Dear collegaues,
I Airbnb-ing from 2015 and never asked for a refund. My listings have a 5-star reviews , I have lots of constant clients and I always do my best for guests.
From 2018 I started to host several couples which arrived for surrogacy babies, they stayed for 1-1,5 months. This kind of guests are new to me.
From the very beginning of a booking, they always bombarding me with messages about rental services, asking about baby nursery items- “are these items are in rentals in your country”, “please find this item for me”, about many things , so I have to spend a lot of my time to answer, trying to be polite and helpful, for people with such a sacred travel purpose- a baby.
After, they ask to organize an airport transfer, after they cancel and all this I do with smile on my face.
This time I need Your help because I feel deeply frustrated. This family arrived for a baby, doing the same- asking about rentals, transfers etc. Last minute they changed a guests number and included their 6-yrs old adopted son and their 65-year old mother-in-law. They also received a good discount for their long-term sta. So all stars where for their good stay in my apartment.
My house rules don’t allow cleaning made personally by guests- I have a natural rosewood floors all over the apartment, high quality surfaces and appliances, so I use a special cleaning products and professional cleaning service. From the very beginning, they insisted that they don’t need cleaning and their Mom (65 yrs or such) will clean (!!!). I refused and this is what I obtained instead.
When they arrived, I met them in the apartment , and made some meals for a boy, I am a Mom also and wanted to do my best for tired guests. When checking them out I checked everything by myself and there where NO stains on the floors. Look what happened next.
I usually visit cleaning lady when she cleans, rarely, to check the apartment and her cleaning quality. I saw guests where packed by beer and more beer bottles where in the balcony, also their old mom was drinking (!!!) this was strange for me, they got a small boy with them and they where expecting another baby to arrive , but ok, its not my deal, so I left.
After few days they called and told me that their 6-year old boy “broked a sliding door and sliding is not possible, so please come and repair the door”. Oh my Gosh. The door is 120 cm wide and 250 high. Its heavy. Here lived lots of big men, but no one was breaking this 2,5 m high big door… I spent 1 working day for repair.
They payed for the door (it was sliding lock broken), for taking it out from the room etc. Being in the apartment during repair, I noticed lots of stains on my rosewood floors. I asked cleaning lady, she answered that these stains where everywhere on the floor and its not possible to wash them out. Yes, its not possible, because they are from something strong, they destroyed the lacquer surface, its has an ugly look and they have to be repaired.
I asked old lady, their mother-in-law, about these stains. She was not happy with my questions and answered she has no idea about stains. She behaved as I am a piece of shit for her.
After I asked father, he denies all, he refuses to state they made these drops , he even swears!
But I am in normal state of mind, I am not drinking, or smoking, I have good vision and I definitely see the stains which are a big headache for me. Maybe they think I make money on refunds??? I better pay them but will not face such problems. If this about a broken glass, or dirty walls.
I can wash, and buy a new glass, and paint the walls for free, but this is a real damage, on a natural. Just-made (less than a year ago) these wooden floors, so what I have to do with these people?
If you were in that situation, what would you do?
They can write bad review and my reputation for which I was struggling many years, will fall down. They communicate on surrogacy mom’s forum and if she tells anyone about my refund questions, no one will book from me.
It seems I have to keep silence and pay??? But this is my apartment, not their, and they ruined the floors for me which cannot remain so for the next guests.
I keep my apartment clean and in excellent conditions which assumes no such ugly stains or such.
Do I guilty for my sadness that these people do not respect my apartment and my money I invested for their pleasure and comfort?
What should I do? I expect the price would be around 150-200 $ for local manual repair. I make interior projects so I have my discount on this.