Guest lost key and asking for a refund?

[Gina1746]

Hello:)

I recently had a booking and the guest lost the key while they were out. This was in the middle of the Christmas holiday so unfortunately I was away along with the majority of my neighbours. They therefore needed a locksmith to get in to my apartment, and once they got in they couldnt leave (unless they went one at the time) because the locksmith couldnt give them a key for the main door to the building. It took about 2.5 days until I got them a new key and so their holiday was affected by this obviously. Now they want a refund for two days. Is this reasonable? I am unsure I think it is. At the same time maybe I should have had a better solution for an extra key, however this also induced alot of stress for me. 

Airbnb has reassured me I have no obligation to do this and if I do its just to be nice. 

[Abi010]

Hi Gina, Airbnb is right,  you are not obliged to refund them, especially when it was their fault. I did write in my house rules that guest will be charged  a said amount if they loose my keys, and I stressed that to them at check in. 

Happy hosting 

[Helen3]

@Gina1746  if you are hosting guests you should always have someone available locally  in case of problems and a way of accessing spare keys.

Under Airbnb's T&C no you don't need to offer the guest a refund. Yes it was the guest's fault for losing the keys but in your situation I would offer a partial refund.

It's not the guests fault you didn't have a local co-host to help while you were away or spare keys that they could access via your cleaner or a lock box or similar.

I would offer around 20% .