Guest demanding $300 refund

Don’t mention Airbnb support, negatively or positively- CSR can remove the review

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I regret.

This is a polite form of expressing disappointment. (It may be regional, I don’t know, it sounds normal to me.) Regret means that you are disappointed in something because you wish it had gone differently. It is disappointing to have crappy guests and to have to write a negative review because we would all rather that it had gone differently and that we had good guests instead.

I believe the word you are thinking of is remorse and that’s not what she’s saying, it’s different.

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I stand corrected!

2020

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because some people feel terrible for having to say bad things about anyone. just because the guests had bad behaviour doesn’t make it ok for us to punish them with a bad review. hence, we feel bad about it. We know we have to do it, for other hosts.

I’ve left exactly the same wording on a review, because I genuinely felt bad about it.

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While you are probably correct, you never know. I’ve read posts where hosts fully expected a bad review and it turned out not to be. Or vice versa, guests said all was fine, then blindsided the host with complaints in the review.

This is one reason never to leave a review that is anything but an honest account of your experience with a guest, never base it on what you think they will say. And don’t waste time or energy thinking about what you might write as a response to a guest review that hasn’t yet appeared.

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What an excellent, informative thread. Thank you, Grace for “keeping us posted”; as usual, thanks to all the experienced hosts for their detailed and very helpful advice. This forum rocks!

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If you haven’t submitted a review you should obviously leave one both to warn your fellow hosts and give a factual account of their stay.

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Review honestly and dispassionately. Leave out your feelings, speculations about the guest’s motives and any reference to Airbnb’s decision in the resolution case.

Something like this:

“XXX stayed 7 nights in August and complained that they were cold. I turned on the heat for them but after their reservation was complete they made multiple unwarranted complaints and made a refund request which I refused. I would not recommend these guests to any host and would not host again.”

If there were any other issues on their part, for example lack of cleanliness, be sure to include that in the review. But give honest star ratings. If cleanliness was a five, give five stars, don’t use the ratings to retaliate.

Once their review posts you can share it with us and we can help determine if there is any cause to ask to have it removed. Since they’ve submitted their review and the resolution case is closed you may as well go ahead and submit yours now. As balivilla pointed out, it’s order in the reviews showing on your listing is dependent on their home address, not just when they stayed. It should show at the bottom of your listing. Besides, you don’t have many reviews so any savvy guest is going to read them all anyway. Waiting for it to be “buried” doesn’t make sense when you only have 2 pages of reviews.

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For me, it wouldn’t be about waiting for it to be buried. It’s about delaying the decrease in rating as long as possible because it will be an extreme drop if they didn’t give 5-stars. In the same position, I’d hope to get some bookings before the drop.

She has 4 5-star reviews for this listing. If the guests left 3-stars, she’ll drop from a 5.0 to a 4.6, or worse if they left 1-star to a 4.2.

Because it is a new listing with only a few reviews, guests are more likely to trust it and book it if it has a 5.0. I’d want to maximize that 5.0 as long as I could and don’t see any benefit to having a possibly negative review post any sooner than necessary. If she had more reviews it wouldn’t matter as much but she only has the 4.

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You’re right, there isn’t any benefit for the host. I always review right away, usually before the guest does so it’s just habit at this point. I envision warning the next host or two about the guest but the suboptimal guests never submit a review in a timely fashion anyway. I guess reviewing is like voting :wink:

I have a guest here now who submitted a RTB. No doubt she couldn’t IB because of her 4.5 rating. Both of her prior reviews read like there’s no issue. She’s here to “visit her fiance who is in the military.” The camera footage as they came in from closing the bar down last night shows her staggeringly drunk so I’m kind of dreading what I’ll find tomorrow morning.

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So my rule is - if you have a problem with my property - you need to tell me immediately - not after you’ve enjoyed your trip.

Secondly - I’ll do my absolute best to make it right ( sending cleaners , replacing something etc) but if someone feels it’s unbearable - then I encourage them to contact Airbnb with their evidence and see if they can be relocated.

