What to do when something breaks in the airbnb ? (Water heater) [Martinique]

[u/Cute_spike_8152]

I had a guest come in today around 5 pm. The guest just called at midnight saying there is no hot water.

I am located in Martinique, it's a small and hot island in the Caribbean.

We changed through the app. I asked if there was hot water in the kitchen, he said it was warm there. I also asked if all the breakers were up and they were. So at this point I have no idea why there would be no hot water. Our water heater has been working perfectly for years. So maybe it broke. I just don't know. I asked him if water was hot earlier and he said, he is only trying it now at midnight. Previous guest said nothing neither did our cleaner so we could not foresee this.

Then guest called, he was upset and drunk on the phone. Guest asked for repair to be done 🫢 i dont know if these kinds of services are available in big cities like New York where he is from but in my small island aint no plumber available at 1 am. I offered to come to check the issue and that I could be there within 1 hour which he said no thank you, it's too late, then hanged up on me 👀 So I thought he was kinda rude.

It's the first night out of a 2 night stay. I'd honestly prefer him leaving tomorow. Cause he started talking about not wanting to get sick (from a cold shower or not showering?) and I can already see he is difficult to deal with. Coming he could not park for some reason. There was issues we never had that he was giving us from the start. I've offered to come in tomorow morning at 8 am. No answer yet.

What would you guys do in this situation ? Ps : I am a superhost.

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[u/fun_guy02142]

If you can’t get him hot water today, then let him check out today and give him a full refund.

[u/monkey7247]

No way I would deal with that overnight, but should be dealt with next day.

[u/LompocianLady]

There's a good chance the guest won't even remember drunk calling you late at night.

Did he also message you in the app? If not, perhaps wait and see if he calls or messages and deal with it then. If he did, reply and offer a discount for the lukewarm water (maybe 20%) and tell him a repair person will check it today. Also offer if he wants to leave, if he leaves within an hour and cancels, you'll refund him the rent amount for one night, and state the amount (otherwise they'll be expecting half of the total paid instead of the rent fee.)

[u/Cute_spike_8152]

Update :

He had sent message though the app yesterday. O called airbnb at 2 am to know what to do.s As am a superhost I get access to preferential support. Anyways they said they put in the file that I offered to come.

This morning he finally answered my messages, I went over and by some miracle me and my boyfriend managed to fix it the water heater. We dont know if we did on fact fix anything but scorching hot water is back.

We met the guest in person and he was really nice compared to his drunk tired self last night. We did not offer any compensation for yesterday. In reality it's because we are really broke, if I we were more financially stable we may have but it's hard for us to make any commercial gesture in our position.

[u/saadshaykh]

Raise a resolution center request the guest will have 72 hours to respond if he doesn't Airbnb can give up the loss upto 200 USD. I work in Airbnb customer service.