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Weather conditions that cannot be reasonably anticipated like record setting highs may be uncomfortable for some, deadly for others (e.g. people with any autoimmune disease, heart arrhythmias, etc.)
The updated extenuating circumstances policy considers some weather conditions that cannot be reasonably anticipated as refundable.
Depending upon the guest’s situation, record setting high temperatures may fall under the EC policy.
It is possible the guest for their health needs a place with a/c for the worst heat of the day and venture out in the morning & evening when temperatures are not so extreme.
AirBnB is the 4th business I have owned. I owned a live music business, a real estate business, a writing business, and now ABB (certainly my smallest business).
What I learned over those decades is: Go the extra mile and nice things will happen to you.
Now this may not apply to your country, I’m in the USA, but I have never regretted taking care of a customer even if I lost money in the short term. Because the long term paid off.
SO I would not hesitate, I would give the refund with kind words.
We have, over three years, reduced guests exposure to our normal temps of extreme heat by not taking many bookings during July 15th - Sept 15, and planning some trips or friends to stay during these months. Any guests that want to book unblocked days, they get a warning in messages that it likely will be very hot. If the a/c is working (fingers crossed) as usual they are welcome to leave it on when they are here. However, if they are nice, I would consider partially refunding them if they had to leave.
So i’m in Australia, my listing is in a temperate zone, cool climate wine region in Sth Australia, with a big old stone house. Now it can get hot here, even over 40º some days, (dry heat) but then it usually drops off at night quite well. it’s not the tropics where often it’s just hot, hot, hotter, hot, hot. We do not need air conditioning for 300 days of the year, so my listing reads:
“In summer the old stone house stays very cool, but we have a fan for those rare hot, summer nights.” I advise guests to not open the windows during the day, esp if the hot desert northerlies are blowing. We had such a guest last January, on one of those rare hot days, who opened the windows, let in a bunch of bugs, and then complained about bugs and the heat, and left early the next day. I refunded his 2nd night as he was really not a nice person. He then tried to extort me to refund the first night, and luckily CS took my side and did not force me to.
haha, I feel you. it’s 17ºc here on the Gold Coast (middle of winter, brrrrr) and i’ve got the ducted air con warming the house for me.
Because an apartment is uninhabitable? Why are you continuing to rent out an apartment that you know is uninhabitable?
Heat stroke is a real thing. The heart has to work harder to try and cool your body down but at a certain temperature/humidity the human body cannot cool itself anymore. Heat stroke is a life threatening condition.
Yeah sure weather is outside of your control, but if you know its record setting heat in an apartment that has no cooling, you NEED TO SHUT DOWN FOR BUSINESS AS IT IS NOT HABITABLE. Just like hiking trails and camp grounds shut down due to extreme heat.
Instead , greedy hosts like you continue to operate and then defer back to your “no refund policy” when guests spend hundreds of dollars going out of their way to show up at your place only to find out what you already knew— the apartment is not habitable.
When you COULD have been a decent human and provided AC just for 3 months out of the year but you won’t because “oh my electricity bill would be a little higher” instead making every guest pay 10x more what you would have paid in extra electricity to cancel their reservation.
How much would electricity actually cost you to run AC for 3 months a year? $25 a month? Yet you have no problem telling guests you can’t refund them on $600+ for extreme heat conditions putting them at risk of heat stroke? REALLY??
Uninhabitable? What one person considers “too hot”, another may consider just fine. I am usually super cold at the temps most people consider comfortable.
Running AC where I live would cost $200/mo, not $25.
You are being extremely judgemental and presumptuous when you don’t know where the host lives or what their electric rate is. Or whether the hot weather lasted for a week, rather than the 3 months you assume it would be needed for.
Did you just join this forum to insult other hosts? Your handle would indicate so.
And as has been pointed out, the guest wasn’t complaining about the indoor temperature.
It seems that you joined here just to have a good old rant and to shout at members and readers. I have no idea what your motivation could possibly be.
If you intend to continue posting here as a civilised member of this forum then kindly change your user name to something a little less abrasive. In addition, please read comments thoroughly before you respond
As @HostAirbnbVRBO points out, the guests were not complaining in any way about the temperature inside the accommodation but the temperature in town.
The OP is from the UK if I remember correctly and it is true that AC is not available in most homes.
