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Ask her what she wants for compensation BEFORE you offer anything. If she wants all days refunded because of the one amenity, counter with a percentage and explain it to her.
If she refuses and wants all her money back, review her poorly and don’t recommend. This is extortion. Because while the pool wasn’t perfectly clean, she’s being unreasonable.
I regularly take my pool water to be tested and balance the chemicals. BUT the salt cell on my pool has been not-so-quietly dying over the last couple of months and we’ve had a lot of rain in our dry season. I didn’t know it was dying until I put the winter solar cover on the pool and upped the solar panel heating temp. Within a week my outdoor pool in Florida was a virulent green. I’m still working on getting the chemical balance right and the green to go away. Salt cell is dead. And $500…
I’ve informed my guests coming tonight for 3 nights that the pool is unavailable for their stay as I’m waiting on the replacement salt cell and it’s now a pale green. They said fine, they didn’t want the pool anyway. I just hope I don’t get dinged on stars because of this. >sigh<
My next guest is at the end of the month and I’ll be updating her on the pool as well.
Thanks to all for a very helpful discussion. I contacted the guest on day 6 (by this stage the pool was sparkling) and asked what she was thinking about in terms of compensation. She said that they had looked at other properties in the area without a pool which were 20% cheaper, so she thought 20% for the four days when they did not swim was reasonable. I accepted graciously, and we paid over the refund before they left. I have not received their review yet. All in all the group was very high maintenance in other areas as well. I gave them 5 for communication 5 for cleanliness at 3 for house rules. My review was complimentary on how they left the house but direct on the issue that they did not understand high end amenities (the other one was the gas stove). I would not have them back.
That sounds like a very professional and reasonable resolution. Instead of offering 50%, you asked what they would be happy with which is very smart. Well done.
Hi Georgia - sorry I confused issues on this thread, which I did not mean to do. I would not have penalised them for complaining about the pool. But these guests also parked in the wrong parking place (irritating others), said the gas stove did not work and I had to call a technician on Saturday - turns out they did not know how to press the knobs to ignite!!, held a party till 2am contraty to house rules, and checked out three hours late without asking. I suspect the whole pool issue was an excuse to get a discount. To me, the pool was not a disaster. It was clear and safe to swim in and the edges issue would have been sorted out on regular maintenance day. I had to get my guy out of schedule because they complained. I would not recommend these guests to anyone!
