Reasonable compensation for internet down

It has always worked for me :slight_smile:

I don’t understand why I should compensate a guest for a problem that’s beyond my control. I also think that no reasonable person would expect it.

Truly, it’s not a problem. If anything, the opposite applies. Once the guest knows that the problem is beyond your control and that you’ve tried your best for them, that’s likely to result in a good review because you’ve been helpful.

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You could have provided them with a dongle or similar so they could have had internet access, as soon as you knew the internet was going to be out for a few days.

Have a look at costs for one for the rest of their stay and offer to refund this amount for the duration of their stay and a bottle of wine or chocolates, if you can’t get there in person.

I agree with Brandt that it depends on the problem. If the problem is in your control then a discount is in order. If I choose a listing that says “fast wifi” like mine does, and then there is no fast wifi because the 5 year old router I bought is malfunctioning then I’d give a refund. I pay for Spectrum high speeds and I have their router and their maintenance plan so I’d assume internet troubles are their fault. But I can see situations where it’s my fault.

Not my circus, not my monkeys! NO COMPENSATION! You didn’t build the router, or run the fiber optics or anything else. It’s not your fault.

I had a 4 four power outage the other day. Did I compensate the guests? No. They had their showers and got coffee made before the outage. It was day time in Florida – who needs power on a chilly 75F day??

The “slow, needing to reboot frequently” could be caused by her computer, not the Wifi. It depends of the OS, most recent update, or even Windows forcing an update while you’re doing things.

My ISP doesn’t reduce my rate if the WiFi is down for a day.

No “…airbnb client who can ruin me in one click of his 2 star reviews” That’s absolute trash!

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Thanks so much for your answers. Here is what Airbnbn replies.
I’m gobsmacked.
—-—
I hope that all is well with you today. My name is John from Airbnb. I am going to assist you with the concern you raised.

I see that there is an amenity issue with the Internet and you will not be able to fix this for the time being. Though this may be considered as a Hosting Standard Violation, I truly understand that this wasn’t your fault, and it is out of your control.

If we are to based in on our refund guidelines for an amenity issue, and the guest is still staying to your place, a guest is entitled for 50% refund for the nights affected.

SIncerely,

Joh

Half price for one amenity missing? Well I guess I know how to get a substantial discount on my next Airbnb stay then.

I obviously did propose to pay for hotspot access or extra 4g on their phones. They weren’t interested.

I tried to find an emergency router it would take 3 days plus hassle.

What is a ‘dongle’?

Funnily enough our internet went down over the weekend and we had guests arriving on Sunday. They had made a specific enquiry in respect of internet before they booked, as in did we have it and was it free, even though it is in the listing.

Fortunately, by the time they arrived we were back on and I’d managed to reset all the bits and bobs for the ground floor access.

If it hadn’t been back, we have a mobile internet stick which works as a WiFi hotspot as a back up. A lot of our guests are from US/Canada and don’t buy local SIMs therefore need internet access to avoid roaming charges.

We haven’t had to use it yet, but given how shaky our internet connection is I’m sure we will at some point.

All it needs is a data SIM, in fact any SIM with a data plan.

We’ve stayed as guests in quite a few properties where one of these was the normal internet access. They work fine as long as you don’t allow one of your daughters to stream movies in her bedroom till 4am and use up the complete data allowance!!!

JF

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It does. It’s a standalone mobile internet device.

Basically, it works in a similar manner to setting a hotspot on a phone. It emits an SSID which users log on to using the password you set.

Works with all devices, laptops, phones and tablets. It’s powered via a micro USB connection, I just used a spare phone charger when I tested ours.

JF

I had the situation where the internet provider went down and the guest complained they couldn’t watch Netflix. It was totally out of my control but Airbnb refunded them $50 of my money - for not being able to watch Netflix. A pretty serious first world problem.

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Did you make arrangements for a tech. from the internet provider to come and fix it?. We had issues and called support. They sent someone out the next day. We said it was urgent because it was business not personal use so they made it a priority and sent someone out the next day.

Just a warning on these hotspots, if they throttle down from 4G or LTE, they are basically unuseable. So make sure you have a ton of data. Or unlimited.

I’ve had several guests where the internet ‘problem’ has simply been the guest being unable to operate their devices properly. I had one quite recently who complained like hell about the lack of internet. After a lot of back and forth, she said ‘I don’t see why I’ve got to put in a password. I shouldn’t have to do that’. Um…

Note that this particular guest said that she had to get immediate internet access to do some work. When I had fixed her ‘problem’ (i.e. logged on with the password!) I saw her lounging outside and chatting to her friends on Facebook. That was what was so urgent.