I did read the comments and the conversation shifted away from original post as all conversations do. Read KenH from Florida defending hosts keeping money while offering unlivable apartments spaces.
I am currently in this situation right now and having to sacrifice my $600 reservation to leave an apartment that is over 120F inside and host is deferring to his no cancelation policy as
“I should have read through all the amenities and discovered on my own that the unit does not have AC.” ALL Apartments in this city have had AC for 20+ years.
Should it really be the norm that I have to pay $600 for failing to read the fine print? Is it really up to me to be an investigator or can we start holding hosts accountable for this type of behavior. Maybe OP isn’t guilty of this, but many Airbnb hosts continue to place active listings when they know an apartment is not habitable.
And yes I made this account just to reply to this chain because too many hosts keep doing things like this.
That has to do with body fat percentages. I agree on this but the point still stands that extreme heat can be medically dangerous (even if individual tolerances differ)
Are there fans? Will the Host provide fans? Does it get cool outside at night? I ask because some locales are like that, and if you keep the windows shut during the day (and shades drawn) the place can be surprisingly cool. What is the temperature outside? Can you get to a cooling center?
Well, I’m sorry to say that you really do. need to read the listing, all of it. The amenities list is in pretty big type. Chalk it up to ‘lesson learned’.
In many locales – maybe not where you’re at (I don’t know) – AC is ‘needed’ [we did without it for ages] just a few weeks a year. That, and the expenses of it – upfront, maintenance, yes – the electricity, even concerns about its chemicals – have discouraged folks from ‘splurging’ [when I grew up, and where I live now, it’s more of a splurge than considered a necessity].
I hear you’re angry, and I bet you’re justified. But not at this OP, not KenH.
Habitable? It’s not your standard, or mine. I’d be happy if all Hosts were in compliance with the building code.
I hope we can turn the heat down on this exchange. On this kind of attacks – well, of that most here are not fans.
I think you’re probably right. There are some unscrupulous hosts just as there are unscrupulous people in every profession.
However, your rant is actually misplaced because most of us here have known each other (online) for a long time and we are conscientious hosts as you’ll find if you read more. There are other places online for those people - this isn’t one of them.
I defend that post. I too am in South Florida with its wild, hot weather. And if guests come here without being aware of the heat, the likelihood of hurricanes and tropical storms and so on, then hosts still have their staff to pay, their utilities tp pay, their consumables to buy for the guests’ stay and many other business expenses.
With the internet and other means of gathering information there’s no need to ‘read the small print’.
Then I guess we are going to continue to pretend that no host has ever listed an unhabitable unit and therefore no need to hold any host accountable.
But the internet cannot tell you if the apartment is on the 12th floor. There is no way to investigate how much direct sun will be hitting the building or what type of material is used.
Some apartments may be perfectly fine depending on their location / surroundings and building material.
But you can only investigate so much on the internet-- the rest you have to put your trust into hosts and as we’ve previously agreed on, no host should ever be held accountable.
If you take one point away from my rant, it’s that eventually this conversation crosses a line of temperature being a luxury into a medical necessity. As the world continues to heat up and we continue to see record heat trends, this conversation will come up more and more
On the contrary, members of this forum are the first to condemn bad practices by that type of host. Those hosts give all hosts a bad name and something that members here care deeply about.
It can. The floor should be mentioned in the listing and anyone who had any concerns that they might not be able to manage the heat has every opportunity to discuss the matter, and any other concerns, with the host before they book.
If the listing was deceptive in any way, for instance saying that the rental was on the second floor or that it had great AC, then the listing should be reported to Airbnb who will delist the apartment.
Airbnb and genuine hosts are very concerned that these hosts shouldn’t be allowed to tarnish our names and our integrity.
It will not, because of people like you who leave honest reviews about your stay. If guests are as determined as we hosts are to stamp our uninhabitable rentals then all rentals will be well-equipped and comfortable.
I imagine that many of us here have stayed in substandard rentals at some time or another and seen them disappear due to honest review practices.
I wonder what Airbnb would do if you contacted them and : 1) took a picture of the thermostat/thermometer showing this temperature (showing the context within the listing), and 2) a video of the same over, say, two minutes, to demonstrate that you didn’t just light a match to the thermometer [you’d need to post the video in, say, a Google drive, and include the link in your message], and 3) complained that it was uninhabitable.
Please make your message succinct and without venom, explaining too of:
