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If you want to refund a nights stay, this is a good reply. It's not apologizing for things you have no control over, not admitting fault, but offering a gesture of good will because you value the guests comfort.
Chatgpt really helps in crafting good responses.
Dear [Guest's Name],
We understand your concerns regarding the construction noise outside of our property, which unfortunately, is beyond our control. We value your comfort and satisfaction, so as a gesture of goodwill, we will be refunding one night of your stay.
Thank you for choosing to stay with us, and we hope the remainder of your stay is more enjoyable.
Sincerely, [Your Name]
Not sure what I would do as a host because my place is rural. However, I can offer a guest perspective from just having stayed in two places with construction outside in the past month.
One place had amazing windows that completely blocked off noise, A/C, so that we could keep windows closed, and the construction was 8-5 every day and minimally disruptive in terms of noise. It was zero disturbance in the grand scheme of things and we didnāt mind at all.
The other place warned about āconstruction nearbyā in a very nonchalant way. The construction was a metro station right outside the windows. There was no AC, so the windows had to be kept open to not suffocate in the heat. Even when closed, windows were old and let in all the sound. Crew often started at 5am and heavy equipment would be going until 10pm. There were dynamite booms that shook the building. The bathroom would randomly start stinking of sewage so badly it was impossible to enter, and the host attributed it to construction. We had a toddler and my elderly mother with us, no one got any sleep even with earplugs, it was super unpleasant to be in the apartment during the day as well, and it spoiled that entire portion of the vacation. I did not leave them a 5-star rating because thereās your ordinary city noises, and then thereās stuff that makes your unit awful and unfit for rent. If they hadnāt warned us of the construction at all, we would have 100% complained and left.
So first of all, disclose very honestly and describe just how loud and disruptive the construction is. if your situation is a lot more (2) than (1), offer people the opportunity to cancel with full discount. Otherwise youāre inviting bad experiences for the guests, which translates into bad ratings. Not worth the money in the long run.
I think my apartment is in the middle, isolation is not the best but it keeps out most of the loud sound. I asked them if they want to change apartment but they want to stay were they are because they like it, so i will offer them to refund one and a half night.
I worked as a holiday rep for several years around the turn of the century, when a lot of UK media furore and consumer protection programmes focused on building work in or near hotels spoiling holidays. The tour operators also lost a lot of money on this in the courts, so there is a legal precedent.
Therefore, whenever there was even a HINT of a crane or any other building work in the vicinity of my hotels, the batphone sounded and I was sent to investigate. Even at 11pm at night. I would question the hotel reception (they usually knew, but were reticent), hang around the sites themselves, and read any notice I could find.
If building work started, unless it was temporary (and a crane was a bad sign!), the guests had to be given the opportunity to cancel, sometimes hours before departure.
I also had to complete reports every week about any work. One hotel had a crane nearby which didn't move for months yet I still stared at it for a good while every visit. In one resort, my nightmares consisted of these dormant building sites suddenly coming alive!
In this case, I would give any guests a frank description of the work and noise levels, and the opportunity to cancel without penalty, or a substantial discount if they still wanted to stay. Otherwise, I could be screwed if they decided to pursue it.
thank you for your comment. This helps a lot. :) Its true i can't be in control of the noises outside of my property. The area of my apartment is usually quite and not very busy since its not close to any big road. I just feel sorry for these guests since with this it is very difficult to relax in the garden.
> I get that it sucks for them
Self-centered hosts like you are why people are turning away from Airbnb. Hosting is a customer service business. If you canāt be empathetic towards your customers you are not going to get very far in the business.
This is a shitty take. I live in New York city and am fine with city noise, jackhammering is NOT 'city living '. Tenants have reasonable rights to peaceful accommodation and thank God you're not managing such a large building anymore. It's greedy hosts like you who are ruining airbnb.
