I’ve been an Airbnb host for 7 years. I have hundreds of reviews with a 4.95 average rating and a 80% occupancy rate. Recently we stayed 3 nights at another Airbnb close to UCLA in Santa Monica where I was going to have surgery. The owner had only recently started renting on Airbnb and he had a co-host managing it for him. This was during the Pacific Palisades fire which was close by. We chose this home for proximity to UCLA with the intent for me to rest, relax and prepare for surgery. The heater in the home only worked intermittently, with evening temperatures dropping close to 50 degrees inside while the thermostat was set between 69 to 72. Most of the time it was not working but randomly would come on for short periods of time. I tried to contact the co-host who finally replied after 3 hours. He sent a tech out the following day who told me the heater needed a new main circuit board. I mentioned this to the co-host who replied that he wasnt going to spend $1000 to repair it. While trying to get in touch with the co-host, I contacted Airbnb who offered a different Airbnb to which I said yes, please provide. I never heard back from Airbnb. The morning after the 2nd very cold night, the co-host brought over two small space heaters. This was better than nothing but not adequate. I felt that I was intitled to a parcial refund. Airbnb agreed but would only pay a little over $200 back on a $1200 bill. This was bad enough, but the host wrote in his review that the tech found nothing wrong with the heater (not true) and implied that I was just trying get money from him, a total insult. I replied to his review stating my view of what happened. I’d like to know what you as a host would have done for your guests if your home’s heater failed. I know what I would done.
Of course, as a host of over seven years, you made sure that all communication was in the Airbnb app, and you were able to display this to Airbnb as part of your claim? Certainly you did not do this casually over the phone, right?
Yep, all communication was through the app. Even him saying he can’t afford through $1000 repair, which in my opinion is way too much, but then I do all of my own repairs
Well, it is considered standard in the business for a host to offer a 10-30% discount for a non-working amenity, depending on how long the guest has to do without and how much of an inconvenience it is. So the host should have offered that without you even having to ask or involve Airbnb.
But if it took 3 hrs to get your message answered, this co-host and host are obviously falling down on the job. So they “aren’t going to spend $1000” to get the heating fixed, but expect to continue renting and get non-complaining guests who are freezing cold in the winter? Sounds like one of those hosts who think Airbnb is “easy money”. They’ll probably end up getting delisted for low ratings and complaints.
What would I have done as a host? I would have gotten a good space heater or two to you right away, as soon as you reported the issue (guests shouldn’t have to be uncomfortable in the meantime, pending sending a technician out to assess a problem) and I would have offered to discount your stay.
Interestingly, I just had my water heater go kaput 3 evenings ago, after I had just had a guest check in that afternoon. I have a homeshare, and only host one guest at a time. My guest was a 30 year old guy who had never been to Mexico before, and was super easygoing and childlike in his wonder and delight- when he arrived, he just kept saying, “OMG, it’s so beautiful here, I love it, I’m so excited.”
He had gone out to town his first night, so when I discovered the water heater was toast (it had actually caught fire, it couldn’t be repaired), I messaged him to tell him that, apologized, said that since the following day was Sunday, I wouldn’t be able to buy a new water heater and have it installed til Monday.
He stayed out late having fun, and didn’t see my message until the next morning. I told him I would ask the neighbors, who are also my friends, if he could shower there, but he said no, don’t worry about it, I can have a cold shower for 1 day. (He said the water wasn’t actually cold when he’d showered that morning, it had been lukewarm- the water in the defunct tank must have still been a bit warm)
But I asked him Sunday evening, when he was getting ready to go out for the night, if he’d like me to heat up a big pot of water he could wash with, and he said sure.
I got a new water heater installed on Monday. I didn’t offer him a discount, because he was so non-fussed about it, and because I only charge $28/night, but had the outage lasted longer, or I had had a guest who wasn’t so easygoing, I would have.
Exactly! I’ve had things go wrong in my homes, like AC going out once. I came over immediately to repair it. $28 bucks a night “OMG” 
Geez. Heat is not an option. It’s not even an amenity in most places but is instead required to make the place habitable.
As a host:
1- I would’ve responded to your message within 15 minutes with many apologies.
2- Then I would’ve brought you more than enough space heaters, including an electric fireplace, a bottle of wine and whatever other goodies I had on hand within 30 minutes.
3- I’d refund you for your first night.
4- The next day I would’ve had the heater fixed asap.
5- If for some reason I was not able to get the heater fixed the next day (because it needed unavailable parts or something) and you weren’t satisfied with the space heaters then I would’ve personally helped you find another listing and offered you a full refund if you wanted to and were able to relocate to another listing.
