Guests stayed an extra night due to snow, how much should we charge?

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

We had a couple who stayed an extra night last weekend when we had the bad snow in the UK. not to bore you but Bruce dug them out but the guest was very unsure of his vehicle and didn't even know how the 4x4 facility could be turned on. They ended up staying.

We have made a request for an extra nights stay at the usual weekend price and they have responded saying it should have taken me less than 6 days to ask for it, they feel they shouldn't pay more than they paid for the other nights and then got a bit spiteful regarding not recommending us any more. I must add.

On their second night we provided them with food as they hadn't enough with them. Bruce then dug a snow drift out to try and get them on their way. We then took the guest to our car  parked half a mile away dug that out and took him shopping and i got in touch with their daughter when both their mobiles went off.

What would other hosts have done regarding charging these guests? We did have guests booked in who cancelled due to the weather so my understanding is they are being reimbursed so we will be losing out financially 

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

@Matthew285 Thank you, yes, a lesson learnt. That said when we looked at what they thought they were going to be charged and what we asked, the difference was £9.00. They also made the choice to stay when the next guests cancelled and stopped trying to get their car off the drive. As Bruce pointed out to their daughter he spent many hours digging the snow off the drive and it wasn't our fault her father wasn't confident enough to drive his 4x4 off the drive. But yes we should have said to them if you plan on staying tonights charge is this price. 

[Brian1583]

Thanks all.

I have a cabin in the California Sierras and heavy snows are a challenge. However, snow forecasts are quite good and today few people should surprised. I think a policy of sharing the misfortune - 50% of a nightly rental and leave me the option to charge full rate (for those guests that seem not to plan ahead) might be a good approach. I'll add that to the house policies.

[Trevor-And-Kira0]

This has me thinking - if the host communicated to the guest ahead of time to let them know snow was coming, (and that there was a strong possibility the snows would be bad, and that the guests might even find themselves snowed in,) some of the further issues might have been prevented.  

[Helen3]

Why would a host need to do that???? guests who travel to areas where there is known to be snow or other adverse weather conditions should use their common sense and check weather conditions before they travel and use a car that's a four by four/ is suitable for travelling in bad weather conditions. @Trevor-And-Kira0