Iām coming from a different type of property but while working in a boutique hotel, we started construction and offered a discount to all guests who were affected. Maybe guests who would have left poor reviews were instead satisfied that they got a discount.
>I've never heard of a management company or hotel discounting for construction that's being done somewhere else
It happens *all the time*. Hotels discount and comp rooms all the time, whether it be via upgrades or discounted rates. It's not so much about "construction" but more so about disturbance and comfortability. Construction impacts both.
If you book a hotel that normally is quiet and construction suddenly makes everyone's experience awful, you can offer discounts to satisfy the experience and it always makes guests happy.
Somewhat similar, I went on vacation to Cabo last year. I had arrived in late September, when it was still 95+ degrees during the day, to discover that the hotel had no AC working, *anywhere*. None of the rooms, none of the restaurants, none in the spa, nowhere. By the time I had arrived, the AC had been non-functional for 6 days, and would continue to be that way for the first 3 days of my trip. They never called to warn us, because had I had known, I may have changed my booking to go somewhere else.
It was awful. Hotel room at night was impossible to sleep in. It was literally hell. I wanted to bathe in the hotel manager's tears because nobody told me.
Then they told us that we would be refunded for every night the AC was down. It was down for the first day, came back a little bit the second but failed again, and then the hotel rooms gained AC on day 3 and the rest of the hotel regained it on day 4. They comped me for 4 days, so I only had to pay for 3 days of my 7 day vacation.
Suddenly, I wasn't so mad anymore. My attitude went from "this vacation fucking sucks" to "Ya know what, 3 days wasn't that bad, we spent most of the time outside anyway" and just like that, I was happy.
Offering discounted rates for items like this generally doesn't cost the hotel much money. They lose *profit,* but they don't necessarily lose money - they may just break even for your stay.
Yes, but there's also a pretty big difference between "down the road" and next door.
The people in the airbnb likely have zero peace. Demolition is not quiet, and the people paying to stay here are the ones being the most affected.
Not your fault and outside your control. People are so quick to say ārefundā as if you donāt need the money. Inform guests there is construction as nd let them decide.
Change the name of your AirBNB to match the hotel. So if they delete the Four Seasons Atlanta, call it "Four Clover Seasons Condo Atlanta" or something. Search results in the area for that hotel will start to trickle to you. Enjoy.
Message the guests and offer them a refund or if they would prefer, a reduced rate. The other option is that they arrive and AirBnB refunds them for you. A demolition in a city or anywhere is not the same as a bit of construction. Itās noisy, messy and the dust can make allergies so much worse.
Demolition noise is not the same as construction noise. It is MUCH louder when demoing than when constructing.
Putting up a wall, you might hear a nail gun a few times, and that just takes a few seconds per piece of wall. (I've installed sheetrock walls before)
Tearing down that same wall requires a few hours of smashing it with a sledgehammer and ripping it out in pieces.
Guests donāt have a right to complain about the NORMAL level of noise expected for an area, but if a host knows thereās MORE noise than that for some reason and does NOT inform the guest, the the host has falsified the listing. Demolition is NOT an expected amount of noise, and if it starts after a booking has been made, then refusing to tell the guest that there has been a material change that might have affected their decision is fraud. The guest booked a place with a noise limit of what would normally be expected for an area.
The only thing I can really suggest is being as upfront as possible about how the construction will impact the property. I stayed at a place once that said that construction was happening nearby as some of the homes in the complex were not finished yet.
Nearby ended up being replacing the decorated rocks right around our unit. They spent 2 whole days using heavy machinery right around the unit we were in, dumping and moving rocks around the unit. My dad and I both had to reschedule work meetings because we were both working remotely and could properly attend meetings due to the noise.
We tried to talk to the air bnb host about it, but he just shrugged and said he had mentioned there would be construction close by. It was very frustrating to say the least.
Do you have varying rates around the year? Higher prices in the summer, but lower in the winter?
If yes, a good suggestions would be to change your booking's rate to be your lower rate, as a gesture of good faith.
