Guest wanted full refund to get out of month-long contract

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Greetings fellow hosts,

I have appreciated the wise advice offered in this forum. Now I have a conundrum and would appreciate your insights.

I just had one of the more difficult guest experiences I’ve had in my five years of being a superhost. A wife booked my studio for 28 days on behalf of her husband, and they got a significant monthly discount. She told me initially that they wanted to try month to month stays because of her husband’s work and were interested in exploring the area when she came out to visit her husband for a few days in mid-January.

When I checked the husband in, he told me that he was in law enforcement (US Marshall) and that his job required him to travel. That’s why they had decided to book just month by month, rather then get a longer term rental when he might be absent for parts of it.

On the 5th day of the stay, the wife sent a request to Airbnb to shorten the stay to 10 days, but she provided me with no explanation. When I reached out to her, she informed me that her husband had an assignment that would require him to go away for a couple of weeks and he would no longer need the lodging. I informed her that I would be happy to reimburse them for any days I was able to re-book. But she was not satisfied with that and was hoping for an exception to the cancellation policy so that they could get a refund for all the all the unused days. I told her I couldn’t do that, so she filed a claim with Airbnb.

The incident resulted in both of us spending a lot of time with Airbnb support, in the course of which both wife and husband tried to come up with a lot of bogus reasons why the studio was unacceptable, not enough privacy, roads too steep and slippery, too noisy, too dark, etc. There was a lot of back and forth, but it took hours of my time, and in the end, Airbnb denied their claim. After I explained the discount and cancellation policy, the wife finally offered a financial compromise, but it was still way little too late, and I was no longer willing to offer them a cash refund after they initially put me through so much grief. The wife has left me a review, but I have not seen it yet, and I have not yet left her a review. I expect the review to be very low and most likely “retaliatory”.

Does anyone know whether Airbnb will remove clearly retaliatory reviews? I am not sure what to say in my review. It was a long and complicated interaction, but I don’t want to go into that much detail in the review – I normally like to keep them short.

Had the wife initially told me of their circumstances, offered an apology and some financial compromise for trying to get out of the contract, I might have been willing to consider it, but I felt the initial request was unreasonable and inconsiderate, and time spent trying to resolve it has soured me on offering them any form of compensation.

Any thoughts other hosts have would be much appreciated.

Julia

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If all your interactions in text form are in airbnb messaging, you have a good chance of showing them and the ‘retaliatory’ nature of a bad review. And yes, those kinds of reviews can be removed.

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You need to warn other hosts about these self-entitled “rules-don’t apply-to-me” grifters

“The guest suddenly cut short their non-refundable (and heavily discounted) month-long stay, saying they had been unexpectedly called to work elsewhere. When I explained that they had agreed to a non-refundable stay, they suddenly trotted out a brand-new laundry list of complaints and asked for a large refund. I do not want any repeat business from this guest or the spouse staying here with them.”

Just a thought – maybe they think all U.S. Marshals have “immunity” from legal obligations. :smile:

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@Spark I agree re the honest review, but @Superhost44 should not mention Airbnb’s involvement in the case, because Airbnb removes reviews which mention that.

@Superhost44 Before leaving a review yourself, talk to Airbnb, saying that this woman booked for her husband, which is a third party booking (which you really shouldn’t have accepted- the husband should have booked himself) and has left a review, which should be removed, as she never stepped foot on the property, therefore her review doesn’t reflect her own experience.

I recently had a PITA guest who I exchanged many messages with pre-arrival, cancel her booking that had blocked my calendar for a month, 4 hours before check-in (after calling Airbnb the previous day, claiming I was pressuring her to communicate off-platform, which wasn’t true, and asking for a full refund, which I denied).

I contacted Airbnb when I saw she had immediately left a review, pointing out that she had cancelled before check-in and therefore anything she had to say in a review would be irrelevant, and Airbnb removed her review before it even posted.

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Thanks, Muddy, Spark, and Rolf. Excellent suggestions. I have reached out to Airbnb to see if they will remove the review before it posts.

And Regular, you are so right that they seemed to feel entitled because of his line of work. The mentioned it multiple times, how extraordinarily sensitive it was, blah, blah, blah. I am glad they couldn’t see my eyes rolling.

I do worry a little that a negative review might not be their only form of retaliation. This is the type of situation that makes me question whether it’s worthwhile hosting an Airbnb. Just one bad nut can ruin an otherwise delicious mouthful.

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???

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I helped a friend of mine get Airbnb to remove a retaliatory review. In her case, she was a guest and the host had insisted that she sleep with her bedroom door open (because her room had the only air conditioning unit) at night. When my friend said she couldn’t sleep with her bedroom door open, the host abruptly cancelled her stay. She then posted a scathing review – and my friend previously had two dozen reviews and a 5-star rating as a guest.

I helped my friend draft the following message to Airbnb:

Dear Airbnb customer support staff,

I am writing to request that X’s recent review of me be removed on the grounds that it is retaliatory, in line with your review policy which states, “guests should not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a Host who enforces a policy or rule” [I inserted link to the Airbnb help article 2673]. This policy, although stated with regards to guests writing reviews, equally applies in this case to my host, who retaliated after I reported to Airbnb that she had violated the terms of her own listing, after asking me to not close my bedroom door at night because the guest bedroom was the only room with an air conditioner. I agreed to do this during the day but not at night, because I cannot sleep with the bedroom door open. When I explained to the host that I cannot sleep with my bedroom door open, she cancelled my stay.

I reported to Airbnb that this violated the terms of her listing, which nowhere states that guests must sleep with their bedroom door open. I also reported to Airbnb that she entered my room without my permission during my stay, and she has now retaliated against me with this review. I therefore request that the review be removed, per Airbnb policy."

