Guest refund

[Tracy4]

The last six months I have had an unprecedented amount of energy vampire guests making my Airbnb life miserable. I feel sick with it all. I dread the airbnb app noise I feel sick. 
I have a current guest now doing the same. I host ten people who are in my house for five nights. I should have known, the guests with millions of questions before during and after the check in are always trouble. .My house is spotless and has amazing amenities with a pool for ten people. They are messaging me with everything small,  demanding I put it right.  Emails every day at 5.30 am and throughout the day messages and mails. I am

 not close to the house as I am overseas but I have responded professionally to every message saying that I will have someone over to look at the issue. I have five tv’s in the house and they are harassing me saying one doesn’t work when it does, or that one window handle was loose I sent handyman  over at my expense  and there was nothing wrong it was one loose screw on one of the 3o windows on the property. The one message also said  one kitchen drawers wasn’t closing  flush, it has no bearing on anything for their stay. I have loads of drawers my kitchen it  is large, then other mail  was that the string on the blinds on one of my four bathrooms was broken.  We have been in and out of the house since they arrived have had many people already to go to the house to address their issues all at big expense for me.  They said the WiFi was a problem I called in a professional who said the fibre is perfect and fast as it runs three tvs with Netflix.  It’s making me feel physically ill now I can’t cope. I have armed response, alarms. Security doors and cctv and they message me to say they are not happy and they don’t feel safe even though I know my neighbourhood it is quiet and 200 bookings have stayed there . Sunday they messaged me to say a drain was blocked, Monday at 8.30 am  I send a plumber he fiddled around with the drain and said wasn’t blocked, he jetted them anyway as he had been paid a callout while he was there but they where taking pictures.  They have three more days and I’m waiting for the next things. They have already began taking about refund requests while they sit there and are enjoying my house for the next three days, and it making me feel powerless and violated. I have had this before and once these kind of guests depart, Airbnb just end up giving them refunds based on thier complaints. I’m just waiting for this refund request after they leave and it’s already making me anxious because I have been down this road before in January.  A few well taken pictures taken out of perspective can show something totally different to reality. These recent guests really know how to work the refund system. 

[Anonymous]

@Tracy4  It sounds like you could really benefit from employing a local Co-Host who can act as the guests' point of contact for issues that you can't attend to remotely. 

But when guests start talking about refunds, or complaining that they feel unhappy or unsafe,  you have nothing to gain from allowing them to complete their reservations. Best you can do is politely offer to refund the remaining nights of the booking under the condition that they vacate the property immediately. 

[Ange2]

@Tracy4   I totally commiserate with you, what a complete nightmare.   I agree with @Anonymous .  Airbnb hosts need to be proactive and have their own back.  I had a slew of guests recently, one after another, who were mind-boggling entitled, vindictive and dishonest.  I blocked my calendar for a while for some breathing space, I don't know if that is an option for you. But being forced by Airbnb to pay for guests vacations because of bogus claims is untenable and disheartening, and even if they are denied a refund they still get to destroy your listing with a dishonest review and low star ratings interpreted by Airbnb as transparent and honest, despite factual evidence and proof to the contrary. Good luck.

[Sarah977]

@Tracy4  There is no point in continuing to let people like this stay- as you say, they just manage to scam Airbnb into giving them refund anyway. It sounds like you have been through this before, so if you get more of these kind of guests in the future (I sincerely hope not) once they start in on the complaint bandwagon, I'd just say "I'm sorry, this just doesn't seem to be a good fit for you, so lets get this reservation cancelled so you can move somewhere that is acceptable to you."

If it's just one or two legitimate issues that need dealing with, of course you wouldn't do this, but it's evident that you can tell when it's all heading down the bogus highway, so I'd act on that feeling ASAP.

[Maia29]

Yes, this appears as if the guests plan on requesting a refund. It seems that this guest also knows how to work the system and what kind of documentation they need in order to request a refund.

This is really unfortunate and I understand your aggravation. I just had Airbnb issue a guest a refund a couple of weeks ago without my consent, so please keep an eye out for that.

As hosts, we really appreciate Airbnb and the platform they provide, however, there are some serious issues with guests abusing the system that needs to be addressed. 

Too bad that as hosts, we do not know how many times a guest has requested refunds from other hosts. I bet there is an established pattern with this guest in particular in requesting refunds for Airbnb stays.