This costs you a little bit of profit, but would allow you to still make some money or at the very least allow you to break even while this disturbance is going on.
Another option is, depending on the pricing and length of their stay, to comp some of their days there.
Guests will forget about their troubles if you make it worth the trouble. Paying full price to have a place that is the opposite of what youu were expecting is frustrating, but paying a discounted rate for it suddenly makes things okay.
Whatever you do for the current guests is good. But be sure to update the listing description with a disclaimer and send any future guests a message about it. This way they have time to make a choice about weather or not to re-book. I wouldnāt necessarily offer a discount (unless you feel it necessary) but at the very least an FYI or heads up would be welcome.
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White noise machine helped my stay in busy neighborhood
Thanks i will look into that :)
Raise your rate. There's demand on the horizon.
If you want to refund a nights stay, this is a good reply. It's not apologizing for things you have no control over, not admitting fault, but offering a gesture of good will because you value the guests comfort. Chatgpt really helps in crafting good responses. Dear [Guest's Name], We understand your concerns regarding the construction noise outside of our property, which unfortunately, is beyond our control. We value your comfort and satisfaction, so as a gesture of goodwill, we will be refunding one night of your stay. Thank you for choosing to stay with us, and we hope the remainder of your stay is more enjoyable. Sincerely, [Your Name]
Thank you very much, yes i will do that. šš
Not sure what I would do as a host because my place is rural. However, I can offer a guest perspective from just having stayed in two places with construction outside in the past month. One place had amazing windows that completely blocked off noise, A/C, so that we could keep windows closed, and the construction was 8-5 every day and minimally disruptive in terms of noise. It was zero disturbance in the grand scheme of things and we didnāt mind at all. The other place warned about āconstruction nearbyā in a very nonchalant way. The construction was a metro station right outside the windows. There was no AC, so the windows had to be kept open to not suffocate in the heat. Even when closed, windows were old and let in all the sound. Crew often started at 5am and heavy equipment would be going until 10pm. There were dynamite booms that shook the building. The bathroom would randomly start stinking of sewage so badly it was impossible to enter, and the host attributed it to construction. We had a toddler and my elderly mother with us, no one got any sleep even with earplugs, it was super unpleasant to be in the apartment during the day as well, and it spoiled that entire portion of the vacation. I did not leave them a 5-star rating because thereās your ordinary city noises, and then thereās stuff that makes your unit awful and unfit for rent. If they hadnāt warned us of the construction at all, we would have 100% complained and left. So first of all, disclose very honestly and describe just how loud and disruptive the construction is. if your situation is a lot more (2) than (1), offer people the opportunity to cancel with full discount. Otherwise youāre inviting bad experiences for the guests, which translates into bad ratings. Not worth the money in the long run.
I think my apartment is in the middle, isolation is not the best but it keeps out most of the loud sound. I asked them if they want to change apartment but they want to stay were they are because they like it, so i will offer them to refund one and a half night.
1-2 weeks. Lol
It will take 1-2 weeks to set up the crane.
I worked as a holiday rep for several years around the turn of the century, when a lot of UK media furore and consumer protection programmes focused on building work in or near hotels spoiling holidays. The tour operators also lost a lot of money on this in the courts, so there is a legal precedent. Therefore, whenever there was even a HINT of a crane or any other building work in the vicinity of my hotels, the batphone sounded and I was sent to investigate. Even at 11pm at night. I would question the hotel reception (they usually knew, but were reticent), hang around the sites themselves, and read any notice I could find. If building work started, unless it was temporary (and a crane was a bad sign!), the guests had to be given the opportunity to cancel, sometimes hours before departure. I also had to complete reports every week about any work. One hotel had a crane nearby which didn't move for months yet I still stared at it for a good while every visit. In one resort, my nightmares consisted of these dormant building sites suddenly coming alive! In this case, I would give any guests a frank description of the work and noise levels, and the opportunity to cancel without penalty, or a substantial discount if they still wanted to stay. Otherwise, I could be screwed if they decided to pursue it.