Finally - if they really want out - I’m fine refunding the remaining days but they have to vacate immediately.

I’ve had one guest spend an entire trip and then complain after checkout. They weren’t happy but we didn’t give up a cent - and they didn’t review us because we discovered they had snuck extra people and a dog.

Another guest tried this during the start of their visit and was hoping we’d give a deep discount or refund them and let them stay. We gave them the option to ask Airbnb to be relocated , to get a refund and vacate , or stay and we would address everything in the morning. They asked for a refund and then tried to negotiate cash payment to stay the next day. We offered for them to simply book again if they felt their issues were no longer an issue - but we didn’t offer any discount. They decided to keep their refund and just leave.

Don’t let guests bully you into giving discounts and credits unless you feel it’s deeply justified. Always offer to fix what’s wrong not throw money for them to tolerate what’s inconvenient.

Oh and for the moisture - consider getting a dehumidifier. We have one running 24/7 in the basement to keep the air quality good and moisture way down.

This is my

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Grace, here in South Florida the temperature is rarely cold but in Jan - Feb we can have a week or so of sub-seventies temps. (Sorry, I don’t know what that is in centigrade).

Temperatures are such a personal thing - when I’m wearing sweaters and socks I see visitors sunbathing.

Because most of us host people from a huge variety of climates, what is nice and warm to some people is very cold to others.

The way I get around this is that both apartments have space heaters that don’t take up much room but that guests can use if they wish. I also have a selection of throws.

You might consider this in the future so you don’t get a similar situation especially as you might not be able to contact your parents.

Every guest stay teaches us a new lesson. :slight_smile:

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So what happened? I read all the responses you received & would like to know what happened with AIRBNB? What did you post for a review & what did the guest post?

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Thank you so much KKC, I will modify my review and to be honest on rating.

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Thank you very much for your advice. I will add a space heater and more throws. Since it is summer, I didn’t thought about the heating.

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No, no refund.
Reply to them how the issues have been solved, and that you went beyond what they could normally expect and leave it at that.
You got the bad review already, so giving a refund will not help.

You could have seen this trainwreck coming …

I understand, It’s a weird thing about temperatures though - one person’s warm is another person’s freezing. :slight_smile:

My brother, for example, sets his AC at below 70 which I, and his wife, see as arctic. We always wear sweaters, throws, socks and sometimes even gloves at his house even though the temperatures outside are in the 90s.

I put it in my listing in rules, limitations, pre-booking message.

“Rooms are not heated from 1st Mai until 1st October”.

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I resolved that hot water temp change when a toilet/shower/outdoor sprinkler system/washer/etc was activated by having a temperature control valve added to the shower in both bathrooms. The water pressure may change, but the temperature of the water doesn’t. No one gets a surprise blast of colder water that way.

I also put in an electric heater that looks like a fireplace so that guests can warm up the space as desired. The only issue I’ve had with that is guests mistakenly believe if they turn that heater up higher that it will warm the room faster, which it doesn’t, it just keeps going until it is 85* etc. I have a note on the heater explaining that but, as we Hosts know, some people just don’t take the time to read . . .

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Your totals are basically correct, but I don’t quite understand your calculation method.

7 reviews, 6 @ 5 stars, 1 @ 1 star:

6x5 stars= 30 + 1x1 star= 1
31 stars/7 reviews= 4.428

Your place looks very nice. However, I would do some editing of the listing description. You don’t need to say the same thing twice (re reading the listing description thoroughly and the small shower stall) and if you want guests to read everything, eliminate unnecessary wording. Such as “Extended use of Wallpaper(entire room) with Customized
Headboard”. And the color of the walls. That isn’t anything you need to write about, decor is evident from photos.

Also some of your wording is awkward English- I get the impression that while quite fluent, English isn’t your native language. Maybe get a native English speaker to help you edit.