How to avoid punitive guest review without agreeing to their unreasonable refund request

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Bradley187
Level 2
กทม, Thailand

How to avoid punitive guest review without agreeing to their unreasonable refund request

My guest has requested a partial refund just before checkout and I’m concerned that they will leave me a punitive review if I don’t comply.
 

Here’s the background:

 
The guest booked my apartment for 3 months but they’re moving out today, one month early. 
 
In general, their stay has gone well. Various issues have arisen over the 2 months and each time, I've responded quickly and resolved the issue. I found during a scheduled visit when they were out that the guests were not following my house security rules; all doors to outside space were left wide open. I reminded them of the need to close and lock all external windows and doors when not at home.
 
Shortly before their stay, we had a water leak from the roof and at the time of their arrival, the ceiling was stained in the bedroom and living room. It was too early to repair as the plaster hadn’t had time to dry out but the impact was purely cosmetic and so I considered that it wasn’t a significant issue and the guests seemed OK with that.
 
During their stay, the plaster loosened and small flecks started dropping off and the guest become concerned about this. A full repair would be too disruptive with a guest in-residing so I arranged for the damaged plaster to be removed so that it would stop fallin
 
We did this work last Monday when the guest was out and i arranged a full clean of the apartment after the work was done. 
 
Unfortunately, the workman didn’t do a very good job and on Wednesday, the guest complained that there was more debris falling. On Thursday, they said that they wanted to leave and I immediately agreed to a waive the non-refundable cancellation policy and fully refund them for any unused days and if they wanted to leave later that day, They then advised that they would checkout on Sunday (today) and I arranged the refund with Airbnb. 
 
On Saturday (yesterday) they asked to stay on for one more day (Monday). I agreed and advised that they would need to pay for that additional night. Whilst I thought that was reasonable, they most certainly didn’t. They were so upset that I relented and told them that I wouldn’t charge for the additional night. They said that they now didn't want to.
 
I was later contacted by Airbnb support as the guest had asked them to request a 30% refund for the last week.This hasn’t been entered into the Resolution Centre although it seems that would be the appropriate formal method to request a refund.
 
I’ve been communicating frequently and collaboratively with the guests over the last 2 months and I’m pretty sure that this request directed to Airbnb rather than to me is a result of my wanting to charge for the extra night.
 
I think their claim for a partial refund is over-blown although their stay hasn’t been as flawless as I’d like. I would agree to it if it meant that we ended this with them considering that I’’d taken good care of them ( I left them a bottle of wine for when they got home after the ceiling work was done last Monday)..
 
I’m now in a quandry and fear that they are about to leave me a punitive review. I can respond to any negative comments but the impact of a low star review is immeasurable. 
 
-should I refund them what they’re asking now?
-should i defer a decision on the refund until after the 2-week review period is over?
-should I agree to the requested refund now and let them know that I will approve it in 2 weeks?
 
I’d appreciate any thoughts, suggestions from any of the hosts here who may have had similar epxeriences or just have some ideas and considerations to share.
 
Thanks in anticipation.
 
Bradley
1 Best Answer
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

Oh Bradley I feel for you, this is an incredibly unfortunate set of circumstances which all of us hosts would dread happening to them.

 

As you live in Thailand but, your hosting reviews all relate to a London apartment, I am not sure how much personal involvement you have had with this particular issue. From the way you have described it, it sounds like you are on site. But if not, I can see communication would have been a contributing factor here!

 

It sounds obvious that this guest was initially more than happy to accept the visual aspect of the water damaged ceiling and even accept some inconvenience from it. But unfortunately your attempt at repairs lead the guest to consider staying any longer made them feel unsafe, so they wished to shorten their stay.

I am not apportioning blame here, but does that sum the issue up Bradley?

 

Absolutely the guest is entitled to a cancellation refund for the remainder of the stay and you agreed to that. In addition they lodged claim with the resolution centre for a 30% refund for their last week of occupancy! Once again Bradley I would not consider that unreasonable! I would not want to sleep in a bedroom knowing there was a possibility of matter from above falling on me at any time!

I am sorry for you Bradley, but that’s not the guests fault and my feeling is their demand is reasonable, and if you had left it at that you probably would have still got a reasonable guest review.

Where you whacked the hornets’ nest Bradley was by requiring a payment for their one extra night request. Mate, I wouldn’t have done that, you have now got them offside. Your issue should have been with the turkey who fixed up your ceiling, not the guest……seriously. Good guest reviews are money in the bank, poor guest reviews get you suspended, Bradley it’s as simple as that!!!

 

OK, the guest is now not your best friend, how do you get around this review issue. You are saying….

-should I refund them what they’re asking now?

-should i defer a decision on the refund until after the 2-week review period is over?

-should I agree to the requested refund now and let them know that I will approve it in 2 weeks?

 

My answer to you is send the guest an immediate message in the message stream saying….

 

“I am terribly sorry that building issues impacted your stay and you have chosen to leave. Obviously there are refund issues to be sorted out and XXXXXXXX, I am more than happy to negotiate with you what refund is appropriate once we have fulfilled our obligation to the review system and our reviews of each other have been published. Let’s talk then, wishing you all the best. Cheers Bradley”! 

Be nice to them, pleasant and apologetic, don't get them off-side any further, you have thrown them an olive branch, don't lace it with thorns!

And don't cane them in the review.....what bought this situation on was your issue, not the guests. If they get stuck into you, you will have the public review response to level the playing field!

But, now the guest has to come to the negotiation table Bradley, sure there is refund on offer but the scale of it will depend on that review and as long as you stay in a conciliatory manner, Airbnb support will not interfere, after all they want to see a resolution to this with as minimal involvement on their part as possible!

 

These are my thoughts Bradley, it has only happened to me acouple of times over the 7 years I have been hosting but each time I used this tactic it did work in my favour!

All the best Bradley.

 

Cheers..........Rob

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10 Replies 10
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

Oh Bradley I feel for you, this is an incredibly unfortunate set of circumstances which all of us hosts would dread happening to them.

 

As you live in Thailand but, your hosting reviews all relate to a London apartment, I am not sure how much personal involvement you have had with this particular issue. From the way you have described it, it sounds like you are on site. But if not, I can see communication would have been a contributing factor here!

 

It sounds obvious that this guest was initially more than happy to accept the visual aspect of the water damaged ceiling and even accept some inconvenience from it. But unfortunately your attempt at repairs lead the guest to consider staying any longer made them feel unsafe, so they wished to shorten their stay.

I am not apportioning blame here, but does that sum the issue up Bradley?

 

Absolutely the guest is entitled to a cancellation refund for the remainder of the stay and you agreed to that. In addition they lodged claim with the resolution centre for a 30% refund for their last week of occupancy! Once again Bradley I would not consider that unreasonable! I would not want to sleep in a bedroom knowing there was a possibility of matter from above falling on me at any time!

I am sorry for you Bradley, but that’s not the guests fault and my feeling is their demand is reasonable, and if you had left it at that you probably would have still got a reasonable guest review.

Where you whacked the hornets’ nest Bradley was by requiring a payment for their one extra night request. Mate, I wouldn’t have done that, you have now got them offside. Your issue should have been with the turkey who fixed up your ceiling, not the guest……seriously. Good guest reviews are money in the bank, poor guest reviews get you suspended, Bradley it’s as simple as that!!!

 

OK, the guest is now not your best friend, how do you get around this review issue. You are saying….

-should I refund them what they’re asking now?

-should i defer a decision on the refund until after the 2-week review period is over?

-should I agree to the requested refund now and let them know that I will approve it in 2 weeks?

 

My answer to you is send the guest an immediate message in the message stream saying….

 

“I am terribly sorry that building issues impacted your stay and you have chosen to leave. Obviously there are refund issues to be sorted out and XXXXXXXX, I am more than happy to negotiate with you what refund is appropriate once we have fulfilled our obligation to the review system and our reviews of each other have been published. Let’s talk then, wishing you all the best. Cheers Bradley”! 

Be nice to them, pleasant and apologetic, don't get them off-side any further, you have thrown them an olive branch, don't lace it with thorns!

And don't cane them in the review.....what bought this situation on was your issue, not the guests. If they get stuck into you, you will have the public review response to level the playing field!

But, now the guest has to come to the negotiation table Bradley, sure there is refund on offer but the scale of it will depend on that review and as long as you stay in a conciliatory manner, Airbnb support will not interfere, after all they want to see a resolution to this with as minimal involvement on their part as possible!

 

These are my thoughts Bradley, it has only happened to me acouple of times over the 7 years I have been hosting but each time I used this tactic it did work in my favour!

All the best Bradley.

 

Cheers..........Rob

Hi Rob, @Robin4 

 

Thank you ever so much for the very solid and considered advice.

 

The situation has evolved very quickly and I'm now facing a whole different issue!

 

BTW, it’s not the flat associated with this email. It's a property in Tel Aviv 35902605

 

To respond to your questions, being in Thailand, I'm remote from the property but I'm very hands on in terms of communications with guests and have an excellent local team in place who do whatever's necessary on the ground. 

 

I now suspect that the guests are exaggerating the impact of the flaking paint to justiy leaving early (for personal reasons) without penalty.