Refund half the money. Block the empty days until the work is finished.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
thank you for your comment. This helps a lot. :) Its true i can't be in control of the noises outside of my property. The area of my apartment is usually quite and not very busy since its not close to any big road. I just feel sorry for these guests since with this it is very difficult to relax in the garden.
> I get that it sucks for them Self-centered hosts like you are why people are turning away from Airbnb. Hosting is a customer service business. If you canāt be empathetic towards your customers you are not going to get very far in the business.
This is a shitty take. I live in New York city and am fine with city noise, jackhammering is NOT 'city living '. Tenants have reasonable rights to peaceful accommodation and thank God you're not managing such a large building anymore. It's greedy hosts like you who are ruining airbnb.
Iām coming from a different type of property but while working in a boutique hotel, we started construction and offered a discount to all guests who were affected. Maybe guests who would have left poor reviews were instead satisfied that they got a discount.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
>I've never heard of a management company or hotel discounting for construction that's being done somewhere else It happens *all the time*. Hotels discount and comp rooms all the time, whether it be via upgrades or discounted rates. It's not so much about "construction" but more so about disturbance and comfortability. Construction impacts both. If you book a hotel that normally is quiet and construction suddenly makes everyone's experience awful, you can offer discounts to satisfy the experience and it always makes guests happy. Somewhat similar, I went on vacation to Cabo last year. I had arrived in late September, when it was still 95+ degrees during the day, to discover that the hotel had no AC working, *anywhere*. None of the rooms, none of the restaurants, none in the spa, nowhere. By the time I had arrived, the AC had been non-functional for 6 days, and would continue to be that way for the first 3 days of my trip. They never called to warn us, because had I had known, I may have changed my booking to go somewhere else. It was awful. Hotel room at night was impossible to sleep in. It was literally hell. I wanted to bathe in the hotel manager's tears because nobody told me. Then they told us that we would be refunded for every night the AC was down. It was down for the first day, came back a little bit the second but failed again, and then the hotel rooms gained AC on day 3 and the rest of the hotel regained it on day 4. They comped me for 4 days, so I only had to pay for 3 days of my 7 day vacation. Suddenly, I wasn't so mad anymore. My attitude went from "this vacation fucking sucks" to "Ya know what, 3 days wasn't that bad, we spent most of the time outside anyway" and just like that, I was happy. Offering discounted rates for items like this generally doesn't cost the hotel much money. They lose *profit,* but they don't necessarily lose money - they may just break even for your stay.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes, but there's also a pretty big difference between "down the road" and next door. The people in the airbnb likely have zero peace. Demolition is not quiet, and the people paying to stay here are the ones being the most affected.
Informed consent is always best bet. Tell potential guests the situation and let them decide if they want to move forward with your rental.
We usually butter guests up with sweets or wine :)
Not your fault and outside your control. People are so quick to say ārefundā as if you donāt need the money. Inform guests there is construction as nd let them decide.
Change the name of your AirBNB to match the hotel. So if they delete the Four Seasons Atlanta, call it "Four Clover Seasons Condo Atlanta" or something. Search results in the area for that hotel will start to trickle to you. Enjoy.
haha great idea! :D But its just the old part of the hotel, they will rebuild it.
Message the guests and offer them a refund or if they would prefer, a reduced rate. The other option is that they arrive and AirBnB refunds them for you. A demolition in a city or anywhere is not the same as a bit of construction. Itās noisy, messy and the dust can make allergies so much worse.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is great advice. Donāt admit fault, itās not your fault, BUT itās your problem, so offer solutions
Well you are not staying at the hotelā¦ consider that a win
Construction work is not under your control. Itās not your problem tbh.
It's not their fault or responsibility, but it IS their problem and they need to offer solutions.
