Has anyone else had this issue?
I apologise if I am rambling. Its quite late but the only time I have.
I don’t claim to be a superhost, but neither am I a bad host. I have been running self contained holiday accommodation for over 5 years and have 3 properties (not always thru airbnb). We have an older property in a fantastic area. I believe we run a neat, clean and tidy property and the majority of our reviews reflect this (odd review not perfect, but not bad either).
I recently had a very high maintenance guest whom i think may have had a bad day previous to arriving at our property or possibly out for the free stay. I was unfortunately overseas and wasn’t able to deal with the guest personally. My cleaner that looks after things when I am not there did have to deal with this guest, and I did also via airbnb messages.
We dont do the meet and greet, but provide all details via airbnb for self entry. The guest apparently tried to contact everyone on the contacts list without luck (so claimed that it was out of date) when she arrived as she was not happy with the property or its cleanliness. As mentioned, I was overseas and my roaming failed to work but contact numbers where provided at the property and also on the airbnb site which she only found later when she wrote to complain to me (failed to read her manual/instructions correctly and prepare herself adequately before arriving). When she finally got hold of my cleaner, she complained bitterly about everything from no internet (which we don’t provide), her laptop didn’t work (that was our fault too), no hot water (she hadn’t turned it on as instructed on airbnb), too much overlay on the bed (implying I was hiding something on the mattress), dirty house to substandard linen, scratchy towels to crumbs in the toaster, to marks on the walls (mostly general wear and tear), decore drab and the whole house needed a complete refurbishment, blinds not working, it was cold and damp, and the list went on and on and on.oh, and she said she “wouldn’t want to die here” it was so bad. I was, of course, gutted and confused as we usually get good reviews. She wanted a full refund and added compensation. We had totally ruined her holiday. She was from the UK.
Look, I have been doing this for 5-6 years via other sites (only airbnb for the last year or so) and I realise you get guests like this from time to time(but not this bad) and i also don’t claim to be a perfect host, but we try to be. We are only human and sometimes things can get missed unfortunately. The cleaner went and saw her personally, went through her issues and offered to reclean from top to bottom (just to make her happy - not that it was required other than a couple of small cleaning issues) but she declined this offer claiming there was no way anyone to bring the property back up to scratch in a day. We also said that she didn’t have to do the clean she is required to do and that we would negate the added linen charge (which she was still to pay). She was also offered a wine voucher at a very nice restaurant. Guess she used that??? But no, none of that was any good either. She would rather try to find somewhere else to stay, however was unable to find somewhere because she had no or bad internet (and of course, everything else was far more expensive). She apparently stayed for 3 of her 5 night stay.
It appeared to me that this guest was on the hunt for a free stay. She provided photographic evidence to airbnb of the substandard clean and apparent issues and she made a claim for full refund plus more (the guest must have gone on quite the hunt for the photo’s, climbing on benches, taking very very close up shots of dirt etc, however, i digress). I decided to compensate her for 2 nights plus 1 as a goodwill gesture knowing a bad review was on the way. She continued to complain and placed another claim in for the balance of what I hadn’t paid from her original claim. When I rejected further claims stating she had already been adquately compensated considering we tried to satisfy her needs but she refused, she went to airbnb resolutions.
Heres the bit that bothers me. They have backed her pretty much all the way. I provided explanations and reasonable justification to all of her so called claims and photos and even admitted fault to a few. Its not possible for me to provide all the info here, as it would go on forever. The photos may have even been staged. Who knows. But where is the backing from airbnb for the host being taken for a ride. I now made $80 from the $780 booking aud (doesn’t even cover the costs of running it for the 3 days) and I also have to wear the bad review. She just walked away with free accommodation for a bit of a winge.
What I have learned from this experience, is that if guests knows how to play the airbnb system, they can easily get free stays, so you hosts better watch out. Luckily for me, this is the first guest that has played me and I truly hope it will be my last.