects like cicadas or birds or any kind of natural beings may find shelter there and peacefully coexist with humans. If that wasn't enough, they threatened to remove my listing if i did not include in the description, that cicadas live in the trees, which was outrageous. 

So far, despite my many efforts, no one has bothered to contact me from Airbnb, in order to discuss this matter, someone who can really understand the tourism and hosting business and its struggles. They basically are stealing from me, i still cannot understand how Airbnb does not support its dedicated hosts and parthers. Airbnb has left me feeling completely unsupported , especially as a Superhost.

Does anyone have any experience with this and any suggestions?

Thank you.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marietta53 

I don't have advice for you on how to have the review removed, and it really sounds as if the guest was unreasonable.

What I do want to say is that it's difficult to maintain such a high host rating after a large number of stays. This is very positive as you are obviously doing extremely well as a host, but it's also negative in the sense that you haven't had much practice dealing with bad reviews. Bad reviews happen to all of us and - as one can clearly see in this case - there is sometimes absolutely nothing you could reasonably have done differently to prevent it. One often sees hosts in this community who are terrified of any review below 5, which is insane if you consider that 5 is a perfect score. If you've gotten used to too many perfect scores, it hurts more when you get that occasional bad review.  Multiple hosts have commented on this forum that guests really don't differentiate between listings with a slight difference in the score, and I predict that you will not see any noticeable drop in bookings. I hope (if you don't manage to get this review removed) that you are able to put it behind you, knowing that you had no control over it. An unreasonable review will likely happen again sometime in the future, but carry on hosting and focusing on the things that you can control. You are clearly doing them right!

[Zheng49]

I can empathize with the guest with this one as someone who also has a strong dislike for insects. It might be good to remind guests about the presence of Cicadas in 'Other things to note'. That way, people who don't like cicadas/insects wouldn't book your listing. 

Ofcourse, you run the risk of scaring away some potential guests with such a disclaimer, but you would also save yourself the trouble of dealing with guests that arrive on your property, and then complain about Cicadas. 

[Kia272]

@Zheng49  I'm sorry, but that's absolutely ridiculous! Hosts have no control over insects- they are out in the world, beyond our control, procreating and singing and doing whatever it is that insects do. 

If you have to "remind" guests that there are Cicadas outside, then you might as well have to remind  them that it might get cold or hot outside,  it might rain, and there is grass in the yard, and a plane might fly overhead or a car might drive by.  Get a grip. 

[Zheng49]

Actually you can control insects to an extent. By cutting bushes, spraying insecticides etc.

You can definitely get rid of a large amount of that Cicadas (if not all) if you cut the trees/bushes they reside in. 

We used to have a lot of mosquitoes in our backyard, but after we cut the bushes, there are now a lot less mosquitoes due to loss of habitat. 

Another example: hiking trails/routes that are maintained have a LOT less insects/mosquitoes vs trails that are not maintained/completely wild. 

Even in the same park/general area, you can notice it when there is human intervention or not. 
For example, in Centre Island in Toronto, half of it has people living on it and is also a major tourism attraction, and the roads/trails are generally free of insects. The other half doesn't have people living in it,  and there are insects literally everywhere on the roads/trails. 

The note you added in your listing is great and informative, and is exactly the sort of thing I was referring to. Insects def. include cicadas, so this exact note would work for the TC. 

[Zheng49]

Another example: Central Park in Manhattan, New York, shows that it's possible to have a lot of vegetation and still be free of insects for the most part. I don't think I saw a single mosquito/fly/ant while I was there the number of times which is very impressive for a park of that size and the amount of vegetation it has!

You can tell that it's maintained very well. 

So all in all, I would argue that hosts do have control over insects, and that it's possible to have a lot of vegetation while maintaining relatively low/non-existent insect presence. 

[Kia272]

@Zheng49  That notice is about the environment inside my cabin, not the great outdoors. 

Cicadas in the yard or generally outdoors are not a valid reason for a refund.