What is fair?

[Jill1106]

Booked a wonderful property for my elderly mom in my town due to hardship for her accessing my property on a mountainside… specifically asked about accessibility of the rental due to physical mobility of the guest. Owner stated it was easily accessible the (snow) plow will go right up to the house.

Upon arrival found the 100’ from the road to the house was covered in thigh deep snow, got our vehicle stuck, pulled out, shovelled a path, cleaned the porch to get in… 3 hours later completely unpacked the vehicle, to find out there is no water working (estimated time to repair >48 hours)… okay we can deal til morning… an hour after… the power goes out. Estimated time to repair, >12 hours in sun freezing temps and 10-20” of additional snow expected overnight.

We left n went up the mountain to my cabin and 6 hours after the ordeal began at check in time, everyone is safe and asleep….

Except me.

What is fair to compensate for this crazy situation? The owner is very nice, but the property is not accessible or habitable at this time. ??

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Jill1106 Just to get this out of the way first: third-party bookings are against Airbnb policy. If the booking was made from your user account but you were not the guest, that could be considered grounds for Airbnb to outright deny any recourse to compensation. That would only become an issue if you requested a refund from the host and Airbnb was left to mediate a dispute. Hopefully you and the host can agree on a resolution without having to get the shambolic customer service involved. 

Aside from that technicality, the booking would be entitled to a full refund if you reported the issues to Airbnb and canceled within 24 hours. The accessibility concerns specific to your mom's condition would be the wrong angle unless the listing's amenities tab specifically advertised accessibility features that were not provided. However, if the utilities needed to make the home winter-safe aren't working, that's normally enough reason to cancel for a full refund.

[Jill1106]

Ah that would be a bad thing, I am a user too… but able to access thru the snow, shoveling, driving, she can’t; and much more tolerant of the non- working utilities… was hoping for a place in the flat land as my place is too difficult/scary  on a mountainside only reachable by snow cat/snow machine with tracks… the guy is super nice and place is super cute, so I guess just wait it out on the mountainside, we need heat. I just didn’t know if it is appropriate or fair to request a refund for the non utilities days or a plow for the road and driveway. This is my first Airbnb. Thanks for your help 🙂