I'm in a quandry

[Mark349]

I haven’t had a bunch of guests yet, and my rental is a fairly large 5th wheel R.V all self-contained with two queen beds, full shower, TV dining room etc.

I just had two guests leave who reserved the R.V right before we had a terrible cold snap.  The cold overloaded the heat pump and it blew a breaker...  The RV got quite cold.  They reserved for one night, then realized they had made a mistake and I had to go in and redo the reservation to make it two.  The day before they were to arrive I found the power was out, and switched to the RV furnace that doesn't use 120 volt electricity, and turned everything back on, but it takes some time for things to heat up and the temperature was maybe 68 when they came in.  they arrived WAY later than I expected, drove around behind my property, unloaded their stuff and turned on the heat pump in the RV.  WITHOUT KNOCKING ON MY DOOR OR CHECKING IN AT ALL.  We didn't even know they arrived.  I went out and found them flipping switches and turning knobs they didn’t know how to use yet.

So of course they popped the breaker again.  I switched hot water to propane, suggested that they stick with the radiator heater I had in there and that due to the cold the heat pump just can’t keep up.  sincere apology, but it is an RV and it is below freezing!  I asked them to let me know if they had issues and I would gladly come address them.

I heard nothing until after dark the next night.  They called me from dinner saying they didn't have hot water and that the RV was too cold.  AFTER DARK.  I was available all day.

I went out.  re-started the water heater (easy task, the pilot switch) and went inside.  It was almost 80 degrees.  I don't know how anyone could have gotten it warmer.

Banana peels on the wooden table,  chewing tobacco spit in the sink, wintergreen tobacco smell everywhere, mud on the floor, dripping raingear on the couch.  I was appalled!

So, it is warm, they have hot water.  The place is a mess, so it goes.

Now they want a refund.  It smells, it needs a complete wipe down, they didn’t check in before they moved in.  They could have broken something by just starting to randomly flip switches,  I offered to be there for any issues as they come up, but they don’t say anything until after.  The worst guests I have had. 

Do I refund them?  Is this going to ruin my review rating?

[Helga0]

@Mark0, gor what would You refund Them?
i would write them on the message thread, that you are very disappointed tha they
a) just moved in without a formal check-in
b) randomly switched knobs without an idea whst they were doing, shich caused some damage and a lot of work for you
c) left a mess, which needdd a few hours extra cleaning

D) smoking inside, which needs smoke removal. 

Then specify costs for every oint (reasonable ones(, then send a payment request cia the resolution center. 

Then you call the service and tell them how hard it was to be abused that way (reasonably too). In the end, you won't get much, but should not refund on top of it. 

[Helga0]

@Mark0, I can't see your listing, from the community center within the phone app. But be sure to have good house rules, no smoking - put a fine on that - and have a deposit in place.
Again, it's not sure that you could collect in case of smoking, but it deterrs.
In my full unit tental, I have a contract in addition to the airbnb booking. I ended up adding terms like "Do not push any buttons randomly, call me if you need explanations with computers or hifi set.

With an hourly fee for reinstalling anything. That brought the button pushing down by half. 

I even had 2, who repeogrammed the Christmas lights to have different patterns, one hectic, one steady. 

I guess in an RV you can do a lot of damage, so you should put it in your rules that they are liable for damages caused by not following your instructions. - put those in writing, maybe drawing, very lisible on the table. 

[Monica4]

@Mark349  Don't refund them. You did everything you possibly could. Make sure that your communication with them is through the Airbnb message system.

We have a fifth wheel and would never rent it out because of the reason that many people don't know how to use the controls. Aside from that, if they were messy and inconsiderate leave a review to reflect this so that other hosts may be warned.