[bkohlmann]

On the other hand, when an act of god occurs, airbnb holds the host completely responsible.

My wife and I own an airbnb (with a/c!). At midnight one evening, the a/c went out due to a mechanical failure. The temperature in the texas heat rose to 80 degrees in our condo. Our guests called us to complain.

We couldnt find any techs at that time of night (and at 1am we tried!), but had one come in at 8am the next morning - and it was fixed by 10am.

The guests asked for a refund from airbnb based on breach of contract...and airbnb agreed, saying our unit did not match what we had advertised. No matter that we've had over 600 very positive reviews in the past 5 years.

Maybe we owed the guests a refund despite trying to solve the issue as best we could. But seeing the internal inconsistency of this article angers me (our unit does have two ceiling fans!)

[JohnJamesRambo]

How do you see it any other way than that you owe them a refund? Have you ever tried to stay in a hotel room that is 80?

[bkohlmann]

I’m open to that option - and I can see it’s worth. My main point was Airbnb’s inconsistency. There is absolutely no incentive to rectify a stay if they will just punish you anyway.

And yes, I’ve stayed in many rooms 80 and above. Not ideal. But open a window and throw on a fan.

[eesmith]

I could see getting a partial refund instead of a full one.

Otherwise, why even try to find an a/c tech at night, if you know that it won't make a difference?

[jhy]

So, you'd be happy if another guest decided to leave at 2am one morning and pay you only 50%? You're charging a nightly rate, not an hourly rate.

[cannonedhamster]

You're arguing a different point. The refund is because the beach of contract was only for a specified time. A total refund provides no incentive to attempt to rectify the situation.

[pas]

Does that matter? Because there was no work around anyway. Sure they tried to find an AC tech, but ... haven't, so no AC in 80 F (26.6C).

A partial refund would incentivise we-tried-our-best problem solving.

[em-bee]

try 90. if it's 80 degrees i rejoice and turn the aircon off...

[dandv]

How much of a refund did they ask for, and how much did they get?

Before that stay (I'm the OP's roommate), we stayed at another apartment that had 0.5Mbps Internet instead of the claimed 10Mbps, no hot water, no computer desks when there were desks in the photos, no trash cans - for the first 3 to 5 days until all these issues got fixed through us bugging the building's management. All Airbnb was willing to refund was 10% of the nightly cost, times some number of nights, which amounted to USD 57. That was for a $2100/mo apartment.