Lay My Hat

I'm in need of a bit of adivce here. Our guests arrived late last Wednesday for a 10 day stay. Thursday morning they had no hot water so they rang the girl who "does" for us, she in turn rang a local builder who said he would go round. Unfortunately he didn't go round until the Friday.
Saturday midday I got a phone call in England saying there was no hot water again and they couldn't get hold of our girl.
I couldn't get hold of our maid but I managed to get hold of the builder who said he would try to get round that day but he didn't make it until Sunday! I rang them Sunday night to see if everything was OK and they said the hot water was OK but there was a leak from the tank which is above the ceiling in the bathroom - Nightmare.
I haven't dared ring again!
They paid £900 for this holiday - I am not sure what to offer them in the way of compensation.

Hello Marge,

We had a similar problem last year, the ball valve had got stuck and wasn't filling the tank, thankfully our management sorted it within 24hrs, we gave them a bottle of wine and an apology and they seemed to be happy with that.

I think to have no hot water from Wednesday to Sunday is a bit different, I would feel obliged to offer 50% refund.

Just my immediate reaction to the problem.

Ruth

How bad is the leak? Is it just a few drops or is it gushing - and does it only leak when the shower is on? If is is only a few drops I wouldn't worry too muh, but for the hot water definitely offer something - start with £200 - £300 perhaps? As they are staying 10 days I don't see why they should have 50% compensation for only being inconvienced for a third of their holiday. It is difficult to advise how much without knowing how inconvenienced they were (and some people would be more inconvenienced than others if you see what I mean).

I'm really not too sure about what kind of compensation I would offer but bearing in mind if it's hot there now, they would probably want lots of showers.

I think I'd be just as concerned about the leak through the ceiling, you don't want a phone call to say they ceiling has fallen down

Try to ask yourself the same question if it were you in this situation what would expect. I think your guests so far have been very good in the fact that they are not contacting you every five minutes because if it was me I can assure you I would be giving you hell
Also i think you should either contact them or your cleaner about the leak as i would be worried over that

From what I can gather the leak is a drip. The builder chap was meant to ring us last night after going round to fix it.
He means well but is not the most reliable when it comes to time keeping. I know if there is a problem things need fixing fast but try telling the Portuguese that!!
Apologies to any LMH Portuguese.
I guess the main inconvenience is that they were unable to have a shower - they did mutter when they phoned me on Sunday about compensation if things were not sorted.
I had been thinking about £300 which is roughly the cost of the extra days.
Now, do I tell them this while they are still in Portugal so that hopefully they don't put anything too bad in my visitors book??!!

Hi Marg,

Having had to sort out compensation once myself - for building work noise - my advice is to sort it out as fast as possible.

You can't make your builder move any faster but you can reassure your guests that you understand and you're offering compensation.

I'm sure it will help improve the rest of their holiday if they know that not only are you trying to fix the problem, but they will get some money back for their troubles.

Ooh dear, this was discussed a while back and I'm sure the consensus was to offer compensation whilst they were on holiday. Personally I think it is wrong to make them feel they are going to have to 'pursue' you and it would play on my mind ALL holiday.

Partridge wrote:Ooh dear, this was discussed a while back and I'm sure the consensus was to offer compensation whilst they were on holiday. Personally I think it is wrong to make them feel they are going to have to 'pursue' you and it would play on my mind ALL holiday.

Have to agree with you, I would call them to check everything was still ok and tell them about the compensation, i think 300 is very fair as long as the problem does not return.

Totally agree - tell 'em whilst they're there! Then everyone can relax in the knowledge that they've been compensated.

Plus - knowing they're getting a bit of cash back will allow them to splash out on their holiday!.

As for what to give back...I'd base it on daily rate, the days they didn't have hot water & then choose a % (so at £90 a day perhaps refund 50% of that for not having hot water)

Either way I agree with Party - sort it out quickly and let them know.

I do sympathise - problems like this are frustrating as you want to sort them straight away...but relying on others to do it is a nightmare. Thankfully they've been tolerant of that.

BTW - you can claim on your insurance for any water damage I would think

Mouse
x

Mouse said

As for what to give back...I'd base it on daily rate, the days they didn't have hot water & then choose a % (so at £90 a day perhaps refund 50% of that for not having hot water)

What a good tip Mouse! Saves trying to pick a number out of the air and hope that guests will agree. This calculation seems fair way of dealing with a range of unforseen 'mishaps'..and I suppose the percentage could be adjusted according to the level of inconvenience.

Marge, I also agree to let the guests know that you will be compensating them for the inconvenience caused during their holiday...and using Mousie's calculation it saves the headache of trying to decide how much.

Thank you all for your input. I was thinking roughly along the same lines but it was nice to get your views. I rang them last night and said a cheque would be waiting for them when they got home.
They seemed quite chuffed and said it was a lovely villa and it wouldn't put them off coming again!!
Now I've just got to find a plumber who is a bit more reliable and can fix the problem properly.

Well done Marg! I think it is always better to make the first move in cases like this. It sounds as though they are very nice, reasonable people and not the 'complain about everything even if it is out of control of the owner' brigade.

I agree with most posts above and stress two points:

- communication is no less important than compensation, in cases like this one should contact guests immediatly showing concern and that a solution is being worked on. Most people will apreciate our atention, concern and effort more than they care about money.

- compensation might be justified in certain cases, but should always be based on objective criteria (Mouse provides a good example). One should be able to explain the figure proposed, otherwise the matter risks to fall on subjective ground and can become difficult.

Something similar happened to me last October, not only did my guests have no hot water, on some days they had no water at all from 12-2 . Because they were so sweet about it all and hardly complained at all, I offered them 50% refund and 10% off their next booking.
If they had been beastly and horrid I probably would have said "stuff it.......your in Spain what do you expect!"
I always compensate amiable guests if anything goes wrong.

Donna x