Post by High Priestess on Nov 11, 2015 16:01:18 GMT
Jessica shared Nov 11 2015
Guest left early and left indecent picture on my chalk board!
Hi,
I've had a bit of a weird experience with a guest and any advice would be welcomed!
I rented my flat our for Fri and Sat night to a couple. They emailed me on Friday night at about 22:00 with a jokey email saying that maybe I ought to consider my rule asking people to keep the noise down after 10pm (because the neighbours below have a small baby) as the neighbours above were a bit noisy. They ended the message with 'ha ha ha'.
I replied the next day and asked if everything was ok. They told me they'd left already, after only one night, because the noise was too much and the weather was against them. They then told me that they thought the bedding wasn't clean and the house wasn't clean enough. I'd left the house very clean and the cleaner had also been in hours before they arrived, so I didn't comment on this as I knew the flat would be very clean. They then mentioned that the shower wasn't hot enough; it's almost scalding when only the hot water is on and I checked with the airbnb guest who was here last week and he concurred so I thanked them for letting me know and didn't take that complaint any further. I did reassure them that I'd personally cleaned their bedding so not to worry about that. I offered to get in touch about a refund when I was back and had spoken to my neighbours. Their final message to me confirmed that the neighbours had stopped making noise at midnight, although they could still hear people talking for an hour or two after that.
I decided to offer then a 50% refund as a goodwill gesture: I feel that they could have given me the opportunity to fix any issues, leaving because of the weather wasn't really my fault and I was a bit suspicious of their inconsistent list of complaints but I wanted to end the correspondence feeling that I'd done all that I could and not risk a bad review.
I went to the resolution centre and offered a 50% refund yesterday. They had not responded to it after 24 hours. Today I noticed that a chalkboard in the hallway was turned around the wrong way and turned it around and discovered that a penis has been drawn on it. It wouldn't have been my cleaner (a family friend in her 60s) so it must have been the guests. I think that this is really odd behaviour and in light of this and the inconsistent complaints, I withdrew my refund offer and closed the resolution in the Resolution Centre. But... I've jut received a message saying he's accepted my refund, which hasn't been taken from my account as of yet.
My questions are:
Do you think the refund withdrawal is reasonable?
Will my refund be taken out, now that I've closed the case?
What should I say in my review?
Should I do anything else?
Keith (keith)
I wouldn't have offered the refund in the first place.. the guests didn't ask for one and they didn't cancel the booking when they left early.
The complaints they made are just laying groundwork for leaving a bad review and asking AirBnB to refund their stay.
You should make it clear that the bedding is always clean as is the house between guests.
They should have taken pictures if they felt things were out of line and should have said something upon checkin rather than a day later.
I think you can't retract a refund offer, but if you can you should.
Wait until the very last day of review period.. if they don't review you that's good. then you can decide whether or not to review them and state that they were not communicative, left rude drawings on your message board, and are perhaps better suited for hotels.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I agree with Keith. Don't offer refunds just because someone complains. From what you describe of this couple, they are poor communicators. IF the problem was noise from neighbors, then that was the problem, not your own rule about guests being quiet after 10pm. Their comment also suggests that they might try to resolve a noise problem in a passive-aggressive way -- eg instead of asking the neighbors to quiet down (or have you do that for them) they seem to think that if they were only allowed to make more noise themselves, that would solve the problem. Such a twisted orientation seems to fit with passive-aggressively making indecent drawings on your chalkboard --- but, tellingly, only on the back of the chalkboard. I get the sense that these people have very poor communication skills and little ability to resolve conflicts in an open, honest direct way. Perhaps they never resolve conflicts in their day to day life, and simply scribble naughty childish drawings on the property of those they are upset with.
Guest left early and left indecent picture on my chalk board!
Hi,
I've had a bit of a weird experience with a guest and any advice would be welcomed!
I rented my flat our for Fri and Sat night to a couple. They emailed me on Friday night at about 22:00 with a jokey email saying that maybe I ought to consider my rule asking people to keep the noise down after 10pm (because the neighbours below have a small baby) as the neighbours above were a bit noisy. They ended the message with 'ha ha ha'.
I replied the next day and asked if everything was ok. They told me they'd left already, after only one night, because the noise was too much and the weather was against them. They then told me that they thought the bedding wasn't clean and the house wasn't clean enough. I'd left the house very clean and the cleaner had also been in hours before they arrived, so I didn't comment on this as I knew the flat would be very clean. They then mentioned that the shower wasn't hot enough; it's almost scalding when only the hot water is on and I checked with the airbnb guest who was here last week and he concurred so I thanked them for letting me know and didn't take that complaint any further. I did reassure them that I'd personally cleaned their bedding so not to worry about that. I offered to get in touch about a refund when I was back and had spoken to my neighbours. Their final message to me confirmed that the neighbours had stopped making noise at midnight, although they could still hear people talking for an hour or two after that.
I decided to offer then a 50% refund as a goodwill gesture: I feel that they could have given me the opportunity to fix any issues, leaving because of the weather wasn't really my fault and I was a bit suspicious of their inconsistent list of complaints but I wanted to end the correspondence feeling that I'd done all that I could and not risk a bad review.
I went to the resolution centre and offered a 50% refund yesterday. They had not responded to it after 24 hours. Today I noticed that a chalkboard in the hallway was turned around the wrong way and turned it around and discovered that a penis has been drawn on it. It wouldn't have been my cleaner (a family friend in her 60s) so it must have been the guests. I think that this is really odd behaviour and in light of this and the inconsistent complaints, I withdrew my refund offer and closed the resolution in the Resolution Centre. But... I've jut received a message saying he's accepted my refund, which hasn't been taken from my account as of yet.
My questions are:
Do you think the refund withdrawal is reasonable?
Will my refund be taken out, now that I've closed the case?
What should I say in my review?
Should I do anything else?
Keith (keith)
I wouldn't have offered the refund in the first place.. the guests didn't ask for one and they didn't cancel the booking when they left early.
The complaints they made are just laying groundwork for leaving a bad review and asking AirBnB to refund their stay.
You should make it clear that the bedding is always clean as is the house between guests.
They should have taken pictures if they felt things were out of line and should have said something upon checkin rather than a day later.
I think you can't retract a refund offer, but if you can you should.
Wait until the very last day of review period.. if they don't review you that's good. then you can decide whether or not to review them and state that they were not communicative, left rude drawings on your message board, and are perhaps better suited for hotels.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I agree with Keith. Don't offer refunds just because someone complains. From what you describe of this couple, they are poor communicators. IF the problem was noise from neighbors, then that was the problem, not your own rule about guests being quiet after 10pm. Their comment also suggests that they might try to resolve a noise problem in a passive-aggressive way -- eg instead of asking the neighbors to quiet down (or have you do that for them) they seem to think that if they were only allowed to make more noise themselves, that would solve the problem. Such a twisted orientation seems to fit with passive-aggressively making indecent drawings on your chalkboard --- but, tellingly, only on the back of the chalkboard. I get the sense that these people have very poor communication skills and little ability to resolve conflicts in an open, honest direct way. Perhaps they never resolve conflicts in their day to day life, and simply scribble naughty childish drawings on the property of those they are upset with.