I have a guest who stayed in my Airbnb over the weekend and they are complaining about noise and light, and have requested a refund, I am not sure if I should provide it.
I have lived in my apartment for over a year and a half and am airbnbing it while I am home for the summer. I had my first guests stay this weekend and they are complaing about noise from the bars and restaurants outside. For me, I have found that my area typically calms down during the evening and the bars and restaurants create a nice ambiance outside but really don't create a noise issue. The bars are calmer, not for dancing and music, but like where people would go to get a beer and chat with friends. During the summer more people might spend time outside on the street but again I have never found the noise to be out of control, or beyond the normal expectations of what you might expect from living in Paris. There might be the occasional night where there is more noise due to a sporting event or something but again nothing too crazy.
Unfortunately, I assume the euros this past weekend meant the bars were busier than normal and did create more of noise. I don't have any documentation of the noise though so I cannot be sure. They are also complaining about my neighbors speaking loudly in the stairwell. Again, while I get that may be annoying there is not anything I am able to do about it. I think my listing could have been slightly clearer about the possibility of a rare noise disturbance but it does mention that multiple tourist attractions and cafes are steps away which to me does indicate a livelier area.
In regards to the light, they are complaining about the courtyard light shining into one window. This window did not have a typical curtain on it (I have since installed one to avoid this issue in the future) but there is a cover for the window which, was provided, and when I messaged the guest about this solution they never responded to me. If they had let me know even earlier that there was an issue with the cover or something I could've had another curtain installed sooner. Again I have been living in this apartment for over a year, and never cover this window and have never found the courtyard light to be disruptive. She tried to take photo to show to me, but I can tell that the picture was taken during the daytime. In general this apartment only really gets direct sunlight before 12pm otherwise it is usually pretty dark.
Because this is the first guest I don't want to get a bad review for not giving the refund, but also feel like the guests aren't being quite reasonable with their complaints and were looking for a reason to get a refund.
