Power Cut - Is a power cut cause for a refund?

This morning my guests reported they have no power. I checked with the utility company and apparently there are maintenance works in progress and power would be off from 8am till 2pm. I sent a message immediately to inform the guests and excused myself for the inconvenience. They said it is not a problem for them as they will be out anyway. I am at work but I told them I will be over in the afternoon if the problem persists to check things out.

Is such an issue cause for a refund? or maybe a bottle of wine to make up for the inconvenience? Your opinion.

A bottle of wine would be a nice gesture, given it sounds like they have been utterly reasonably about the matter, which is beyond your control after all. Even if someone did ask for a refund, I would say no. I’d give your utility company a kicking though, for not giving you advance warning!

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I agree - bottle of wine. It sounds like it won’t really affect them anyway

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No refund! It was totally out of your control. An apology and small token is more than enough.

bottle of wine + flowers will get you loyal guests - they said they didnt mind but will be touched.

however i think if they had been upset then it woudl be a refund - i agree with Mike_L that its not your fault but its part of your ‘experience’…we have hot water cuts in st pete in the summer for a week - we always offer discounts, flowers, etc based on the guest…everyone has been pleased so far )

so the lesson here is, kick up a stink about things beyond anyones control to get rewards!

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I have had not one but 4 water shut-offs for long stretches at a time over the past couple of months. My rental is in a high-rise so there are often issues such as plumbing repairs, remodeling noises, elevators, pool & spa maintenance, alarm system checks, window washing…you name it.

As a guest, I would find any of it annoying and inconvenient and affecting the enjoyment of my stay but I would also know that such things are the norm and it’s the luck of the draw as to the timing. Emergencies and routine maintenance occur whether at home or elsewhere. I would not expect the host to compensate or gift me for the inconvenience if it was not under the host’s control.

However, if you want to give your guest something (but please, not a refund!), I would suggest doing so as close to their departure as possible. Then your gesture would leave them with all sorts of good thoughts about their stay.

Otherwise, if you gave them a bottle of wine now and something else should occur during their stay, you’ll have the dilemma of “how do I top that?!”

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Had a power break yesterday as well. In the high desert area it happens at least 2-3 a year.

What could we do? It’s an act of god. All the guests we had were totally understandable and had no complaints. It usually happens due to strong winds so maybe it helps when they see the conditions and don’t think we didn’t pay the bills :wink:

I send them $20 for Starbucks and everyone’s happy.

In Costa Rica last year the power went out 2 or 3x, once was all night and several of us piled into one bedroom to sleep. The other part of the house remained hot and we could not reach the circuit breaker to get enough leverage to reset it but the caretaker was able to do so the next morning. We didn’t get a thing in compensation and no one was mad.

If it’s the power company doing it, it shouldn’t be a problem. OTOH, what if a host got notice well in advance and instead of letting the guest know and giving them the option to book elsewhere? What if the host’s home isn’t up to code and they have power outages due to their own greed? I can see situations where the host would be at fault.

Your guests sound like very nice, accommodating people. I like the idea of a gift, but also a special mention of their graciousness on their review.

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Just curious, if you stay at the Hilton and the power goes out in the city, how many times have they sent a bottle of wine to your room? Or refunded you $100? :rofl:

Yes I know we are not hotels but sometimes we have to dial ourselves back and ask some common sense questions. Just how did we get to the point where we are sending wine because the power went out. Really??

I honestly don’t think any kind of gift is in order for things totally out of your control. We sometimes have some severe thrunderstorms here which knock the power out. And the water! I didn’t refund or give a gift , and no guest has expected it.

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We had a power outage at midnight because of winds for the entire county. Guests left in am and wanted a full refund. AirBNb rules they deserved it because wifi went out! I had to run ac all day and lay cleaning. This keeps happening. They also let guests cancel because of smoke a week out against my policy and never notified me-just fell off calendar.
This is thousands of dollars I lose because every appeal goes to guest. I am removing all Airbnb’s because it isn’t worth the headache. I had 9…
Worst is they guests will leave a bad review!

Sorry you are having problems @Pat_Brogan, this thread is 2 years old some of the people are no longer active. I am going to close it for housekeeping reasons, feel free to start a new thread if you like.

RR