Apart from scrubbing toilets and so on to prepare for guests, and fixing their computer ‘problems’, all my work is done online. I’m the first to get annoyed if the internet is down. But when it’s the fault of the provider, there’s nothing you personally can do.

But if the internet is down, I can use the personal hotspot from my phone. Can’t guests do that???

wait are you serious arbnb can refund them from your money without asking you? can you tell me more about how that happened?

I just had a guest who couldn’t connect to our WiFi.
Luckily she didn’t mind because she had her phone and was out to sightsee anyway. I guess it goes both ways.
People don’t realize how nice it is to "disconnect " for a few days unless they need it for work etc…

I don’t agree that just because it’s out of Host’s control that it is out of the Host’s responsibility. Hosts are required to provide services as described; if they can’t (for whatever reason), then there should be some accommodation based on the severity. Extended Water or Power outage, Broken AC, Egress (a tree blocking a road) are examples of items out of the control of a host, yet if either of those impacted my guest, I’d feel responsible to do something for the guest.

Internet Access has different impact on guests; Someone who is expecting to do work may be tremendously impacted. Someone who is occasionally checking email, has other options (i.e. phone, Starbucks, etc) and has less impact. And I’m of the mindset that I don’t think $50 is an unreasonable discount for someone “not being able to watch Netflix” when they’ve spent a lot of money for a luxury “villa” to enjoy their vacation however they want, and how advertised. $50 would seem to be 25% to 30% of one night (for the luxury villa), not the 50% of the whole stay that ABNB is suggesting to you.

I think 50% is extreme but is dependent on what your rate is, how long their stay is and what real impact it had on them. You offered them a full refund should they want to leave, advising them that it could not be fixed for several days. They elected to stay. In my opinion, that reduces any type of discount that you should offer. BUT you should consider the $ amount of that initial offer, as a benchmark of what might be fair to refund → Had you refunded them fully for the first night, you’d be out a set amount, Right?

Whatever you do I would communicate with them your efforts, status, and apologies. Going out of your way to show your concern may help you with the review. My own experience is in the attached link. Despite the situation I still managed to obtain 5 stars. Good luck!

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Airbnb can do and do do anything they want. The guest asked for a $50 refund, I said no this is out of my control, the whole area is down not just me and it’s not needed for work. I actually introduced the CS rep to the term “first world problem”, she chuckled and said she had learnt something new today. The guests were 5 girls on a girls’ night away, the rep privately agreed with me that if we were away with 4 friends for the night we would have too much to talk about to be bothering with Netflix! She then said: I need to be very careful saying things like that as I could lose my job (interesting). She also said that it did make a difference whether it was needed for work or leisure.

However, it was passed onto someone more senior who decided that the guest was correct in that they hadn’t received something that had been advertised so they were entitled to a partial refund. I think the most galling part was being told by Air that I needed to make sure that my advertised inclusions were correct and up to date! I have read that some hosts put in their house rules that they can’t be responsible for the continual supply of internet to cover themselves for this scenario.

Have seen complaints from hosts that there have been refunds of the ENTIRE stay because of the loss of a listed amenity.

Wow Ritz3 what country do you live in I’m moving there. Your internet provider actually listened to you and cared and sent someone out the next day? What? Of COURSE I called my ISP and of COURSE I told them it was urgent.

I literally spent all sunday night, all day Monday, all day Tuesday on the phone waiting to be connected to customer support, pleading with customer support, trying different things, speaking Spanish, speaking English, threatening to cancel my contract, and getting refused for a technicial call out because nobody in the apartment standing next to the router had a spanish cell phone or spoke Spanish.

Early on in the debacle I knew all of this would be very difficult and I proposed to give my guests a refund if they wanted to leave and they elected to stay.

This morning I proposed to move them to my other luxury property (different profile, different location but same price) with perfect new fiber optic 300mb internet and they also refused this offer and wanted to stay. They have a small child who was used to his bed now and they didn’t want to move.

I also proposed to pay for a hotspot access or top up their 4G sim cards which they did not take me up on.

They have been very kind and patient and have not asked for money, did not want to move, but texted me all the time every time the net was down (late evenings, etc).

The internet is not completely down, it is slow and it cuts in and out. They can work if they needed to, text and call, but can’t watch Netflix. There is no other television.

We had to go into the configuration of the router and change the channel of the network, the line is fine, it’s interference with some device in the apartment or the neighborhood could be neighbors wifis or maybe the Babyphone of these people… Nobody else has had this problem and even after changing channels it seemed to work for a while this afternoon and they are now down again this evening.

After 3 days of effort it still isn’t solved. I am going to give a nice discount because I can’t take the stress of receiving a text message day and night every time the signal is down again.

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