 

I've been very transparent with the guests about the damp damage and the steps we are taking to resolve it (they faciliated access for a decorator to visit for a quote). The discolouration and occasional flakes of plaster were not an issue for them until 6 weeks into their stay when they raised the flaking plaster as a significant concern. I arranged the temporary fix which, although not perfect, was a big improvement. Now the flat has been vacant for a few days, we've seen that there are just a few flakes that fell behind a speaker in the living room. Not a spec in the bedroom. Their statement that the current situation made their stay ‘extremely unpleasant’ doesn't fit with the reality. 

 

It's no longer relevant to my issue as they been refunded and left but one doesn't usually expect glowing reviews from guests who behave like this. 

 

You're absolutely right; I made a huge mistake in asking them to pay for the additional night. Having refunded them for 1 month, 1 additional free night might have kept them onside. Lesson learned (I hope!)

 

I really like your suggestion to be upfront and constructive about resolving the pending issue and proposing that it's done after the review process; reasonable & fair. I’m filing that one as a gem. 

 

Shortly after my original posting (I couldn't see how to update it), events moved quickly and I'm now facing a completely different issue! 

 

Here’s the new issue and it’s with Airbnb and not the guest: 

 

As you saw, the guests asked for a partial refund for the last week of their stay and they did this by contacting Airbnb support. They have not contacted me directly about this and did not submit a claim in the Resolution Centre. Here's the message (verbatim with personal ID removed) that I received from Airbnb support after the guests had called them to ask for a partial refund:  

 

"Hope you are having a good day, we are contacting you because your guest NAME  with reservation code XXXX ,we want to thank your be a superhost! ,NAME had some problems since monday due a problems with cleaning on the listing and we are mediating a refund for 30% of the affected nights starting from 22/05/2023 until the check out. thank you for understanding

 

There was no information on what steps I should take to clarify or resolve this and I replied to the Agent requesting a link to Airbnb's mediation process as I was not familiar with this process. The agent didn't send a link and, after some delay, send me a message asking if they could me. I provided a number and followed up again to agree a time but they didn't reply or call.

 

In the meantime, the guest checked out and, within 6 hours of leaving, left a review.

 

They wrote their review in the belief that they had made a request to me for a partial refund which I had not responded to. In fact, I have not received a claim, just the above message from the Airbnb agent. If the agent they spoke to had appropriately advised them to submit a claim through the Resolution Centre, I would have had a chance to respond.

 

I'm now in a position that the giuest has left me a possibly negative review that is at least partially due to an error by Airbnb support.

 

 

My thinking is that I need Airbnb support to:

 

1. acknowledge that my guest was given incorrect advice on how to claim a partial refund which meant that they did not open a case in the Resolution Centre.

 

2. accept that this error prevented me from responding to te guest's 'claim'

 

3. appreciate that consequent to 1. & 2,  the guest submitted their review mistakenly believing that they had made a claim for a partial refund that I had not responded to

 

4. protect me, as a superhost, from the negative impact of the incorrect advice they provided to my guest

 

5. recognising that the most reasonable way to do this is to not publish their review.

 

I’ve had this raised to an Airbnb support supervisor who advises that this is not covered by Airbnb's policy and that they can't take any action. They recommended that I contact them again once the report has been published. Once it's published there will be consequences for me.

 

Does my logic that Airbnb support have contributed to a likely negative reviuew seem reasomable? Are there other apprioaches I could take? How best to engage Airbnb at a sufficiently senior level so be able to help with something that’s not covered by policy?

 

I'd really appreciate your thoughts, suggestions, advice (and anyone else's) on this? 

 

Cheers 

 

Bradley

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

 

Yes Bradley Airbnb did not follow their stated protocol as per this from their terms of service........

Refund review request c.png

How you’ll get your money

Need to request a refund before or after a trip or Experience? First, discuss the amount with your Host in the message thread, and if they agree, go to the Resolution Center to request money. If they don’t agree to the amount within 72 hours, reach out to us for help mediating. 

___________________

 

When a refund request comes in to support they will (or should if they are going to follow their rules) always instruct the guest to first liaise with the host to find an amicable solution. From what you have said Support have not followed their own rules they have arbitrarily taken it on themselves blaming you for not responding to the guest to issue the refund...... and the guest has jumped in with their review.

 

I am  so sorry Bradley, you have been screwed, unfortunately we are seeing this time and again, not just here on the CC but in other social sites involving Airbnb that I am involved with. Support are just not following their rules. You hear it once, you dismiss it, you hear it over and over again, there must be some substance to it.

 

Ok, to the review. You don't know what the guest will have written but it sounds like you feel they may be trying to take advantage  of you and are using this ceiling business as a smoke screen. Remember your review will say just as much about you as it says about the guest so don't get into verbal fisticuffs with the guest, it won't make you look good Bradley.

If you are sure of your ground with this guests actions say something like......

 

"We thank xxxxxxx for choosing to stay in our apartment, we always try our best for our guests and I value their feedback. On this occasion the guests  may have had a change of travel plans, having an affect on their stay with us!  Although I wish them all the best for the future, I would decline the opportunity to host them again"!

 

Now, you haven't accused the guest of anything and there is nothing in there that you will have to backtrack on. Also, there is nothing in that will allow the guest to get Airbnb to remove the review. It doesn't contravene any review content guidelines but, you have got your point across. 

 

Once again, sorry for you Bradley, don't let it dishearten you too much, just keep in mind you probably won't strike another one like this for a long time.

All the best.

 

Cheers........Rob

Hi Rob @Robin4 ,

 

You definitely have a way with words!

 

I just spoken with the same Airbnb support supervisor who said that she had seen the review (I had no idea that was possible) and that there was nothing bad in it. She also said that she can't see the star rating (strange as she can see the content!)

 

I will use your proposal as a basis for a polite, factually accurate review that I hope protects other hosts from these shenanigans.

 

Thanks for your help & support - much appreciate.

 

Bradley

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

Good on you Brad, the 'help and support' I am happy to provide.

 

It disappoints me a bit that there were not any other voices here to help. Individually we don't know everything but, collectively this CC is an amazing resource and I am sorry you didn't have a few other opinions to draw on.

 

That support person is quite right, yes she does have access to the review but all she would see is the written content. But it does strike me as strange that she would volunteer that information  to you as the host before you have written your review......Airbnb are sticklers for secrecy when it comes to the review process. That's a 1st for me!

If that was the case all we would have to do is get on to CX and they would tell us the state of play....as I said I find that odd, but nothing surprises me when it comes to support these days!

She needs to see that to assess if there is any review conflict during resolution! She would not have access to the star rating. That remains further up the support chain and only comes into play in case of a policy issue ie: revenge review. Support staff do have access to files through the reservation confirmation code but, that access is limited. 

Brad, I understand how Airbnb support works!

 

I guess it all boils down to what she describes as 'nothing bad'!

Keep up the good work Bradley.

 

Cheers......Rob 

@Robin4 

 

Hi Rob, 

 

That's a lot about Airbnb support that I never knew before.

 

What is CX?

 

I'm not yet ready to breathe a sigh of relief especially as the star rating is more impactful on my performance than comments. But I will go ahead and submit a review and hope for the best!

 

Cheers

 

Bradley

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

Brad, it's the way Airbnb works, CX stands for 'Customer experience' wouldn't you know it.

 

Brad, don't get too hung up on the star rating thing. With Airbnb there is no such thing as .....perfection. Once you lose a perfect 5 rating you will never get it back. It may have been an out-lander review from 2 years ago, it robbed you of being that perfect host, and Airbnb will never let you forget it. We don't learn from our past mistakes here Brad, the only thing we learn is how to live with them.

Just concentrate on being the best host that you can be, give each guest that little something they are not expecting. Your good reviews will soon swamp that odd bad one and you will be at peace.

 

Cheers........Rob 

@Robin4 

 

Although Airbnb's search ranking algorithm is confidential, it would seem possible/likely that a recent low star review would be a factor that could knock a listing down the ladder.

 

Anyways, we can't control the guest review but we can focus on providing the best possible guest experience

 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Bradley187 

Brad as far as Porter App statistics are concerned, I am one of the top 3% of Airbnb single listing hosts in the world. This is my booking calendar over the past 6 months. 

6 month booked calendar.png

I have had 4 nights without a guest in my listing. Those crossed nights are nights that I have blocked for a reason, have been let privately or on a competitors platform. The only nights I have had vacant are those 4 with a nightly rate still attached to them. Click on the image to enlarge!

 

Brad, I am just a humble converted garage in the back-blocks of nowhere, guests book here because of my past reviews.......

Uli's review.png

 

Bad, you can't control the way the review system works but, you can make it work for you, if that makes sense. Concentrate on giving guests  the best experience that you can, As I said good reviews are money in the bank and well worth chasing and let that odd bad review slip through to the keeper, It will soon slip through into obscurity and will in actual fact say more about the guest than it says about you.

 

Cheers mate.

 

Rob  

@Robin4 

 

That's VERY impressive and aspirational!!!!

 

For various reasons, I need to focus on longer stays (2 weeks minimum, priced to encourage 1 month stays) so I don't have the guest turnover to 'dilute' a low star review.

 

Having said that, your advice to be the best host you can is still very solid!

 

Cheers

 

Bradley