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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Airbnb’s policy more and more is that the guest is always right and refunding the guest is very important. This was highlighted to me the other week when I had a guest check in and say they didn’t like it so they were leaving. I have 130+ 5* reviews including for accuracy. CS wanted me to give them 50% back, then 40% on the basis that this was only the third time she had used Airbnb and wanted to do so again in the future. Talk about a bad marketing ploy that rewards a guest that no host would ever want. There is not a host in the world that wants to accept a guest who books for 2 nights, opens the door, says 'I don’t like it" (a perfectly beautiful faultless home) and I want my money back. What a vulnerable position that puts all hosts in.
I am going to put in house rules that internet outages can happen beyond our control and the resulting penalty is 20 euros a day paid to guest.
I will also do that for the air conditioning. Breakdowns can happen we will try to fix as quickly as we can but 20 euros a day max while we are waiting to get the repair man in during the heat wave in August because you had the airco on 15 degrees for 6 days non stop .
She left a scathing review as she said she would. I don’t think her review is important as after 3 weeks it is now number 11 and at the bottom of the second page about to be pushed to the third. All the reviews after her are glowing, some sound like I coached the guests; exactly like the pics/what you see is what you get etc. One of my owners says that the occasional poor review makes the system look real. I think that’s a good way to look at it.
She also called me immoral and threatened to take me to Consumer Affairs. I pointed out that the law says to be eligible for a refund there has to be a fault with the product or a service not supplied. You are not eligible because you changed your mind.
Like you I am more concerned that more guests will ask and expect to be refunded for minor issues. Sometimes I wonder why I fight so hard, it isn’t even my money I am fighting for. I think it’s the injustice that drives me.
I seem to have had a bad couple of weeks being “lectured at” by 20 year olds over minor issues like: why is there food in the fridge? Because a previous guest left it and we though you might like it. And there aren’t any tea towels (they are the in the third drawer) etc. Yesterday it was the kettle needs descaling. All of these things need to be attended to but their tone of voice and sense of entitlement is quite mind blowingly extraordinary. It’s the way they speak to me and how argumentative they are. What’s going to happen when they stay somewhere that has a major issue or is sub standard? They are all newbies and I think that’s why I am so irritated as they have no experience to compare it with. I have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs, they vary extremely and some are really poor. On the other hand I have had two reviews where the guests mentioned how thrilled they were that we had left them ice-creams (we don’t!). I think I’m just having a bad trot, and it’s not even summer yet! January is always the worst month.
The internet refund Air phoned me and told me and then followed up with a message in writing. The changing her mind one, it took Air 14 days to phone me which is very unusual as it’s normally the same day when there is an issue but it was also during the period when they weren’t paying Aussie hosts so I think they were swamped with issues. I had to pull out all stops and put a real song and dance for her to not get a refund. But at the end of the day Air are judge and jury, they make the call and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Interestingly after blocking her she still managed to send another request for a refund. I rejected it again, didn’t write anything to her and in the box for Air I said: how can she do this when I have blocked her. All has been silent since.
I’m in South Jersey (USA). You should change providers. Sorry you had to go through that headache. Hope it gets repaired.
Yep, I’m changing providers! And just for the kicker in the story, as soon as I called to cancel my subscription with this provider, they got a repairman out the next morning.
The guy couldn’t find anything wrong with the line, the signal, or the old router but they replaced my router! And so far the guest says its seems to be fixed.
Now I have offered to give xxx euros compensation AND the guests have a new router!
I will see at the end of the stay what the guest thinks would be reasonable and then take it from there.
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As one who has been renting my home for 12 years, I can tell you, I enjoy it when I had control over communicating with guests before they arrive. I had the options to decide if I felt they were my choice. Also, does a guest even consider that by not dealing with me directly, they actually pay, e.g. about 300 more?!! We are honest and caring people. Not every guest is thoughtful and takes care. We have seen so much hidden damage to our place over the years. So, it is important to really protect your interests and set out your own terms from the beginning. Let them know, if an “act of God” causes them any concern, it is not your fault. If the internet goes down, it’s not you fault (but they often become quite aggressive. I am always willing to attempt to help make them happy, but I have learned the hard way that we too have to protect ourselves from guest who do not respect that this is our property and they need to treat my home with respect.