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Agh me again really stuck! If you read my last thread you’ll know there is building work going on next door and a lot of people seemed to think it was ridiculous for me to offer the refund that I did.
Fast forward a few days and I have a new person who checked in last night. I warned her in advance after Magnet guy (previous guest) asked for a refund. She considered finding another place but i guess couldn’t find a good alternative and decided to chance it. At that point I told her it really wasn’t so bad which is what I honestly believe. After magnet guy left I became more conscious of the building work and realised it was really okay (IMO).
The worst part of the building work for guests is being woken up at 8am, for those who don’t want to be woken that early.
So this lady has been woken up on her first day, a Saturday, at 8am.
The other thing of noise/ chat is/ will feel super close to her. And it is!
On the other hand, while it has been unfortunate of her to be woken early on the weekend, I think she’d have second thoughts about wanting to leave if she gave it a bit longer since it’s very intermittent and for most of the time I think it’s ok.
This guest plans to work from home (although when I warned her in advance she said she could go to the office if it got too bad), which doesn’t help. The desk is right by the window and nowhere to move it to.
She wants to leave and get a refund and leave tomorrow.
I told her that no Airbnb won’t refund her. She’s come back saying ok she will try herself, there must be something that can be done.
I’ve now told her I’m looking in to it.
Shall I just let her go and hope that someone who doesn’t care books in her place?
Please note guys I am a live in host and for me that makes it harder to be anything less than really fair! I don’t want bad vibes!
I don’t blame people for not wanting construction noise that is so close. Maybe you could save yourself all these consistent headaches, I believe this is #3 and shut down until the construction is over.
@Bosty64 all kinds of qualifiers, here, but I think you might need different perspectives quickly. Several important qualifiers are that I am not dependent on the income, I don’t suffer fools well, I’ve learned that sometimes I’ve bent over backwards and still gotten slapped in the face, there’s no pleasing some people, and to me, I’d just rather move on. I believe someone on this forum came up with this language for an unhappy guest:
“Home is where the heart is. We believe that everyone should absolutely love their stay and that’s the standard we’ve set for our property. Unfortunately, sometimes things aren’t a great fit. We’ve noticed you’ve experienced a consistent pattern of dissatisfaction with your stay. We’d like to make that right. Effective immediately, you have the option to end your stay with a refund for the unused nights. This offer will remain in effect for 24 hrs. This also serves as your official notice that your stay will not be extended, nor will any other compensation be offered or paid if you choose to stay, or upon check out.”
I think you should refund her for the nights she’s not sleeping there. I wouldn’t refund her for the first night since you warned her about the noise and she did stay that night. Perhaps it would be a good idea to delist temporary until the construction ends.
@PitonView hmmm, I don’t think so. It was probably copied and recopied from somewhere to somewhere. I have visited other forums but get most of my wise counsel here. Might have been a Reddit subforum.
Only thing is she, like Magnet guy, decided within first hour of waking up. I feel if she gave it another day or two she’d probably change her mind, depending on her schedule - she’s working so if for example she needs to get up at 8am I think then given a couple more days she might opt to stay.
She’s gone quiet so I’m hoping she might be starting to think this too. There’s little noise now and I’ve found that to be the case throughout the last days, and the problem seems to be being woken up early, but not the noise throughout the day.
But I think I’ll take this advise as offer he a refund when she gets back. I’ve already offered her use of an extra room to use to herself during the day - haven’t said which but I have a spare study and a sitting room that I am not really using at the moment. Still waiting for a reply
NO Refund. Not even when Air asks you to. You warned her. You warned her a second time. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.” NOT YOUR FAULT __ YOU DON"Y HAVE TO PAY HER STUPIDITY.
It’s number 2 and both times within the first hour of the building work ie in the morning. And first person was planning to run a healing therapy from the room so his concerns should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. You wouldn’t want any building work at all if you were doing therapy at £150 an hour!
Second lady again within an hour and I think she will change mind given the chance.
It’s difficult as no one wants to be woken at 8am on a Saturday, unless they are naturally early risers or had plans. But honestly that aside this is very light and very intermittent work. I know she’s looked elsewhere already and that she really likes the home, so I think she’s been hasty but I don’t think totally unreasonable
I think the no 3 you were thinking of is the girl who hasn’t checked her in yet. She askedw about refund and I told her I’ve kept an eye/ ear on the work and don’t believe it is significant and therefore am not offering a refund.
Prior to saying this I suggested she video call me randomly whenever she wants to, so I can show her and she can hear it. I also video called her immediately after she messaged me, so she could see/ hear. She didn’t pick up. I’ve messaged that she should cal me should she have any concerns.
Now that second person has complained I am thinking back to this girl And how to best cover myself. I think I have done though by offering the video calls, which I think she is being a bit Lazy about nothing with… asking about refund and rejecting the solution ie calls
Also why not just close your airbnb until the work is finished next door? Or just let people stay for free up front. Edit to add: I’m being sarcastic with that last sentence.
Not really the same result or it’d be free all the time?!
I will close it if people who are not conducting therapies in their rooms and have stayed for 24 hours think it’s not ok.
I think it is ok so am hanging on as am currently relying on the income
I was being sarcastic. I’ve already said your inclination to refund is bad business practice. If you are going to give away free nights and have all the angst, why do it?
Since you’re relying on the income, then make sure to disclose the noise on your listing and again when they inquire. You might want to suggest to guests to bring their headphones so that they can listen to music instead of the noise. I wonder if a white sound machine would help.
Depending on your cost calculations, consider dropping the price for the duration of construction if you don’t want to snooze your listing. Temporarily change your title to start "Construction Discount! . . . " and your description: “Limited time offer construction discount! Some construction noise may begin at 8:00 and end by [time]. Earplugs and white noise machine provided.”
You keep saying you don’t think it’s that bad, but it is immaterial whether you think the noise is a big disturbance or not. What matters is whether your guests do. Some people can sleep through anything- some might have not been woken up at all at 8am. Others will find it quite disturbing. Personally I am a light sleeper and also a late riser- I would be upset to have construction start right outside my window at 8am.
As zillacop mentioned, I also travel with earplugs, though. (I also provide them for my guests, just in case there is something that prevents them from going to sleep, or wakes them up). So if I was made aware that there was construction noise right outside my window at a place I had booked and wanted to keep the booking at, I would prepare myself by making sure I had earplugs and put them in when I went to sleep. Which is what your guest could easily have done.
I would say that for your current guest, ask her if she would like some earplugs, but refund her for unstayed nights if she wants to leave, as, since you say, you don’t want to have to live with a disgruntled guest (I’m a homeshare host, too, I get it).
Then either make it crystal clear to upcoming guests that no refund will be given after the fact just because they want to “trial” it (and get it in writing that they agree to that), or close down to bookings until the construction is finished.
Also, I know that construction crews can be loud simply talking or shouting to each other, and sometimes that noise is more disturbing than the work itself, so if that is happening, you could talk to the work crew, advise them of your situation, and ask if they could please refrain from loud voices before 9am. I would be able to sleep through some drone of construction noise if it wasn’t too loud, but human voices would keep me awake.
Amazon music has several “white noise” type tracks that can be played on repeat. And I’ll bet there is a free white noise app, too. Maybe look those up and provide that information to the guest instead of buying a machine.
