Refunding guests for past stays

So… this is what happened with me yesterday. And until this morning I am still pinching myself asking: was that for real???

I rented my pool house through Airbnb for 41 day to a group of workers. Ussualy my best guests ever. I of course was happy . They paid nicely and their mannager was cheerful guy who did walk through prior to them
Coming. He mentioned that usually he rents penthouses in Miami but this time a high end store they work for was cheap and didn’t want to pay much.
We discussed my older house and he said the 2 guys who will share one bedroom will be after him because he put them
In one bedroom.
And from the first day it started. I was disappointed because my workers who stayed before , 8 different groups were happy easy going people who NEVER gave me any trouble . These guys were saying all kind of thing: someone took their beer, they didn’t like how few channels I had on TV (180), shower was not powerful enough, and there was big flying roaches in a middle of the room.
My husband went and sprayed again and asked them if this is the only bug the saw. They said yes there is no other bugs but this 1 ( one) dead giant roach on a floor.
One week passed by with every single day complaining about this or that. Little stupid things they complained about until I told their mananger tht seriously they need to stop acting like little princesses . It’s an older house and if they accustomed to penthouses them it’s not my fault that I only offer 1950s house and it’s nothing luxury.

Yesterday exactly one week into their stay the mananger calls me and says : guys don’t like the house and don’t want to stay because matresses are old. Here I just sent him talk to Airbnb.
Few minutes later a case manager calls me and without even asking me my side of the story tells me that she refunds the money back to guys because she saw pictures and she determined the house is in poor state with mold and very bad matresses.

I said, No , I am nit agreeing to refund them and I can send you my pictures too proving that the house is in very good condition and there is no mold there whatsoever . She said: if you don’t agree I will refund them for the week they already stayed. So here I stopped talking to her, wrote a big complain on her in FB and called Airbnb again to talk to someone else. My first question was is it even possible to refund guests for past week thatvthey already stayed??
And I was reassured that yes, it’s absolutely possible . I asked: what if they stayed a month?? . The answer was also Yes. If a case manager finds their complaints are legitimate she has a power to refund guest’s for the whole length of their stay.

Hard to believe right? I still waking up today asking myself if it’s even happened yesterday, that conversation.

I remember recently someone posted something like that about a woman who broke her hand and wanted all money back . And no one believed this poster here
Including me. My appologies.
It is true, people!

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Exactly… this is what I thought : who are these fancy contractors who stay at penthouses. BecauE they work for remodeling LuiVitan and other designers store here at Bal Harbor mall. And there were two Russians of course and I think they were the ones who started all of this. I am going to discriminate them
Now so badly , they will see. It’s my own people, so no one here try to say anything about it. Almost all russins I had as guest’s gave me
Bad reviews . Like 1*, 2*!. All they do is complain and complain. There were little Russian princess last year who didn’t swim in my new pool because there were too many bubbles from
Filter. And they complained non stop during their month stay.

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Thank you for sympathy.
This is very bad because I have to leave on a Monday for long trip. They also sent pictures to that stupid caseworker. And I swear they were fake pictures . They show mold under sink. I thought maybe we didn’t know. Yesterday I slept at the house and looked under every sink. NOTHING!! There is no sign of mold, all is white and clean .

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How awful. Host nightmare. Is there any way you can contact the manager? If Air does not back you up eventually, let us see your draft review. "Not a good fit. The manager of this group of construction workers from xxx company advised me that they were used to staying in vacant penthouses and that 2 of the men would be unhappy as they were assigned a shared room. This is a modestly priced, comfortable home, not a penthouse, so the guests had many expectations that were not consistent with the type of accommodation.

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They were gone within half an hour because I told the mannager if you don’t leave RGHT NOW I will call police as you are trasspasing😂

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O my god, I was not as polite even close . I trashed them so badly already , no one will take them to jail with that review. They already got refunded .

They actually have few good reviews. But what they did with mold picture I think they have done it before

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I’m so sorry @Yana. I wonder how many guests try to game hotels like this? Not as many, I am assuming.

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Oh Yana,

I’m so sorry you have had this nightmare. Airbnb is seriously becoming TERRIBLE. Cabin is right. They just make it up as they go along. The guest can send in photos of anything at all and get a refund?? Airbnb is becoming almost unusable for hosts. Their policies are simply getting awful! All about the guest, all the time!

Did you try to escalate? I would keep working the escalation! Also do a tweet to airbnbhelp.

I am thinking you need to make a direct booking website for the pool house and take direct reservations only for groups like this. I can help you write it, get in touch when you are back from your trip.

Bunch of princesses indeed.

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Thanks Kona , you are as ussual big help. But I will ask for your help with website now because I am going till end of summer . And I always have internet so no problem there .
You know how I always advocate for Airbnb because they did change my life to the better . And I do love how all is so easy and they collect payment , etc.

But this moment with refunding money to guest’s for “past” stays is just absurd. What idiot there came up with such ludicrous idea?! Is it even legal. This sounds like legalized robbery. I imagine someone who has all their lives built around rental, older person or a young family with small kids or whatever situation is but a person who heavily depends on this job.
It’s not a joke, it’s serious issue where people think of their rental as an only source of income.
They pay mortgage on property and taxes ( by the way how the issue with occupational taxes works since they collected around a 1000$ for occupational tax from these jerks) and utilities that guest’s use, only after to be left without any income for that period of time.
My god! This is just unbelievable story .

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I am
More and more thinking of just renting myself. Honestly I was very loyal to Air, always taking booking through them unless a guest asks me directly.
But after this it feels like such a betrayal.

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Have you had a response to your Facebook post?

Yes they said they added my complain to my case . Not sure what that mean

About escalation. The case worker threaten me that if I did not agree with her desision she can take even that week from
Me also that they stayed. I was very creative in describing the whole thing on FB message. We will see what happens now

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O yes she didn’t refund them
The first week they stayed but she could have. I think they didn’t ask for it. But for me it was news that it’s even possible . So I was that close to loose even money for that week .

That part was kind of weird too. She said I have to accept her decision and if I don’t accept they can refund guest’s first week too which sounded like ultimatum.
Anyway I described all in very little
Detail in FB.

That threat is so very wrong!
This really needs to escalate even higher.
It’s not like you are a new host who would knowingly rent a moldy house!

Airbnb must be hiring some former HA reps!

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It still says under guest refund policy that guest needs to make reasonable efforts with host, UNLESS Air determines that there is no remedy. So not sure if the rep. is using that clause as her justification. I still think she screwed up because you said the mold photo was staged. And how in the world is she going to determine that all of their mattresses are old. Please…if the mattress was so bad they surely would not have stayed a week.

I hope another rep. can see that she threatened you to agree and will turnover…although I know the reps. often times will back each other up. Did the second rep. read through the notes and then just agreed with the first rep.? I have heard employee say that when you ask for a Supervisor they just put someone on the phone that is trained to agree with the first rep. It’s not your “typical” role of what we consider to be a supervisor.

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Exactly , the first one determines that what they are asking its basically impossible to fix within one day: replace matresses and get rid of mold. The second said: he will look into this and will respond withing few days. It’s not like took her side but he confirmed that Airbnb policy states that guest’s can be refunded for past stays.

Yana - could you give the link to your facebook complaint please - would like to give it some traction

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I am
Not sure how to do it. What you mean by “traction”?
Josef answered me and he said he is “escalation” mananger. He asks what would be the best outcome for me.