Guests from Puerto Rico - no communication

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I have a rental beginning Monday to a group from Puerto Rico. Much of PR is still without power & the island took a terrible hit with Hurricane Irma.

I haven’t heard from them in several weeks.

I’m planning to do the following:

  1. Contact Airbnb customer service and let the know I’m concerned because my guest is no longer communicating.
  2. Continue reaching out to the guest via Airbnb so there is a record.
  3. Prepare the unit as if they are arriving.
  4. Place a note on the door asking them to call me upon arrival in the event they do arrive.

If they don’t arrive, I will talk to Airbnb about options for refund. This is truly an extenuating circumstance. I don’t want to make their difficult situation any worse financially.

Have I missed anything? Your thoughts please.

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Where in Puerto Rico do they live?

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Hi @Annet3176

Sorry to hear about the terrible situation in Puerto Rico. How awful for your community.

If you feel you can’t accommodate your guests because of the hurricane impact on your property/area, I am sure this would be a reason to cancel under extenuating circumstances. If there is nothing about this on Airbnb’s website do give them a call.

Your guests would of course then receive a full refund.

If my guests aren’t contactable via Airbnb messaging (and lots of guest don’t have their settings so they are automatically notified when they receive a message) I would normally text or email them. Have you tried this?

I wasn’t sure from your post whether you feel you can accommodate them. If not I think you should contact them and Airbnb ASAP so they can make alternative arrangements.

Best of luck.

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The guests are FROM Puerto Rico. The hosting home is not.

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Oh Lordy sorry @Annet3176 - serves me right trying to scan read on my mobile.

In that case I would still try calling/texting/emailing the guests to see if they might want to cancel in the circumstances.

Also see if Airbnb can help you reach them, they collect emergency contact details I believe.

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I’d call Air now. They will try reaching out to the guests.
They will refund it due to the biggest extenuating of them all!

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Update: They are traveling from Arecibo, PR. Power has been restored to that general area but not all. Cell service is partially restored. I would completely understand if they are so involved with getting through each day, that communicating about this Airbnb rental is on the bottom of their list.

Airbnb is attempting to reach them too.

A Complicating factor is the booking guest doesn’t appear to speak, write, or read English. I have very limited Spanish ability beyond “Me nombre es Anna”.

Thank you to all so far for your feedback & words of advice & support. More to come.

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Oh that is one of the areas that was hard hit and is still without basic services. I can only imagine… Surely AirBNB has some Spanish speaking customer service reps.

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It’s all so awful. I’m finding myself worrying that they may not even have a home any more…

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UPDATE: Airbnb was able to reach the guest & communicate in Spanish. The reservation is confirmed. The number of guests has increased but I’ve got an aerobed type mattress so I can accommodate them. Apparently they have access to voice communication only. Because of limited communication, there are still unknowns like check in time, etc. but I can work around those. Whew, the main thing is that they are safe.

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UPDATE to the UPDATE: My guests left. I wish they could’ve stayed longer. They have power but no water. They brought dirty clothes and spent a great deal of time washing clothes when they arrived & before they left. Hey — an elevated water & power bill will be my tiny contribution to the PR relief effort. So sad. It will be a long time before PR is whole again.

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Thanks for your update. How sad :frowning: