Bit of nightmare today. All the apt building water is off without warning, as there is an electrical fault. Guests are still hanging around, waiting to have shower, which is understandable. I feel so bad, but its out of my control. Should I refund them all their money back? They are staying 2 nights.
I would offer full refund ASAP, and assist them to find alternative accommodation ASAP. You could also find nearby SPA or something that offers showers and pay for them to use free if they prefer that instead!
The income for the 1 or 2 days is not the grief you will have if this is mishandled.
If you handle it well, the guests may actually leave for the other place happy with you!
When I realised a pregnant couple were coming to our place (after reservation), I offered our other guest a full refund and helped her to look for alternative (for a month long booking, that would have been a sizeable refund) accommodation. In the end, I think she liked us and our place enough that she decided to stay and is happy!
So it may not necessarily end badly for you!
I agree with Aquatic, refunding for two nights is the best policy. I would want a hotel or host to do the same for me if I didnāt have access to water.
Last year I had to refund a guest three nights because he couldnāt get our wifi to work and he had booked with us for the sole purpose of being able to do work in a quiet atmosphere.
The year before that, I refunded a guest for 1 night because he complained about finding a hair in the sheets (that was before I started going over the sheets with a lint roller).
Losing money due to a circumstance that is out of your control isnāt pleasant, but itās a part of working in the service industry.
Best of luck!
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Thanks guys. Luckily the water is now back on. So in total it was off 5 hours. Iām so lucky as the guests are totally cool and laid-back about it. Even give me a hug! I offered them a refund but they refused to take, instead asking me could they do some laundry instead! I will though refund them for the one night as soon as the money is through. How do i go about doing this through airbnb?
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Ahh , I stayed so many times in hotels where there was no hot water for the whole night, or AC did not work, or Internet was out snd not once I was offered any refunds. Things happen and it was not your fault. People need to understand this kind of things.
For me itās the same thing as to give refunds for rain it snow
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The same sort of thing happened to me when I had guests from France and the water company decided to drill outside our house to put new pipes in ā¦ for the whole week though luckily they stopped at 3pm. Then the air conditioner failed in 35C degree heat and I couldnāt get it fixed till next day and finally a pigeon crapped on Madameās shirt while she was sitting on the balcony! Of course I was completely mortified and offered to refund the whole 4 days but they absolutely wouldnāt take it. They then left me a lovely review and just said at the end āGive our regards to the pigeonsā! Really makes up for the few awful guests we have to deal with, doesnāt it?
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Haha thats hilarious āfinally a pigeon crapped on Madameās shirtā!
It def does make up for the shitty guests. This guy said hes all about the love hahaā¦he also said dont worry we wont mention it in review! So fingers crossedā¦I just done all their laundry, so I hope that small token makes up for it:)
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Talk to the guests and get their take. Maybe a full nightās refund would be too muchā¦ maybe a half night. I donāt knowā¦ people are pretty understandingā¦ especially if something is out of your control. We recently had a power outage that lasted several hours, affecting the entire west side of Kona. That means we have no water because we are on a rain tank and pumpā¦ no one even thought to ask for a refund, nor did I think Iād need to offer one.
The neighborsā noise is out of your control as well. For one solid year I had the neighbors from hell. Two doors down was a crazy meth head drummer who would bang on his drums no matter what the hour. When they moved out, next door, the bird from hell moved in. It constantly did a 90-decibel wolf whistle. Which I cringed, thinking my guests hated it, Then some guests said they liked it, that it sounded like the tropics.
If that is the tropics, then this is the most obnoxious tropics the world has ever known. Luckily they moved out and took that POS bid with them. Now I have fabulous neighbors on all sides, and I kiss the ground every day with gratitude.
So the water was off for a short time. Yana is right, stuff happens.
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The Joys of hosting lol
The guys just left this morning, still refusing to take a refund. So instead we paid for their taxi to the airport. They kept saying its ok, they werent mad about it, they understoodā¦I think theyre genuine, I hope so. Will just wait for the review!
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