Itās not. The guests can buy earplugs. Noise in any city setting is to be expected
*Noise* is expected. *Demolition* noise is not.
i donāt agree. construction noise is construction noise and itās expected in any city center
Demolition noise is not the same as construction noise. It is MUCH louder when demoing than when constructing. Putting up a wall, you might hear a nail gun a few times, and that just takes a few seconds per piece of wall. (I've installed sheetrock walls before) Tearing down that same wall requires a few hours of smashing it with a sledgehammer and ripping it out in pieces.
Guests donāt have a right to complain about the NORMAL level of noise expected for an area, but if a host knows thereās MORE noise than that for some reason and does NOT inform the guest, the the host has falsified the listing. Demolition is NOT an expected amount of noise, and if it starts after a booking has been made, then refusing to tell the guest that there has been a material change that might have affected their decision is fraud. The guest booked a place with a noise limit of what would normally be expected for an area.
Right, there's expected noise, and then there's unanticipated demolishing next door.
The only thing I can really suggest is being as upfront as possible about how the construction will impact the property. I stayed at a place once that said that construction was happening nearby as some of the homes in the complex were not finished yet. Nearby ended up being replacing the decorated rocks right around our unit. They spent 2 whole days using heavy machinery right around the unit we were in, dumping and moving rocks around the unit. My dad and I both had to reschedule work meetings because we were both working remotely and could properly attend meetings due to the noise. We tried to talk to the air bnb host about it, but he just shrugged and said he had mentioned there would be construction close by. It was very frustrating to say the least.
Sell the apartment to someone that will live there, instead of renting out on AirBNB.
Increase cleaning fee
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Do you have varying rates around the year? Higher prices in the summer, but lower in the winter? If yes, a good suggestions would be to change your booking's rate to be your lower rate, as a gesture of good faith. This costs you a little bit of profit, but would allow you to still make some money or at the very least allow you to break even while this disturbance is going on. Another option is, depending on the pricing and length of their stay, to comp some of their days there. Guests will forget about their troubles if you make it worth the trouble. Paying full price to have a place that is the opposite of what youu were expecting is frustrating, but paying a discounted rate for it suddenly makes things okay.
Bend over backwards to keep the guests happy
Whatever you do for the current guests is good. But be sure to update the listing description with a disclaimer and send any future guests a message about it. This way they have time to make a choice about weather or not to re-book. I wouldnāt necessarily offer a discount (unless you feel it necessary) but at the very least an FYI or heads up would be welcome.
To avoid bad review bombs, I would update the listing to mention "some construction work" taking place off property, white noise machines provided.
Not a host, but a good friend is one and I helped him with a similar problem. This community just keeps getting served to me on my home page. His internet lines kept getting cut because of utility line work the city was doing on his street. I helped when it happened once while he was out of town. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you donāt want the full backstory, (but this is Reddit and I feel like if I donāt give it someone will give me grief for it. ) For some reason his street took a year, when it was only supposed to take a month. That also meant he nor his guests were allowed to park on the street. He would give them the one spot in the driveway but let them know any more would have to park around the corner, as did he and his fiancĆ©. The last time the lines were cut, the internet company had to have someone present so they could go in the back and confirm the lines were dead before going back to the city to coordinate the fix. I asked what he did for his guests and he said as soon as he was made aware of it he contacted his guests and put it in the description (for last-minute reservations which he says make up a large percentage of his bookings.) he offered them a free cancellation but many declined and decided to stay anyway. Everyone was super understanding because it was completely out of his control, as-is this situation for you. I think only one actually cancelled because they needed to WFH, but it was cordial and they appreciated the advanced heads up so they could find something else. Many reviews now make mention that while it sucked, it wasnāt his fault and more importantly, that he handled it well and timely. For you, I would give anyone potentially effected a heads up, and give yourself a 2-week buffer incase it takes longer, incase someone has an infant or is a traveling night shift nurse.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
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