Missing amenity for part of a guest's stay - Airbnb policy on how to handle

[Lee353]

I have a hot tub at our cabin.  The guest checking in today showed up at 2pm and let themselves in (prior to the 4pm check-in time) despite me telling them the cabin wouldn't be ready until 4pm.  The hot tub is being repaired.  They started texting and calling me immediately when they saw the hot tub didn't have water in it.  I told them I'd reach out to the hot tub repair folks.  

I finally called them at 4pm, as the hot tub repair folks are stuck in traffic (mountain town so traffic can be rough), and they immediately start yelling at me that I'm ruining their anniversary trip, and they expected to be able to get in the hot tub right at 4pm at check in.  

I calmly offered to refund roughly 45% of their nightly rate for the inconvenience, and I told them worst case scenario that it might be in the morning before they get back out (I don't know this but want to prepare them for the worst since they're so upset).  

They then say they want me to comp them at another property for the night, refund their first night stay, or they want to cancel.  

I understand their frustration, but what is the Airbnb policy about missing amenities?  I've always thought it was to discount the nights impacted by the missing amenity.  If the guest calls Airbnb and wants to cancel because an exterior amenity is missing for a few hours to one night, is that grounds for cancellation? At this point, I'm not necessarily opposed to them cancelling because they are being quite rude honestly, but I am curious what the Airbnb policy is?

Has anyone else had something similar happen?  How did Airbnb CS respond?

[Emiel1]

@Lee353 

There is no policy how to handle this. Only when key amenities are not available (the article mentions "a pool" as an example) it can be considered as a travel issue, maybe resulting in cancellation/full refund:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3028/travel-issues-eligible-for-refunds

Providing some refund because the hot tub is temporary not available should be fair.

If the guests are not satisfied with that then you could offer to shorten the reservation with refund of unused nights ("change" option on the reservation, amend price in the change form).

If they are still unhappy, they need to contact Airbnb.

[Mark116]

@Lee353  Ugh. Your challenge here is that they can leave you a review since they've already checked in.  I'd give them the review they deserve when the time comes.

I think a 45% refund on one night is very, very generous for 1 single amenity.  I would be inclined to call their bluff and tell them you don't want them to stay if they are unhappy and they should feel free to cancel.

If they cancel they will be refunded the nights they don't stay as far as I understand it.

You might want to look at your check in to see how in future you can prevent a**** from checking in 2 hours early and causing havoc. 

[Colleen253]

@Lee353 To be fair to the guests, I can understand them being upset at the hot tub being out of commission (though that in no way excuses their rudeness). The element of surprise probably didn’t help. It would have been a good idea to give them a heads up on what the situation was ahead of time and ask them if they preferred to cancel with refund, before arrival, given the uncertainty with the state of the hot tub. As Mark says, they can now review you, and their behavior indicates they will surely leave you a stinker no matter what you do. The other danger is they stay, complain to Airbnb after they’re gone, and get a complete refund. It might be best to offer a full refund now, if they leave. Better that than a free stay. 

[Amanda660]

How many nights are they booked for?  

[Anonymous]

@Lee353  Parsing out the guest cancellation policy as Emile linked above, if the guest reports on their arrival date that a key amenity (I think a hot tub counts) is not in working order, they should have the option to cancel for a 100% refund. These guests, who arrived unceremoniously early and proceeded to be major drama queens, are probably best left to do just that. No matter what action you take at this point, you can anticipate more complaints and a bad review, so it's just a question of cutting losses.

But if you're confident that you can get the hot tub fixed in the next hours and calm the insufficiently bubbled guests down, you might be able to appease them by comping the first night's stay and perhaps offering a voucher to a nearby spa or other romantic destination. I'm afraid you'll have to take your lumps for this one, because a missing amenity should never be a surprise. Those guests should have been informed much earlier that the spa wasn't going to be ready for them at check-in. And when you can't deliver everything exactly as advertised on arrival, it's much better to meet the guests at the property and provide some actual customer service than to let them make disappointing discoveries on their own. 

If you're somewhat detached from the property and unable to attend to your guests in person, this might be a good time to recruit a local who can do this on your behalf. High-maintenance amenities and high-maintenance humans go hand in hand, and with all those hands occupied you don't want to be caught with your pants down.

[Sarah977]

@Lee353  I don't know if you take back-to-back bookings, or leave a day between bookings, but it's something you might consider for the future. 

Having that one day prep time, while it means an unbooked night, can work out better in the long run. If you find a guest has broken or damaged something, or through no fault of the guest's, something has gone on the blink, it gives you leeway to get it replaced or repaired, and also to notify upcoming guests if it might not get fixed by the time they arrive. 

Messaging a guest to say you have a problem with the hot tub and are trying to get it repaired before their arrival, and if that doesn't happen, you will discount XX % per night that they are without it, is preferable to trying to get it fixed in a rush in the few hours you have between guests, or not being able to reach them because they are in transit, only to have them arrive and find something unusable.

 The one night block also relieves the stress of early arrivals or late check-outs or scrambling to get the place cleaned after having dirty, messy guests. 

Sorry you got the "You ruined our  vacation" types. If all it takes is a briefly unusable hottub to have one's vacation totally ruined, they are going to have  a lot of "ruined" vacations in their lives. 

[Lorna170]

@Lee353   The MINUTE that you knew the hot tub was in need of servicing or repair you should have advised your guests of the issue.  Then you can begin the conversation as to how valuable that amenity was to their visit and what you will offer as compensation for the inoperable hot tub.

Your guests have the right to cancel and get a full refund if the hot tub is inoperable or not useable at their time of arrival and it is an expected amenity.  (Sorry)  

We have had hot tubs at our properties for over 20 years.  Our guests, once booked, receive a PDF from us that further describes the amenities at the property and the additional rules that apply to each of them.  Due to our experience, we inform guests that the hot tub will not be ready (at temperature) until X number of hours after being emptied and refilled, which we do after every guest.  That usually means the new guest can sit in a nice, clean, sanitary hot tub after 6 PM on their arrival evening.  This has prevented quite a bit of angst on our part and our guest's expectations PRIOR to arrival.