Airbnb promptly removed the review. So you might need to wait until the review is posted, but be ready to go, include documentation of your exchanges (particularly anything that suggests that they held the threat of a nasty review over your head, if you got lucky and they were so stupid), and include the link to the Airbnb policy (assuming that you might get a CS agent who doesn’t actually know what they’re doing, which seems to be pretty common).

Good luck and post back here to let us know how it went!!

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I suspect that Airbnb easily removed that review not only due to it being retaliatory, but that expecting a guest to sleep with their bedroom door open is a privacy violation. (That host should be delisted for that, IMO)

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There are still many airbnbs that have the guest right int the same room as the host. The problem is when the specifics of the stay (for example, disallowing a guest that privacy) are not disclosed before booking.

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Indeed, the listing was taken down after that, so perhaps Airbnb agreed with your assessment.

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Are there really airbnbs with the guest sleeping in the same ROOM as the host (as opposed to sharing the same flat)? That just sounds like a recipe for assaults and lawsuits

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I suppose they might exist, but I’ve never heard of one nor seen a listing like that, let alone there being “many”.

However, regardless of whether there are such situations, if a guest has a bedroom to themselves, that they be expected to keep the door open is a ridiculous set up in lieu of the host installing AC in other parts of the house.

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I determined hosting with Airbnb wasn’t worth the aggravation after only my 2nd booking with them, 5 years ago! Stories on this platform only reinforce my decision to only list thru Vrbo who USED to treat their hosts like gold, but lately, have reverted to taking guests’ sides more often than the hosts. After 5.5 solid years as a Premier Host with them, I’m ready to let my folks live in my STR and pay it off. The rental game is too much stress anymore!
Sorry you experienced this, and best of luck in the future with your rental.:heart:

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I’m not sure why some hosts seem to have ongoing issues and some don’t. I have been hosting since 2016, with a break during the height of Covid, and have never had any issues that would make me want to leave the platform. I have always been paid on time, been paid according to my cancellation policy if a guest cancels, never had what I consider a bad guest, never been suspended, never had a guest cause damages or steal anything, never had a guest make false accusations, demand refunds for no good reason, or leave bad reviews.

Of course I have had tech glitches happen, stuff like that, and like everyone, experience clueless CS reps, necessitating multiple back and forths for an answer to a simple question. But through patience and persistence, I eventually get a suitable response. Not that I haven’t wished I could slap some of these clueless reps upside the head, but I try to stay polite, while also not accepting incompetance.

I guess a lot has to do with the nature of a listing, its location, and the type of guests it tends to attract. I only host one guest at a time, who have a private bedroom and bathroom and share my kitchen with me, and am in the countryside, so attract quiet, respectful down-to earth guests who don’t mind the 20 minute walk to town and the beach, or use a clean towel to wipe off their make-up. Those kinds of listings are perfect for Airbnb, as guests can’t get away with partying, sneaking in extra guests or pets, aren’t going to trash your house, or all the other things hosts seem to have the most issues with. At worst, guests might be annoying in some way, or be messy, but nothing that a host would need to involve Airbnb about.

There is also a bit of an art to learning how to deal with CS, which many people just can’t pull off.

I’m far from an Airbnb cheerleader- I have all kinds of issues with their policies and hypocrisy, as well as sympathizing with hosts who do get screwed around, not paid, suspended for no good reason. It’s just interesting to me that many hosts can do this for years without any serious problems, and some can’t.

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I don’t love AirBnB, but I keep reminding myself this is business and not personal.

I have less-than-stellar guests from all my booking platforms (including direct), but my data shows the highest percentage of problem guests are from AirBnB. But the problems aren’t enough to stop advertising on AirBnB - we get about 25% of our revenue from AirBnB every year. Even though I won’t rent to the problem guests again, I made more money renting to them than letting our villa sit empty. That’s true even for the guests that broke one of our TV’s - the cost of the TV was less than 10% of the rent they paid me.

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I don’t know if they are ongoing issues, or if there are just a couple so egregious that it turns us off to the entire platform. I won’t bore you with details but suffice it to say, my experience and the way Air dealt with it assured me they aren’t a biz i want to have dealings with. I’m glad you have been so fortunate and lucky to have such great dealings since 2016.

My rental is in a high-end part of Scottsdale close to the big events; golf tournament, Arabian Horse Shows, Barrett-Jackson. It attracts a better cliente. But it’s the guests who WANT to vaca in a higher end place whose expectations exceed their budget, and they create issues that others do not. The way Air coddles such guests rather than we guests is absurd and shows me they are only about the guests’ best interest.

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Yes, there’s a bit of a myth out there that low prices attract low quality guests, but that hasn’t been my experience in my little private room listing for one traveler. And I’ve read many accounts of entitled, rude, demanding “high quality” guests in high-end rentals.

If a host has a horrible experience either with guests or Airbnb on one of their first few bookings, it stands to reason that they would decide that dealing with the company, like dealing with any company that gave them bad service, wasn’t worth it.

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Good for you for standing your ground.

Over 10 years of hosting I’ve had only 2-3 instances where I needed to hold firm against a guest, and Airbnb backed me 100%. The last time Airbnb customer service asked me to concede a refund that I didn’t think was merited, and they ultimately stood by me … after presenting some photos to support my case.

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Wouldn’t his accomodation costs be covered by his work place?

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Not necessarily. There are all kinds of different situations, like whether someone is a salaried employee or an independent contractor, full or part-time, etc. Just like some jobs come with medical benefits and some don’t.