Uncleaned - customer leaving

Hello, first time poster!

We had a guest turn up last week at our apartment, (we had a mix-up with our cleaner because of a late guest the day before) and when the arrived the apartment wasn’t clean.

The customer rightly called me and complained, at 4:30pm, i arranged for our cleaner to head down and clean the apartment.

I called the customer back, offered to send him back enough money to cover him and his guests to go out for some dinner and that the apartment would be clean when they got back.

He then said that they’d had enough and were heading home. The stay was for 3 nights and now he’s asking for a full refund, not sure where we stand on this?

We have a 4.9* rating so is very unusual for us.

Any advice welcome!

Thanks

What is your cancellation policy?
If they complain that it was not clean to AirBnB customer service and show photos they will be refunded anyway, so I feel you have little in the way of options.
What will a 1 star overall do to your ratings?

Airbnb does say a host should be given a chance to rectify concerns raised by guests, so if you agreed to send a cleaner straight away and offered to buy them dinner this does sound reasonable.

However it depends on what arrangements your guests had made for the day of their arrival.

The guest will be able to leave a review regardless of what do/offer and Airbnb can decide to refund them in full even if you refuse so in lots of ways you have little choice as to what to do, probably best to agree the refund gracefully.

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I would have taken this all day long, but they’re still cancelling a 3day stay?

Yes, seemed a bit over the top and a strange decision to pack up and go home!

Not sure there was much else we could have done?!

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Thank you, that’s what we were leaning towards,. However, he’s asking for the full amount, which obviously includes AIRBNB’s fee, Not sure how that would work?

Hi @brunel1

That’s something he would need to take up with Airbnb - you can only refund your part of the fee.

Let Airbnb do the refunding…

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Sorry to be a pain, but should I just leave it and wait for the customer to contact Airbnb or get out in front of it? In which case, how?!

Just tell him to contact Airbnb. They will process the request.

If you want you can give Airbnb a call to discuss.

Sounds like they were tired out, maybe having a spat and you provided an escape. It looks to me like you need to arrange a full refund.

Did your cleaner really miss the cleaning or were they making a fuss as an excuse? The fact that they refused a good resolution is odd. I’d go for a free dinner while the place gets cleaned. I n fact I’m going to remember that as a remedy.

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I’d suggest reading the TOS before doing anything else, specifically this section on guest refund.
https://www.airbnb.com/terms/guest_refund_policy

The way I see it is your uncleaned listing is a “travel issue” under 1-C.

The guests alerted you/Airbnb within 24 hrs, but didn’t give you a chance to resolve the issue, as they outline in section 3. Based on their own policy, I don’t think they deserve a full refund. I’d get in front of it by calling Airbnb myself. Sometimes being the first to explain the situation put CS on your side.

If the guests ask you for a refund, direct them to Air.

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@DaleW Another scenario could be they came for an event, had a deadline to get ready by and couldn’t afford to wait two or three hours for a cleaner to finish before they got ready, so had to find an alternative.

Only the OP knows the circumstances.