Unreasonable guest, advice needed

Does that actually work for you? Personally, I’ve found that demanding guests back down pretty quickly when you snap back at them and say sorry you are not comfortable, you’re welcome to leave and someone will be along shortly to help you check out. (Obviously genuine issues would be addressed. A stained chopping board does not come under that heading).

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I vote he’s gunning for a refund. If the place was so bad, he should have left, or immediately asked for a refund. My opinion is that anyone that waits until after they leave to ask for a refund was planning it all along, or they would have left earlier.

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I wouldn’t refund a thing. He had an issue, you immediately rectified it, end of story.

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It works for me every time.
I had one incident that was my outdoor BBQ grill didn’t clean, had previous guests leftover on the bottom, so when the guests started the grill with their own meat and fish, the fire went to strong and burnt half of their food. They text me and complained about it, I said to them to refund them $50 for the mess and alone with the nice message. They were very happy, impressed and give me a 5 star review. There’s other incidents that I dealt with it the same way. Works very well. You make $$ back at no time, and $$ goes long ways.

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Ah yes, that seems fair enough. If it is a fair complaint then guests should be recompensed in some way. But the OP is talking about petty things and an overly demanding guest. Personally, I don’t give way in these situations. 9/10 they’re just testing you to see what they can get away with and/or checking how responsive you are. Or they’re just obnoxious bleeps. They get short shrift with me. If you bend over for them they will only ask you to go further… until you end up having to dislodge something from your arse. And still get a crap review for your trouble.

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I agree with others that you should definitely not issue a refund. This guest should have read what Airbnb expects from a guest in the event they are not happy. He should have let Airbnb know if he wasn’t happy. He might well leave you a bad review but so what? You’re in business - every business gets bad reviews at some time.

However, the guest has given you a learning experience, that’s for sure. You might want to look into your systems and the way you organise the work as there’s really no excuse for an uncleaned oven, chipped crockery, uncleaned range, stained chopping boards and whatever the ‘etc’. you mentioned was.

Telling the guest that other guests aren’t as respectful is never going to be a good excuse as it’s your responsibility to make sure that everything is just right before every guest arrives.

So, ignore this bloke and move on. He’s not worth giving any of your brain-space to.

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I agree 100% with @jaquo. No refund. Forget the review. Move on.

Lesson learned is that there is never any excuse for chipped crockery, dirty ovens or stoves, and stained chopping boards. All that should have been rectified when you cleaned after the previous guest. Every time.

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I had a similar situation not long ago, you can read about it here: I seem to be having a bad run!

Airbnb told me that she might be due a small refund on the cleaning fee but they considered the cleaning issues minor and the cleaner also came around immediately to rectify it.

She left an absolutely shocking review, (below) but was silly enough to have a go at Air on their own website and mention the offer of a payment (that I didn’t know about) so it was removed. That’s the best you can hope for that he breaks review guidelines so you can get it pulled. In relation to the refund, let Airbnb make a decision on that.

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Thanks K9KarmaCasa, that all makes sense.

Do you get bad reviews frequently? Maybe you need to fix the problems beforehand so you aren’t spending good money paying people bribes to leave you good reviews :slight_smile: . This also encourages some guests to think that if they can find something to complain about, even if it is not significant, that they can get a partial refund and you can bet they pass this tip onto each other in some dodgy backpackers’ bar.

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I have a Hotel Inspector. A friend who ran hotels for 20 years. i give her a bottle of wine to give me an honest review every 6 months. I used to get 3.5s now I get a solid 4.5. You know those tassels at the end of the hall runner? Mine are now straightened out thanks to her. I would do as you have done and take into account what they say and fix things but offer no refund apart from the cleaning fee (so it looks like you have). Your place sounds great, please put up a link so we can all ooh and aah or tut tut depending on our individual hotel inspectorishish preferences.

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Your friend should start a business! It’s only by staying in mine that I have been aware of some issues.