5- We both would’ve left the situation satisfied and with 5-star reviews.
As a guest, I have to say that this kind of thing seems more common than not in the last couple of years and it’s not only disappointing but also hurts the Airbnb name in general and the decent hosts that still exist. I’m fed up with it.
So if I went through what you just went through I’d file it under FAFO and make sure to report this host to Santa Monica Code Enforcement because it’s illegal to rent for less than 31 days unless your host who must be a natural person, not a company, that is either the homeowner or the long-term tenant is present in the home during your entire stay. Make sure to mention that you were there for a pre-surgery stay and not as a fire evacuee because I believe there are some current exceptions for hosting fire evacuees.
I didn’t know about that requirement but it might explain why the owner’s daughter lives in the garage in the backyard. We never saw her for more than a second.
It’s unfortunate that it went down like this for you. I would like to ask a few more details if that’s alright:
How long in advance were you looking for a place to stay and why did you choose a location that appeared to be fresh on the market? You didn’t mention anything about the reviews the place had - if there were any which would make me wonder why you decided to go with that one. Please understand that we’re missing a lot of background info, just trying to get the whole picture here.
Maybe it’s just me but spending $400 a night makes me want to reach out to the host upfront to get some reassurance, especially since this stay happened so closely to the terrible fires. Of course this may not have prevented you from having this experience but I just wonder if there was some additional exchange besides maybe some automated messages?
Somewhat off topic question:
What would you (or other hosts do) in that situation (broken heater)? I mean as long as there is not water spewing out of a pipe, where I live, it’s close to impossible to have a company squeeze you in for a diagnosis not to mention to fix a water heater issue within 24 hours (unless it’s a “Have you tried turning it off and on again” situation). Which company has any given spare part just laying around, and whenever we had to have something fixed, the company ALWAYS had to order the parts which took days or weeks.
So it basically comes down to being prepared in the sense that if it’s a heating related problem, the “good” hosts would come prepared by having space heaters standing by just in case but that’s about it. Just trying to figure out how such a situation could ever be professionally handled besides offering a helping hand to the guest in order to find another place to stay.
If it had been my Airbnb, I would have contacted customer service and would have requested to relocate guests and would have refunded the night stay.
In his exact words? “wasnt going to spend $1000 to repair it”?
I booked the home weeks ahead of time. Prior to the fires. His price was inline with other homes in the area. I chose his because it was the closest to UCLA. There weren’t many reviews but enough that I felt it was a decent choice. One reviewer had complained about things that didnt seem all that important. But after staying there I had to agree with those complaints. But that is off topic, and I never complained about those issues. No other prior guests had complained about there being no heat. I assumed (silly me) that the home would be heated. What did I expect from the host? First off, I expected a reply within a reasonable amont of time, not hours later. I expected him to either fix the heater or bring over portable heaters the first night. In his defense, he did find a tech that came the day after the 1st cold night. He states in his review of me that the tech didnt find anything wrong with the heater. I let him know that the heater still didnt work after the tech left. I also let him know that the tech told me the heater needed a new circuit board. He said that he couldnt afford a $1000 repair to the circuit board. The tech never mentioned a cost for the repair so he must have gotten that cost directly from the tech. I doubt if the tech had a replacement board with him anyway. When I told him that the heater still didnt work around 4PM the second evening, he promised to bring over a couple of space heaters. I even offered to go out and buy them for him, but he insisted that he would do it. Around 8:30 that evening, when it was already cold, I reached out again, he let me know that he would bring them over after he put his kids to bed at 9PM. I let him know that I had to be at the hospital at 5:00AM and that we would need to go to bed early. He said he would leave them outside. At 10PM we still had not received the heaters. So here I am, fasting, tired, anxious and freezing. We found the heaters the following morning before leaving for the hospital. That night, after surgery, we had only enough heat to heat the bedrooms, which was way better than nothing. Keep in mind that I was also in contact with Airbnb. The only reason I reached out to them was because I couldnt get ahold of the host. They offerrd to find us new lodging which I wholeheartedly accepted. They were going to get back with me on that, but never did. That didnt surprise me since the fires by this point had made so many homeless, BUT, Airbnb should have let me know that they couldnt find anything. Tuesday night, our final night there, I contacted Airbnb again asking for a partial refund. I had paid close to $1200. They offered their maximum refund which was 30% and came to a little over $200. In what world is 30% of $1200 equal to $200, certainly not here on earth. Anyway, at that point I was recovering from a pretty major surgery and just wanted to get home. I left a 5 star review for the host except for one category where I left 4 stars. I wasn’t going to even leave a review, but just before the cutoff I did. I did mention the heating issue and stated that I hoped that he had gotten it fixed. I also asked the host if he wanted my suggestions on how he could improve his home, and he said he would love my suggestions. I left him private recommendations on 20 different subjects. This home was was NOT worth $400 a night even in expensive Santa Monica. But that is the subject of another “vent”. Hopefully that answers most of your questions. Ill re-read your replies after posting this response. What would I have done. I wiuld have answered within minutes if not seconds, my phone is always with me. I would have come to the home immediately unless they wanted me to come the next day. I would have figured out what was wrong with the heater, but if I couldn’t fix it, I would have either gotten them space heaters right away or if they wanted to leave, I would have given them a full refund. If they decided to stay, I would have given them as much of a refund as they wanted. Nothing in this busibess is more valuable than 5 star reviews. We as hosts have to always keep that in mind. Treat our guests the best that we can in the hopes of getting those good reviews, if not for our guest’s sake then for ours!
