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I have just had an experience with a guest who experienced slow internet which interfered with SmartTV and Netflix. They turned down offers to leave for reimbursement or be switched to my other property with high speed internet.
Airbnb told me that a “missing amenity” (ie, slow internet, reason out of my control) is not only a “Violation of Host Standards” but should result in a 50% discount on the price of the stay.
Many hosts were gobsmacked by the severity of this penalty as was I.
The question arises of well-informed guests who know how slanted Airbnb is towards guest satisfaction, and who use small problems or inconveniences to get disproportionate compensation.
Either by asking outright for compensation, or more manipulatively, being “nice” but repeatedly complaining and texting until the host has to do something, it seems guests who know the system can really take advantage. Especially for things that are hard to prove like “the internet was slow yesterday I had to reboot the modem”.
I think it’s important to alert other hosts when a guest has outright asked for or accepted compensation that the host was required to give. At least then other hosts can see in the reviews that one, two, three other hosts had to compensate this person.
The guest will also know that her review shows the fact she took compensation so if she tries getting another compensation for anything on the next trip, this should be a deterrent.
I am going to give a good review to my guest but state that she experienced internet problems, refused offers to move or leave, and finally accepted a discount of almost 50% of her stay. Thanking her of course for her patience and help in trying to solve the internet problem.
I think that will be very interesting for other future hosts to know.
Future hosts need to know this guest refused opportunities for accommodations or a solution that addressesed the amenity breakage but opted to receive a partial refund.
I think scammers have already figured out ways to get cheap or reimbursed trips. Can guest A look at guest B’s profile & reviews?
Everything is on the internet so I’ll bet somewhere is a blog if “tips to get a free or discounted stay”. I doubt you will be giving future guests ideas
I think you just got a crappy customer service rep. I had an unexpected water main repair in my neighborhood which left my guests without water just after their arrival. After talking to the water company and finding out that it would be shut off again the next day, I informed the guests and let them know I would be happy to help them find another place to stay. They said no, it was fine, so I just took them over some bottled water, and they stayed. I did end up giving them a small refund for the time the water was off, but when I talked to Air (about unrelated problems with this guest), they were surprised that I had given the refund because, in their words, I was under no obligation to refund anything because I offered the guest the opportunity to cancel their reservation without penalty and the guest chose to stay, knowing that there would be no water for a while. Air said that if the guest has agreed to stay with full knowledge of a missing amenity, no refunds are due.
Ask for a supervisor to review. 50% is ridiculous.
Surely you can prove that this is a utility fault rather than one of your making?
Did your guests also refuse the offer of you providing them with a dongle which would have given them internet coverage?
Say that you feel it is unfair of them to be given a 50% refund when the internet fault was outside of your control and you offered them an alternative apartment of the same quality which had full internet access.
I am.not sure how they were refunded anything at all if internet was only slow. They couldn’t watch Netflix? And based on that they were refunded 50% ? That’s just crazy. How many times I stayed in hotels with absence of hot water, internet so slow it’s Jon existent, power went off for the whole night, etc…and noone ever gave me any refund
I would never have agreed to refund anything over this, I would keep on the phone, email everyday, facebook and twitter until they reversed this and paid themselves. You got screwed @sucre
I think that each CSR just makes up the rules how they personally interpret them. There are no set rules about this. That’s why I would call and call again if they told me I had to refund that much for something as silly as internet. I mean, unless someone was staying for business and needed internet to work at the property every day, it’s not a necessary amenity like utilities.
So the answer is to post your story on a public forum where anyone in the world can read it and think it is an Airbnb normal procedure?
You’ve said in a previous thread …
… that the guest was complaining a lot - but you have decided to ‘give a good review’. This is despite the fact that the internet outage was beyond your control. You also said…
I’m also up for superhost in January so there is no way I’m getting a bad review even if it means reimbursing the full amount
So what exactly did you tell the world there? That guests can do anything they like, that you’ll refund them because you’ll ‘do anything’ to avoid a bad review?
And by the way, if you search the internet you’ll find plenty of comments suggesting that Airbnb is ‘slanted’ towards the hosts and not the guests.
There should be polices about major appliances and.minor. I would.understand no.internet at all. But “slow”’…that’s ridiculous. How many times I stayed at Airbnbs and internet was so slow practically non existent. I just used my own or went out to coffee shops.
It never occurred to.me to even.ask.for.any refund
This is a forum where hosts discuss issues related to their roles as a host.
You came here and asked for advice as a relatively new host.
You have been given lots of help and advice.You just don’t like the help you were given. by some hosts.
As an Airbnb community part of our role as hosts is to provide honest reviews so other hosts understand what your experience with a guest have been like. .
You have chosen to leave a netural, rather than an honest review and refund this guest because you fear a bad review could jepordise your SH status.(you do realise however much you refund the guest they can leave you a bad review anyway).
In what sort of way would having this review help you to adapt once this guest was with you and requested a 50% discount because an amenity failure outside of your control happened?
That’s where you are in error. We all love to help new hosts and help each other but if you’re looking for a support forum as such, you’d be better using the official Airbnb set up. We’re just here to chat, exchange stories (and grievances) vent and discuss latest Airbnb developments, but we’re more than happy to give advice too. As it says in the header:
This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
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I’m trying to figure out what, if anything you’ve done to try and figure out why the internet is slow? If you list internet and a Smart TV as amenities, I would expect to be able to watch a movie on Netflix. Would I expect 50% off? No, but I would expect a host to act concerned and be calling the provider/testing speed, etc. to try and remedy the problem. As a guest, if I felt the host made every effort, then I would still leave a good review but perhaps mention the slow internet and that you were working on it. Fast internet is important to people. I know that some people choose our place (one of the deciding factors) because they can come back after a day of sightseeing or business (I have a regular business guest that told me that she chooses our place because I offer Hulu) and watch a movie. Changing rooms/finding alternate accommodation could be a hassle. My point is are you sure these folks were scammers, or did they have a legitimate complaint? Were they expecting 50% off, or just something reasonable? Just trying to look at the situation through the guests’ eyes.
