Long stay - stove/oven stopped working

[Siara3]

Hello,

We are in a long stay, and 3 days ago the stove/oven shut off - no power. We were in the middle of cooking dinner, and had to throw stuff away and order takeout. We notified the host immediately and that this is a big problem for us, and we tried to power cycle/check the stove, but no fix. The host was traveling so we understood it wouldn't happen immediately that night on Thursday, but he said he would call us/come the next day (Friday). We texted him several times and he ghosted us for 2 days. He showed up with super short notice when we weren't there Saturday evening and with our permission entered the house, but could not fix it and told us he would send a repairman today. We cook every meal (breakfast, lunch from leftovers or fresh in the morning, and dinner) so this is a huge inconvenience and our groceries are just sitting in the fridge. Yesterday we just didn't have a lunch and went hungry, then ate out for dinner... . We would expect that because he was so slow to respond, he should partially refund us for these days to cover the extra cost and inconvenience. Does this seem reasonable and what percentage? 

We are also upset for something else in this stay, you can't take a full hot shower before it goes ice cold, then you have to wait at least 20 min for it to get warm again. Example - it fills the bath only a quarter full before getting cold. Or, sometimes in the morning it just never got hot! We notified the host immediately about this problem, as the place is booked for 5 guests so it would be super difficult, and he said that the water heater was just replaced (I am guessing with bad settings?!) and he would have someone come by to fix it. He never sent someone, and we messaged him and he ghosted us. It has made the stay very uncomfortable, and it is very cold - we are in a 2 bdrm little house in vegas, it is in a city and modern so you expect a hot shower! And the place is not cheap, almost 3k for a 1 month stay. 

[Helen3]

When you realised the host wasn't sorting the issues as agreed the following day you could have contacted Airbnb to cancel the booking penalty free @Siara3 

Yes you can ask for a discount for the days a key amenity isn't working. 

if you're on a longer stay you'd be better finding alternative accommodation where key amenities work? 

[Siara3]

We would rather not change bookings as we are 75% through and don't want to deal with that hassle, so long as the host can fix the oven/stove in the next couple days and at least offer a discount for these days. So my question is more about how to ask for the discount and whether to directly ask the host or ask airbnb. 

[Lorina14]

@Siara3,

You should contact Airbnb support as soon as the host didn’t follow through with what they promised. Is all your correspondence on the app or Airbnb platform? 

I would call Airbnb support now and explain the whole situation and show pics of the inconvenience. Ask them to see your correspondence on the platform and explain the inconvenience if not having the amenities promised (showering, cooking and spending more money for eating out).

@Paula @Bhumika @Rebecca (community host managers) could you assist her if she doesn’t get a response from the support or send her concern to the right team please?

[Siara3]

Hi Lorina,

Thank you so much for the help! We ended up calling Airbnb support to document the situation, but gave our host a chance to help us cover the cost. We are negotiating now with the host, and initially they only wanted to offer us 20$ a day for the days the stove/oven was down. The nightly rate after the applied month discount and exluding any fees like cleaning and tax is 72.7$, before the montly discount it is 96.9$. The place was booked for 5 people, at the time the stove was out we were just 2. I don't see at all how 20$ a day is enough for 2 people to eat out on even just dinner (but we usually cook our dinner and eat leftovers for lunch.. so that is two meals). We said we would consider 40$ a day, this feels extremely resonable considering the cost of eating out (wasting our own groceries), and the inconvenience, and they came back with 33$ a day and with some kind of rediculous comments. Do you think that is reasonable?

[Siara3]

The nightly rate including taxes, monthly discount, cleaning fee is 95.9 USD / night

[Siara3]

@Paula @Bhumika @Rebecca could you please also read my above comments? I would essentially like to know whether the hosts offer (which feels low to us) is less than Airbnb would help us to offset the costs during the time the major appliance was down. Thank you

[Siara3]

@Lorina14

[Rebecca]

Hi @Siara3, 

AS we don't work for the support team we will be unable to comment on whether or not the offer is sufficient.  You'll need to speak to Airbnb Support or continue to speak with this Host. 

