Hosts being allowed time to rectify minor issues

[Matthew1526]

Hello, I wondered if anyone knows if the rules have changed regarding airbnb allowing hosts time to rectify (minor) issues reported?

I had a guest that reported, at midnight, that he thought the bed linen smelled of sweat (I have since been to the property and to me it smells of fabric softener, but each nose to their own!) 

I replied and apologised and told them where they could find spare bed linen.

they then filed a report with airbnb at 1am because they found a washing capsule stuck to the spare bed sheet, not the one on the bed.

They then proceeded to take off all the linen and send pictures of a few age marks on the duvet, and demanded a full refund on their 5 night stay (it’s in central London so this wasn’t an insignificant amount). As it was by now 1am in the morning I explained to airbnb that I couldn’t visit now, but that I could go the following morning with more fresh linen and take away the ‘dirty’ items. 
the guests refused, airbnb let them leave the following day at 1pm (3 hours after my check out time) and have given them a refund on 4 nights + 30% off the spent night! 
I have been complaining, so far to no avail, that I should have been allowed some time, within reasonable working hours, to rectify the issue.

especially considering that they checked in at 1pm and didn’t report the issue until midnight. However, because it’s within 72 hours it seems not to matter to them.

i should also add that I told the guests where they could find another set of clean linen, which they confirmed at 2am they had found, and was clean and smelling to their satisfaction. So I did in fact find a way to resolve the issue, but airbnb says the guests are still within their rights to aircover full refund.

Is this all down to the new policies? 
I’ve been hosting for almost 14 years and have always been allowed time to rectify issues such as these, in the few times it has occurred. 

I’m on my 3rd appeal with customer service but am getting nowhere fast, with them only calling me back at 2am this morning and now ignoring my messages all day. Clearly they no longer have anyone in customer service that works on a European time zone?

sorry for the long rant! Any advice or knowledge on new rules would be much appreciated… should I continue to fight or will I need to let this one go? I don’t know how we’re supposed to be able to afford to continue to host though, if airbnb refunds guests a week’s rent due to a supposedly smelly bed sheet, we can longer afford our mortgages… 

Thank you 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Matthew1526 , I am sorry to hear about your experience. Was this a recent guest experience or did it happen some time ago?

As it's been a while, have you heard back from the Customer Support team? 

Please feel free to share updates with us when you have a moment. 

Kind regards,

[Matthew1526]

Hello, it happened almost 2 weeks ago now. Customer service are refusing to discuss the matter with me further and have already refunded the guest all but 70% of the first night! 

[Lorina14]

@Matthew1526 

I’m sorry to hear about your problematic guests who were unreasonable. It is true that guests have up to 72 hours to report issues upon checking in (@joan2709 just wrote a response on a different thread citing this as a guest asked for a refund on something about a week after they left).

If for some reason there is a missing amenity Airbnb can refund up to 30% per night for the amenity that is missing. If cleaning was not up to par, there are cases where they could also refund the cleaning fee. If they found suitable linens that were clean to their standard then that should have been noted. Allowing them to check out a couple hours past your checkout time is not professional as they were refunded for the 4 unused days and they should have left at the normal check out time.

I wonder if they only needed one night, could not find a place for one night in the area they wanted, so they booked for longer and then gamed the system to get a refund and only pay for the one night they intended. I’ve heard unfortunately that some places exist on the internet that tell people how to get a stay for free or reduced fee on different platforms.

I’m sorry again about this experience and I hope that they don’t cause a problem with leaving an untrue review. If so, make sure to respond quickly and neutrally with facts only. This will prevent your review from being taken down. Or you can sandwich the review with a good thing, the constructive criticism and another good comment. Unfortunately what hosts have noted is that Airbnb is using AI to help with certain tasks including the review system and hosts asking to remove retaliatory reviews are being rejected immediately (even with citation of how it does not follow the Terms and conditions of Airbnb). Many are feeling discouraged and frustrated that they are not honoring their own T&C.