Refund the cleaning fee, as AirBnb suggested. At this point, it doesn’t matter what you do because he will leave you a bad review. Just be prepared to write a response. Something like “unfortunately, cleaning staff forgot to check the oven. Cleaning fee was refunded.”

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I wouldn’t give him.any refund only because he is an a… hole.
One thing to point out to you and have things cleaned, another to lecture you and then requesting refund on something that was quickly fixed. And don’t worry about reviews so much especially if you have so many 5*. I feel he will leave you bad review no matter what.
I wouldn’t even refund 100% of cleaning. May be partial for the oven.
With that said I think cleanliness shouldn’t be depending on price. I have very budget accomodation but it doesn’t mean I keep it with low cleanliness level.
Some guests are just like that , you can have 100s who leave you 5* reviews saying how clean everything is and then you get one who complains about couple non removable spots on matress, makes picture of an ant,finds one pot with broken handle and demands full redund

I once had a guest who knocked on my door late in the evening to show me a photo of a ‘palmetto bug’ (cockroach!) that she’d seen in the apartment. I said ‘oh how cute. A palmetto. I haven’t seen one of those in years. Thanks so much for showing it to me - they are so rare. and so cute’ … as though it was a furry kitten or something.

Five star review from her :slight_smile:

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Is it unreasonable to expect rented lodgings are spotless?
I know what I am about to write will be against the grain for most commenting here but:

I’m sorry to say that a dirty oven, chipped crockery & dirty looking cutting boards, in my opinion are a reflection of the overall cleanliness of the suite, in my mind if this is acceptable practice for the host “I” would definitely have the feeling that the overall cleaning standards of the suite are perhaps inadequate for the areas that are not visible to the naked eye.
Receiving a bad report card can be a good time for reflection of your processes and standards.
I don’t feel that "good value’ translates into mediocre standards for cleanliness, when I’m a guest I feel that I pay the cleaning fee to ensure it is clean upon arrival.

I don’t understand your comment, if was not your responsibility that the suite is up to standard, then who’s fault is it?
Yea the guy sounds like a hard nose, with high standards…perhaps cheap…perhaps looking for a refund…I can’t speak to that as I don’t know what your place is like & the interaction with your guest is uniquely yours, but I will bet that these area’s will be address in the future.
I had a guest once comment that there were cob webs noted in the ceiling corners and the fan blades appeared dusty… I felt a stabbed by her comments & subsequently a low mark for cleanliness …I take a great deal of pride to ensure perfection with what I have to work with…but on reflection in the early morning sun you could certainly see the cob webs (it is a 12 ceiling) and the fuzzy fan blades, I am rarely in the suite early am and rarely looked up, but it will never happen again.
Although you did mitigate the issues, in this business it’s the first impression upon arrival is the one that really counts for your review and ratings.

It is our responsibility to review guests honestly…the same goes for guests.

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I don’t think so at all. I have been really surprised at some of the things some hosts consider to be acceptable. But hey, it’s their rental, not mine. I do think it reflects poorly overall on the Airbnb brand and that could hurt all of us.

I also have a “budget” place and work hard to ensure 5 star cleanliness and maintenance. I’ve said many times it can’t just be clean it has to look clean. I touch up the nicked paint and tops of baseboards several times a year. I defrost the freezer part of the mini fridge. I wash the glass light fixtures. I replace things that rattle, are chipped or are stained. I think it’s fine if someone doesn’t but as a consequence expect some poor reviews and some refund requests.

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I think the guests standards are also varying. I have stayed in places that reviews have said immaculate but I can’t imagine they had been immaculate in months based on the grime. And these were for reviews days before mine.

But some of this seems to be over-the-top. We rented a whole apartment in Stuttgart a couple of years ago, and the host almost groveled in asking us to not give him a negative review because there was a little dust on top of the refrigerator (7 feet high - he reached up to to check with his finger as he showed us the kitchen).

I expect a good standard of cleanliness, but I wouldn’t dream of doing the “white glove test” everywhere - a little dust can accumulate in a day or two.

I might suggest it to her actually, she has just moved up to Chiltern so lots of B&Bs in that area for the snow.