We had a power outage situation that lasted a few hours in the fall due to a car crashing into, and knocking down several poles, but this did not qualify the traveler for a refund.
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Iām seriously at whittās end with what to do about that particular problem. Even in the welcome message I say āPlease respond stating you have read and will follow all the House Rulesā. They always respond, yet seem to not follow the rules.
Great data point! Thank you @felixcat! Did your guests try to cancel and request a refund? Iām slightly concerned if they donāt cancel that the review will be terrible. Iām happy to offer them a small refund to just to cancel and go away.
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I see your pointā¦maybe one half nightās stay max.
They cannot leave a review if they didnāt stay. If somehow that happens, I am sure you can ask Air to cancel it.
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I saw a listing, I believe it belonged to someone here, where they said that the guest would get a complimentary bottle of wine if the guest mentioned a certain code word that was buried in the listing. So if a guest claimed the bottle of wine you would know they read carefully. So far Iāve had no need to do something like that but if I had a $100 a night listing I could sure afford a $10 bottle of wine as a reward for reading.
Even at $100, remember you are not making the full 100. Air takes some. So with your ten dollar bottle, youāre down to 90. 90-3%ā¦also Uncle Sam takes some as wellā¦
And inevitably, youāll get cracked in a review by someone who canāt believe you left such a cheap bottle.
A too-long listing trying to cover all bases isnāt the answer eitherā¦ I had a guest leave a few cons (distance away, etc., all of which are disclosed) in her review to āsaveā future guests from having to āwadeā through my long listing copy. Just no thank you!!! Graciously she agreed to edit" but WTF.
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Yes, typically we have a strict you cancel, your loss policy. However, in this situation Iām willing to give them a carrot to actually cancel. The total reservation was 300E/night + 150E cleaning fee, she wantās pretty much a full refund, I offered her 150E refund if she cancels.
I am curious if she will try and escalated or just realize she is the problem.
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Thatās very generous. Especially since you did nothing wrong.
I know not my style! 
I really donāt want two negative back to back reviews, so Iām willing to grease the wheels a little bit. My current first review is a woman who was expecting a āTract House developmentā here in Barcelona, and was annoyed my 150+ year old floors, showed signs of wear.
Also, since they literally walked in and walked out I wonāt have to pay my cleaners the full 150E to make it ready for Fridays guests, thatās how Iām justifying my refund.
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I know you donāt want to call Air, but maybe you should to get your side on record before the guests do. You could submit proof from the building management that the outage was brief.
How much do you think a hotel will cost them? When they find out, they might decide itās better to stick it out at your place.
Then it could become a situation where they call Air and say theyāre locked out.
This is trueā¦ This is what happened with my dengue cancelling guests. They contacted me, asked me to cancel and refund. I said noā¦ Then they canceled. Then Air called and asked me to refund again. I said no. They checked on whether some dengue fever on the island met extenuating, and it did not so they sided with me and did not refund. However, no doubt the guest complained and told them I was defrauding them and lying about whether there was dengue here (I was not)ā¦ so I can imagine in some circumstances, the guests could have won that one. Best to cover your bases if you think the guest might call Air on you to get their money back. The way you describe these clowns I could see it happening. CYA!!!
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Ughā¦ you are right. I do have our entire conversation documented on the platform, so hopefully if she tries to pull the locked out story they will see that is a big ole lie. Also, we have 100E lock out fee in the house rules, i know it sound steep but our flat sleeps 10 and we have 5 sets of keys, inevitably someone comes back solo and canāt get in, so this fee detours these kinds of request. Obviously, if someone was genuinely locked out I would not charge them.
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So she had somewhere around 50%+ refund in mind!
I offered 150E if she canceled via the platform this evening (21:00 local here), she grumbled, but accepted. Still waiting for the cancellation to come through.
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UPDATE:
She cancelled. Wohoo. I sent her a refund of 150E and life will continue to go on.
She continues to say I should have warned her about the potential power outage, and that I need to take some responsibility. Ignored. Good riddance.
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Thatās the thanks you get?
You know, I would like to know which way the wind is blowing when I book otherwise I need a refund.
You might want to add these morons to our Wall of Shame. 
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Bahahahaā¦yeah and you should warn her she might get hit by one of those double decker tour buses too.
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You might want to add these morons to our Wall of Shame.
I will. Today was not the day for any of this for me as Iām recovering from the Euro 
finals, and only want to lay in bed and drink water! I promise I will add them!
Yes, and the pick pockets, and the 33+ weather, and exchange rate, I mean the list goes on. They are apparently living in Switzerland so should have some working knowledge that Spain does not have the most reliable āanythingā. I lied in the summer months we have reliable parties and warm weather but that is about it.
ooops. My boys just turned 21 and we took them out on the town and I made sure they had iburpofen before bed so they wouldnāt wake up with anything wicked. Take care!
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The lot of us were not at all smart, and way too old to be feeling like this
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Not your fault. Have stayed in hotels that had power outs, it happens