How much to refund??

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
bluebell
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How much to refund??

Post by bluebell »

I have guests who arrived in our house on Friday evening. They will leave next Friday.

The pool got a fault on Thursday evening and they will probably not get access to it until at least Tuesday.

Any ideas of percentage refund?

It is a 4 bedroomed property and there are 6 adults and 2 children staying. They say that the house is amazing so no complaints apart from the pool which, of course, is a major part of the stay.

Very confused about what percentage to offer. Not that any amount will avoid a lousy review on Air BNB!

Thanks
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

Maybe have a conversation to find out what they have done whilst pool out of order?
Consider part refund part discount for next year??
Are there any similar properties without pools that you can compare prices with?

Good luck, very unfortunate for you, and very stressful - more-so because you are not nearby to see what it looks like.
KathyG
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Post by KathyG »

Have you had contact with the guests Bluebell? Are they complaining? They might be perfectly ok sightseeing etc for the first couple of days. Is the pool safe for them but still just cloudy?
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

In my opinion a pool adds between 15% and 20% to the value of a rental.

On the other hand, some people will only book a holiday at a rental that has a pool (particularly in hot climes), so to them the value of the pool is nearer 100%.

In other words, there is no magic formula.

Hopefully friendly discussion and acceptance that things just go wrong will help find a satisfactory compromise. Start with a vague gesture that you'd like to offer some recompense, see what their attitude/mood is and take it from there. Sorry it does not explicitly answer your question, but.....
** Richard
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They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
KathyG
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Post by KathyG »

e-richard wrote:
Hopefully friendly discussion and acceptance that things just go wrong will help find a satisfactory compromise. Start with a vague gesture that you'd like to offer some recompense, see what their attitude/mood is and take it from there. Sorry it does not explicitly answer your question, but.....
Well said Richard! :D

My guests in the last 10 days have had the dishwasher break down twice, the wifi apparently intermittent and last night the Volvo was showing error codes so can I recommend a local garage. :roll:

They've had the caretakers go there twice to sort out the dishwasher, they've now been left with the appropriate screwdriver to fix it themselves :lol: , the router's been replaced and I told them to check Google for a local garage. A caretaker visit is a 2hr round trip and on Saturday he had to go to the house, collect router, drive to shop to replace, but shop has closed down so had another 30 min drive to next nearest one, then back to house to set it up. Then home. Poor chap, was supposed to be his family weekend but he's been absolutely fantastic.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack, or rant! Moral of the story is, as Richard says, keep excellent communications with guest and with a bit of luck they won't mention the C word. Mind you, I'll find out if that works on Friday.......
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
bluebell
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Post by bluebell »

Thank you all so much for your comments.

They finally got in the pool on Tuesday. On Monday night they sent a very disgruntled/disappointed email about the lack of a pool, stating very clearly that they booked a villa with pool (!) so I can feel that the pool was a very big element for them. I immediately wrote back explaining clearly ( again) what had happened, what efforts we had put to solve the issue as quickly as possible ( didn't mention the 100's of euros that we have spent on pump and hourly workers' rates!). At that moment the pool was still cloudy so I said that, of course, we would be sending a refund for the lack of access to the pool. Miraculously the pool was fine on Tuesday morning. So they arrived Friday at 8pm and got into the pool at 12 on Tuesday. Not great!

I have a figure in my head of 20% of the total stay value but that is based on the actual money that I received from Air BNB and not what they paid in total. I have never had to refund before so am not sure if Air Bnb pay back a portion of their fee as well as that is linked to my price? Anyone have knowledge about that?
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

bluebell wrote:so am not sure if Air Bnb pay back a portion of their fee as well as that is linked to my price? Anyone have knowledge about that?
Oh, you must be kidding.
Why would Airbnb give back any money? They take a big commission for getting you the booking, but everything else is just "between you and the guest".
** Richard
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They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
Jenster
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Post by Jenster »

Bluebell 20% seems fair. I have recently offered the same due to building work next door affecting my guest's stay.

Initially I was advised to refund in total all days that were affected, but the issue wouldn't have affected them 24 hours a day (nor yours, unless they planned to spend all day and night in the pool!) and all other aspects of the let were still there for them to enjoy.

I refunded 20% of the rental payment I received from Home Away, and explained clearly that I had done this and how I had arrived at that figure. They were fine with it and left a good review without mentioning the issue.
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