Hi there, sorry for the long post!
I had some guests arrive from Canada on Sunday. I was there to meet them, and they were a bit frazzled after the airline lost their luggage. I sympathised, gave them hints and tips about where to park, eat, activities, and to get to the shops quickly for replacement clothes as everything closes early on a Sunday etc etc, but the wife seemed really cold.
On Tuesday he messaged me to say there was no hot water and if there was a breaker he could check. It was a public holiday so I suggested he check the maintenance room before I tried to call someone but he bumped into another resident and they told him that the garage roof at the back of the apartment block partially collapsed, due to the incredible prolonged rain, and had damaged pipes but it was being fixed. I offered for them to come and use my guest bathroom for hot showers and suggested fun alternatives (e.g the heated sea baths just around the corner from them). Iâve followed up with the body corp etc, who have put a new boiler in, but the guest said âfirst the luggage, now this, the wife is not happyâ. So I offered a 50% discount for the night with no hot water. He said thanks. Now he has checked out and is messaging me from the airport saying there was no hot water again this morning, so I offered him 50% off another night, and now he is saying that they found bugs (look like baby cockroaches from the blurry pic he sent) every day in the kitchen since they checked in. Iâve never seen a bug in there and no other guests have mentioned it - and itâs too late for me to do anything for him now. Pretty gross if itâs true (he said there were 2 in the cutlery drawer 
) - but where do I draw the line with refunds and discounts?
If a guest has a genuine grievance (and no hot water counts as one) then I do not refund but give the guests a gift card to a local restaurant. For smaller problems (such as the internet temporarily not working), I give them a Starbucks gift card.
Giving a guest something they can enjoy is often of more value to them than a monetary discount. Mention it to them on the Airbnb message system so that you have a papertrail.
But these guests had their vacation ruined when their luggage was lost, which was no fault of yours. Just a thought, but when you gave them your suggestions, were they overtired and frazzled from the travelling and the luggage situation? Could it be that your cheery suggestions were just too much for them and they would rather have just retired to their room / apartment to relax? Would a bottle of wine or a couple of chilled beers help them relax further? Or maybe a delivery dinner on you? (Just a thought).
However, it seems that youâre going to get either no review or a bad review from these guests. If so, ignore it and move on.
The problem is that when you consistently offer guests discounts it âtrainsâ them to try the same thing with future hosts. Which is not a good thing. Kill them with kindness by all means (gift cards, delivery dinners) but please donât encourage them to think that they can easily get discounts or free nights.
Thatâs a really good point, thank you- I will try the voucher / wine idea next time before offering refunds. With the suggestions, they asked for them when they arrived, so I happily reeled off a range of options for them. Perhaps I should have offered to make them
A dinner reservation while they went off to find replacement clothing. I feel so bad for them that theyâve had a shocking time (luggage, hideous weather, no hot water and potentially the roach situation), it just hard to know how to help them when the majority of it is out of my control. Fingers crossed they donât leave a review and we can all move onâŚ
Oh and every guest gets a bottle of wine waiting for them in the fridge 
ď¸ - nobody ever mentions it but everybody drinks it! Maybe we do train them to expect too muchâŚ
@jaquo. I havenât needed these tips [yet], but my day is coming statistically. These are great ideas and I sincerely hope that I will remember them when they are needed.
Yeah, stop the wine now. Itâs just an expense that they donât appreciate.
I had a couple get a few bugs in the apartment while I was away on a New Years week trip to Europe. I refunded a full night and recleaned the room, bought new sheets and towels. It didnât stop them from leaving a SCATHING review. In the future⌠I think I wonât be so fast to refund. I like the idea of a gift card instead of a refund. I donât think a few bugs in a Hawaii apartment should be refund worthy. These guests wrote again before their trip ended saying they wanted more money off since they found bugs outside. OUTSIDE!!!
After I saw the condition they left the room in, I gave them an additional $25 off. So a full night at $125 and another $25 off and what did it get me? A scathing review about the bugs. Luckily I left them a terrible review about the disappoint condition they left the room in. Bad bad guests.
You should count on a bad review. Itâs coming. Think how bad youâd feel if you refunded even more, made the dinner reservations and they smack you down anyway! Itâs what guests do!
They are called silverfish. I get them once in a while. They donât look anything like a roach. Totally harmless.