Guest wants a discount after trying to cancel and acknowledging the flexible cancelation policy

[Giacomo415]

Hello hosts, I'm seeking advice on managing extra discount requests as my guests wanted to cancel 2 days after the checking-in date. Their reason is that there is some noise and no privacy due to the construction around. My listing clearly describes that the apartment is in a new beach condo in development, there's some noise, and workers around. Two panoramic photos of the property also show the construction on site. Many customer reviews also describe there's some noise but the private beach club (where there is no construction) and the stay are worth it. Many of these reviews are 5 stars.

I explained that we have a flexible cancelation policy, so we can refund them for the nights they will not stay and have to pay for all nights they stayed plus 1 night based on the policy, and that we just need them to confirm when they want to check-out. I also offered them help in finding a new place to stay as we're familiar with the beach town area.

They replied saying that they will stay and now are asking for a discount. I suspect that their original full refund request was to try to stay for free and now they are trying to take advantage to save some money. Since they are staying for 8 days, the daily rate already includes a 10% discount on an already discounted and competitive price given that the condo is still in development. I'm willing to give them an additional discount to avoid a bad review.

Like all of you, we do our best to provide a great experience and we always want to be great hosts. Thank you all for any advice or insights.

[Brenda1620]

@Giacomo415 That's really rough... can you afford a crap review at this point? I know I was so stressed out last summer when one review brought down the whole rating since I had a new listing.

I'm not super-experienced so feel free to ignore my advice... maybe meet them halfway and give them one night off? You've already offered to help them find somewhere else so honestly I think it's up to you. The only thing I can think of for above-and-beyond is offering to drive them to their new listing if that's still a possibility.

I'm finding even with information in the listing some newer travelers don't read or just can't find the information they need right away. Maybe in future when the booking gets made just send them a message saying there's noise, are you okay with that? (This is something I read someone does for older homes that have normal wear-and-tear, they made a point of texting out potential problems in advance).

I did have someone ask me how quiet our neighbourhood was as they were a light sleeper. We're on a main road that's fairly quiet in the evening but has some noise bleed, plus some kind of e-bike organization that tends to scream down the road after dark. I let her know and she found somewhere else.

They definitely sound like they're nickle-and-diming it at thing point so it's definitely a balancing act. Keep us posted and let us know how it turns out, I'd love to hear any solutions for these kinds of problems that worked. 

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Giacomo415 

Even though you disclose the on-going construction and noise, I noticed at least 2 other guests commented negatively about that in their reviews. Obviously guests are not seeing your disclosures about construction and noise. I suggest you modify your pre-booking message to include a note about the ongoing construction and/or be sure to send a message to guests after booking about it. This will prevent this from occurring again:

Some guests always angle for a refund and will actually go thru all your reviews looking for negative comments and then try to exploit that for a refund. Since you can't remove the previous negative reviews about noise (or remove the noise during construction), I would try to prevent the problem in the first place by using your pre-booking message on Instant Book and a separate message to guests after booking. This not only provides them an option to cancel, it also documents that you have advised them in the messages about the noise (not just on the listing details). Otherwise unscrupulous guests know that they can continue to ask for refunds due to the noise of construction.

Be that as it may, at this point you probably will get a negative review. You can offer another small discount as a courtesy (mention they already got a 10% discount) and remind them the listing did disclose ongoing construction.