All the best,

Rebecca 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Siara3 Given the budget nature of the accommodation I don't think $33 is too bad - it is 45% of the nightly rate before tax/cleaning after all. Eating out for 3 meals for 5 people (or even 2) will be way over the cost of the accommodation which would be unreasonable.

The host does however seem to be being a bit dumb in not sorting out the issues quickly.

[Siara3]

Yeah that makes sense 45% is fair. The stove shut off while we were cooking Thursday evening so we had to throw away our half cooked food, and it wasn't fixed until Sunday Midday. We said we could ignore sunday since we could manage just cereal for breakfast (even though we normally cook eggs), and request compensation for Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday. So I guess 3 days. We would have expected them to come Friday but it took until Sunday. 

The reason they were slow to fix things is because they were on holiday in another country. We actually had semi-cold showers 75% of our stay because they had installed a new water heater before we arrived which wasn't setup correctly. We asked them to fix it when we first arrived and they never did until they returned and we asked them again. So that is also pretty upsetting... cold showers were a real bummer for all of us. 

Given the more details, does 45% for 3 days make sense you think?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Siara3 Yes

[Lorina14]

@Siara3 

Even if the stove stopped working, the host could have purchased and dropped off or had an expedited delivery of a hot plate to your space so you could cook on it. When I had our kitchen renovated for a month we had a 2 burner hot plate that we used for all of our cooking and it worker fine for our family.

The host also could have offered for you to purchase a hot plate for the space, and they could have reimbursed you for the cost and inconvenience through the resolutions tab in the reservation. 

[Lorina14]

@Siara3 

This is a case where the hosts should have had a cohost locally who could have quickly addressed your issues. And if it was a lag in response of more than 24 hours, I would have gotten Airbnb support at that time and let the host know I tried to resolve it but this inconvenience to our holiday plans is not acceptable. 

[Lorina14]

@Siara3,

It is hard to determine what a fair price would be for eating out for 2 people as people have varied preferences and diets. As @Mike-And-Jane0 said, 45% of the rate of accommodations seems fair. 

I know from experience as a guest that Airbnb will offer 30% off for an inconvenience but usually only for one night, and it depends on the severity of the inconvenience. They do refund cleaning fees if the place is dirty (with proof). I am not sure on how long or how much they refund for amenities not being available that were promised. 

As soon as something shows up, you should reach out to the host and allow them to address it and if it is not adequate then you can always reach out to Airbnb customer support 24/7 (this is what the guests fees are for).

As @Helen3 said, it’s best to address things immediately as you could have canceled or gotten Airbnb to help you find a comparable listing (from an earlier thread someone said that they match within 5% if your booking fees).

I think where you may have had issues is that you may have waited too long to bring these issues up (trying to let the host deal with it unsuccessfully) and then you may appear as someone who is trying to get a discounted or free stay.

Even if you tried to have the host resolve it prior to contacting Airbnb, like @Mike-And-Jane0 said you should contact Airbnb within 72 hours maybe just to have looped them into the issue presenting itself. 

Airbnb terms and conditions are available to read on the resources page and you may find more info there. The discounts off are from what I have read on the community posts as well as my own experience as a host and guest although I am pretty sure they may not publicly post these as people may take advantage of knowing this (as some guests unfortunately have done to hosts if they didn’t like an interaction or wanted to leave earlier than the minimum reservation time they paid for and wanted money back). 

Please contact Airbnb support and provide all proof via correspondence (hopefully in the app or airbnb platform).

Sometimes and I don’t recommend this, some people have gone to social media with a hashtag and it has gotten them support that they needed to completely resolve an issue (and end the run around from support, not getting a call back, etc.).

Good luck and keep us posted on the outcome.