STR guest leaving me no choice but to refund 50% of their stay??

Question

Little back story. We have a new STR property in a small coastal town. There are a TON of new units in this complex (20+) all starting around the same time so it's very competitive. Being a Superhost I believe has a positive impact on us getting bookings over some of the competitors in our complex.

We had a last minute request for a 3 night stay. Before booking the guest asked for a discounted rate being so last minute. I told him "no we have already worked the last minute pricing into these rates". They arrive around 7 pm & messaged that everything looking exactly like the photos & the unit is perfect.

Their first day they message that the water has a sulfur odor in the shower. I explain that this is a City/complex wide issue that we have had plumbers out to assess with no resolution & apologize for it. I get a messaged from the city at 9:47 AM that the water will be shut off to the entire community at 10 AM for 2 hours to do repairs/maintenance. I inform the guest 2 minutes after getting the message & they reply that this is a serious inconvenience & the power is also out. Power comes back on 13 minutes later. Water returns within the 2 hour window the City provided us. They then message that they found some debris from the previous guests. Asks for some type of compensation for the inconvenience. I apologize & give them 1/2 the cleaning fee back for this & the inconvenience of the water item.

Later that night 7ish they message that the water still smells like sulfur & the water pressure isn't near what it was before the City did their work. I inform them that I will reach out to the City first thing tomorrow morning but they're closed being so late.

I wake up the next morning to a message basically saying with all these inconveniences we've had there is no way I can give you a good review. You can either give me 50% of my money back & I won't leave you a review or can ignore it & I will leave a negative review.

1. Found debris

2. Power outage

3. Water outage

4. Water odor

5. Low water pressure

My concern now is, with a poor review it is likely I will lose Superhost which I see as out advantage over the current competition in this market. I see it as my only option is to issue another refund despite these issues being a City item more than an issue with out specific STR unit.

Am I wrong in this? Is there anything more I should've done/do for future? Do I let them leave a review & just leave a response explaining? All feedback is welcome. I am still new to this hosting thing (6ish months) & constantly trying to improve.

Collin Hays · Answer

Your guest is attempting to extort you.

I don’t negotiate with terrorists. A poor review now and then isn’t a big deal. Let them leave one and move on.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

This happens semi often at scale.  There are a lot of forums, social media posts, and more instructing people how to maximize refunds.

Our company policy is to always discuss refunds after check out, of course unless its some massive issue that precludes them staying any longer.  This is designed to stop them from coming up with new issues daily.

I would then bring this to Airbnb - they have a no extortion policy and that is exactly what they are doing, stating they will either leave a positive or no review in exchange for a hefty refund.

You may need to go through several reps at Airbnb but you should prevail.

John Underwood · Answer

If it were me I would definitely refund them half their money and you should clearly list your issue with smelly water and get it remidiated immediately.

Smelly water, no water, power outage this is pretty bad.

Patricia Andriolo-Bull · Answer

A few thoughts here:

1.  I haven't had to deal with this but from what I read online, if this is a message in the Airbnb app, it is clear extortion and Airbnb would remove the review.

2.  That said, it does sound like a pretty terrible experience of which, they should probably receive a 50% refund.  If they hadn't threatened me, I would have probably offered them more than the cleaning fee.

3.  My properties are in a condo.  We have catwalk repairs coming in June and pool is getting refinished in September.  I have taken all of my properties offline during those times.  Yes, I lose revenue but the impact to my reputation and reviews far outweighs the loss of revenue.  I also make note in my listings when there might be construction (certain times of year), along with noise or if there are any other things potentially wrong.  It seems like you are aware of the water issues and that this is a new place.  I would do one or both of two things, take your property offline until it is actually ready and the water isn't stinky, or note it in the listing.

4.  Sounds like you could learn from the cleaning issue.  In my experience, things happen, but from the guest perspective, there isn't an excuse.  Talk to your cleaners.

James Carlson · Answer

If they're being explicit enough in their threat, you should get Airbnb involved. They pretty guest-friendly, but i read somewhere else on here that an owner got Airbnb to remove a bad review (a rare occurrence) for this exact reason -- that the guest threatened them with a bad review of they didn't give a refund.

Joseph Sauer · Answer

Hey Josh,

Sorry you're going through this. It's incredibly hard. I don't know why, but any person that immediately asks for a discount become the hardest guests.

It sounds like you did everything you could. Most of the issue was completely out of your hands, which is incredibly frustrating.

My first instinct would be to not provide a refund and to immediately let Airbnb know about the situation and make sure they see that message of the guest essentially blackmailing you for a refund. That's against the review policy and should be taken down. Giving a heads up to Airbnb about a tough situation usually, if not always helps me in some way. Hope this helps! Best of luck

Trent Reeve · Answer

this is how i think. Yes, they absolutely should not extort you. But smelly water, no water, no power, leftover trash (if possible) does not make a happy visit

Myka Artis · Answer

These are the reasons that will irk you as an Airbnb host. I will say documentation is everything. If I were you, I wouldn't even worry at this point because they have already threatened to leave a bad review while asking for compensation, which is against Airbnb's policies and an automatic review removal. You can refuse to refund anything at this point. However, many issues popped up during their stay that would be an inconvenience, so I would continue to give them half the cleaning fee back.

The learning lesson here is to be aware of issues in your unit and how Airbnb support would handle them. If this guest hadn't threatened to leave a bad review, they could have easily gotten a 50% or more refund if they knew how to play the Airbnb system. They could have easily taken all these issues to Airbnb and gotten half their money back. In the future, if you know that there are issues with the water, you might want to consider shutting it down for a time or getting a different unit. A more savvy guest would have gotten almost a full refund for this, so be aware in the future; you handled it extremely well.

Andrew Street · Answer

Hey there Josh - Totally hear you! this sounds super frustrating. Honestly, you handled it well. The issues were city-related and out of your control, and you still offered a partial refund. Once they started with the “give me 50% or I’ll leave a bad review,” that’s review extortion, report it to Airbnb. I wouldn’t refund another cent. Stand your ground.

Dan H. · Answer

Without the threat, I would have provided a discount.   Likely less than the 50% they seek.   I would likely still provide the guest the same discount, maybe 25%.  They did experience some inconvenience.

If they leave a bad review I would get it removed due to the extortion attempt.

Does you listing mention the smelly water.   If not it should.

I have 2 units that have airplane noise.   In spite of the listings citing air plane noise, a guest left a one star review largely due to airplane noise.   They also exaggerated what they paid for the unit.   In spite of these two items, VRBO would not remove the review.   It is little different that if a listing stated no parking but guest left one star review for no parking.   VRBO rep did not see it as same thing due to different level of airplane noise but I claim there is also different tolerance level to noise and if you are sensitive to noise, do not rent a unit that states it has airplane noise.

Good luck

STR guest leaving me no choice but to refund 50% of their stay??

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