When things go wrong, and they will.

[Rubén16]

I have been hosting for quite some time, So today I decided to start a conversation on " when things go wrong" It would be great and informational what you do when things do not go as planned with guests and how you remedy the situation to avoid a bad review. 

For example this week I had a guest who turned the wrong way in my driveway and was stuck in the snow, this happened as they were arriving to the cottage I knew that their booking experience had a bad start so at check out I offered them a free nights stay on their next visit, do to the inconvenience of them being stuck on my driveway.

I know that I could of had hoped that they would leave a good review, however why risk it if in the long run a great review is worth much more than the free nights stay I offered them. The guests were very surprised with my generosity and left the 5 star review below. 

( again how have you handled situations when they went wrong tell us your story)

John

January 2019

Rubén is the salt of the earth. A very kind, and generous host with a great getaway cabin- close to all kinds of outdoor adventures. The cabin is very cozy, warm and peaceful. My girlfriend and I drove into Stowe both days for a snowmobiling tour and a day of skiing at Stowe Mtn resort. Also fairly close to some local breweries. I highly recommend for anyone who wants an authentic winter Vermont getaway.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Rubén16

this is very interesting topic 🙂

I have to admit we never bribed our guests with free stay, discounts or partial refunds when something went wrong. We apologize, smile and do whatever we can to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Reasonable and good guests inform us immediately if something is wrong and they understand these things happen, we fix it and everything is ok.

But there are guests who tell nothing during their stay and then complain in a review. Well, it's too late.

And there are the worst kind of guests who arrive unhappy, stay unhappy and leave unhappy because they had a fight with their partner or something. There is nothing we can do to please them  (we are off-site hosts ) and we know the bad review is inevitable. They just have to blame someone for their miserable holiday

[John1080]

@Rubén16, great topic! I've been lucky overall and haven't had many serious issues.

However, last summer I had a couple in my cabin during a very violent summer thunderstorm. We lost power for several hours and the Internet for a few days. As luck would have it, the storm also caused one of our skylights to leak for the very first time.

Because of all of this taken together, I felt quite bad and offered them a $100 refund to make up for their trouble. They thanked me and left me a glowing review. To me, it was worth the $100 and I felt it was the right thing to do.

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Rubén16

I've only once offered a guest a refund for something like this and that was simply that the WiFi was erratic for part of their stay (after that I switched provider and it has been perfect). They were so very grateful, but I thought it was fair. Bad WiFi is super annoying for most people.

I have given other discounts and refunds, but it's not really been for something going wrong. E.g. my listing states that I do not store luggage, but some guests who had an insane amount (six suitcases and four carry ons for two people) asked if they could leave it here for the day and would pay. They left me a £20 note. I refunded them £8 for no reason really (they would have paid more at a luggage storage facility) but they were nice people and as I had no new guests checking in until the next day, it was not a big hassle for me. They were very grateful and mentioned it in their review.

I have also had long-term guests who fed my cats while I was away on a short work trip. They were happy to do this because they really loved the cats, but I refunded them some money from their stay as a thank you. I think this is a nice gesture.

However, if guests have some kind of problem outside of my property that is totally beyond my control, I don't think I am responsible to financially compensate them for it.

[Ann72]

I ALWAYS offer the guest a free night.  Always.  And not one has ever taken me up on it.  🙂  But it leaves them with a good feeling and I get a good review with no mention of whatever the little problem was (which had of course been solved or remedied as quickly as possible).

We can prepare for all sorts of things, and we can respond to emergencies quickly, but one problem that came up last summer was the result of something so obvious to me I had neglected to instruct my caretaker and housekeeper about it.  I was in Europe and a guest set off the smoke alarm.  It is REALLY LOUD and I know from experience you can almost freak out while you're trying to silence it.  The guest called my caretaker and my housekeeper and asked each of them what the code was.  Although they both regularly go in and out and set and turn off the alarm system, they didn't realize that the alarm system code was the code to be used for the smoke alarm going off, and they told her they didn't know.  So I got a call at 3 am Croatia time.  Since all events happen on the same security panel - motion detection, smoke and fire detection, etc. - it had never occurred to me to tell them to use the one code for everything.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I had completely overlooked one obvious but important detail in preparing everyone for every possible emergency!

Luckily, the guest left a very positive, 5-star review.  Whew!

[Paul154]

Because of bad planning (I overlooked the turn-over), sometimes a room is not ready.

In these cases, I'll offer the cleaning fee +$$ and ask them to come back in an hour OR I'll give them another room OR I'll upgrade them to my master bedroom.

Sometimes, I have a double-booking. Nor problem, I'll upgrade them to my master bedroom.

[Lisa723]

I always offer money and/or a free future night.

[Beth80]

Through no fault of my own we had no water one morning. Thankfully I was able to get enough water to one bathroom for everyone to shower and buckets of water to flush toilets. Lots of apologizing and chocolate chip cookies. Never even thought about monetary compensation. Both groups left 5 star reviews.