That is likely because the weather wasn’t cold when previous guests were there?
Why on earth did you do that? No response to a major malfunctioning amentity complaint for 3 hrs, no proper heating, not bringing you space heaters the first night, and only dropping some off the second night long after you told him you would be turning in early, does not deserve a 5 star review.
Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail what happened. It’s truly a mess and it shouldn’t have happened, even for a half decent host.
I also wouldn’t have left anything higher than 4 stars or most likely 3 stars since you had other “suggestions” how they could have improved their rental. Not even having an alternative heating for more than 2 nights (out of 4) should qualify a guest to receive more than this outworldly 30% 
This is why you are subjected to situations like this. it’s very possible the last 5 guests did the same wrong thing and left ‘5 star reviews’ that ignored problems.
Always leave an honest review
That is completely bonkers. Please explain your logic.
Other than the heater the house was ok. The host was nice just inexperienced. I felt sorry for him. Lesson learned. This was my first trip as a guest.
I understand cutting someone who is inexperienced some slack.
But knowing you were cold, and not immediately getting space heaters to you, at least by the following morning, isn’t something I would chalk up to inexperience, I’d consider it a lack of care and attention.
And his BS denial of the issue in his review bears out his attitude. As is telling you “I’m not going to spend $1000 on that.” That’s just not the kind of thing a host should say to a guest, and that is a matter of tact, not inexperience.
And leaving his guests cold for 2 nights is not what I would call a “nice” person.
When my water heater went defunct on a Sat. aft., and there was no way I could get a new one and have it installed until Monday, I right away asked my neighbors if my guest could shower there if he wanted, and when the guest said, no, it was okay, I heated him up a big pot of water. I didn’t just leave him with no bathing options except cold showers for 48 hrs. or tell him “I’m not spending money on a new water heater”.
I live in the sub-tropics so I have never had a heater problem.
However, I had a situation where a guest (three-night stay) had the AC fail - in July - on the first night of their stay.
I refunded that night and immediately had the AC repaired at a cost of over $3000.
Yes, $3000 is a lot of money. But what was the alternative? The guest had another couple of nights to go and then there would be new guests, and new again, and again…
And if it hadn’t broken down at that time, it would have done so in the near future.
What I don’t understand is that if I was cold, and miserable I would have simply gone out and bought a couple of space heaters once it was evident that the host wasn’t going to supply them. (Several times in Airbnb rentals I’ve had to buy things that weren’t supplied)
You can get cheapo space heaters for under $20.
As you were fasting and anxious and tired and all the rest of it, what measures did your companion take?
You had a bad experience with a bad host. But I think you could have done a little more to help yourself.
You are right, in retrospect, I should have gotten my own space heaters, but I believed the host who kept assuring us that he was going to take care of things. Had I known then what I know now, many things would gave been done differently. For me, it’s just a bad memory at this point and I’m concentrating on recovery. Your response to your AC going out is what all good hosts should do. You run your Airbnb like a business where your customer is king. I guess I expected my host to treat me as I treat my guests and as you treat yours. This was my first experience as a Airbnb guest.
Thank you for the reply and for being a good host 
“. . .the owner’s daughter lives in the garage in the backyard” had me laughing. I’m a retired Code Enforcement investigator on the Central Coast. Living in a garage is not allowed, as it is substandard housing in a non-conditioned space, with a number of hazards possibly present. Mention the garage dwelling if you do contact S.M. Code Enforcement.