AirBnb - asking for partial refund

The only one we have had was last month in Spain. The booked place was filthy. We didn't stay.

Resolution center made contact within 24 hrs. We had taken pictures and sent them in.
They gave host opportunity to reply.
When he didn't, they just refunded us immediately.

Not entirely the owners’ fault and they have been quick to remedy things but I have had to sit and wait in for repair people several times, which has been quite a hassle.

The icing on the cake was when they sent a replacement fridge, when I went to plug it in I found the plug from the existing fridge half-inserted into one of those 3-way cube plugs. It was crackling and sparking and melted into place.

Um. If my holiday plans had been disrupted because I was doing the landlords job, then I'd expect some recognition of that.

As an Airbnb host I’d be mortified if that set of events had happened to my guest. Any sniff of an issue (and they do happen) and I’m offering a refund - full or partial depending on the circumstances. The last thing I want is a bad review. It might be worth mentioning the review option to the host. I hope you get sorted.

As above, not unreasonable to expect some amount of refund to sort out the landlord's problems. But from what you've said, it also sounds potentially dangerous if a splitter plug has melted. Not sure I'd be happy staying in a place like that.

We had to claim a partial refund from an AirBnB place we stayed at a few years ago due to a number of issues. The owner tried to claim we were making things up until I sent him the photos I had taken. They were the key to getting a successful refund so my tip is to take photos, and lots of them.
Good luck with your claim.

I asked for a refund once and the owner gave me a partial refund. Mainly because they were nice and not because air BnB told them too.

I'm also an abnb host and we try to do absolutely everything we can to rectify issues when they rarely happen. But we live in site (next door) and run a shop that has approachable staff during the day for any issues. Tbh its been more annoying for us when guests don't raise issues and then provide the info in the review as we can't rectify it for their stay.

Have you taken photos of the issues - resolution center loves those as it gives proof of issues arisen. I would 100% go for a refund, provide a clear review of why your unhappy with the stay and bullet point the issues and inconveniences.

The electrical issue makes it sound like a death trap tbh, worth noting that Airbnb owners are not required to have PAT testing, but they do need to prove that the electrical equipment is safe and installed correctly - I've no idea how others do this with out PAT testing. Some have suggested just visual checks between every guest is sufficient 🤷‍♂️, I'd disagree & your host cirtainly hasn't done that as a minimum.

Some have suggested just visual checks between every guest is sufficient 🤷‍♂️, I’d disagree & your host cirtainly hasn’t done that as a minimum.

Visual checks are more than sufficient for double insulated appliances (they don't have an earth and rely on physical isolation to prevent failure to earth).

That 3 way cube adaptor needs binning, they are intrinsically unsafe.

Host here too
Airbnb in my experience will always offer a refund to the guest.
We had one guest who clearly had to leave early for other reasons . Made a mess , took some photos and claimed it was how they found it.
Airbnb sent them a full refund.
Difficult one to value though - seems like an inconvenience to me rather than a holiday spoiler but each to their own.

I’ve no idea how others do this with out PAT testing. Some have suggested just visual checks between every guest is sufficient 🤷‍♂️,

Most of the PAT test is a visual check.

It's a bit like an MOT, you can get it done periodically, but it's still on the user to check the wires haven't been pulled out/melted or something's damaged.

Unlike an MOT a PAT test costs about 50p, so you can imagine the level of care and attention paid to lining up those stickers neatly 🤣.

I have had to sit and wait in for repair people several times,

Why would you do that? It's not your problem.

I’ve no idea how others do this with out PAT testing. Some have suggested just visual checks between every guest is sufficient

It is. Commercial PAT testing is snake oil.

My experience with AirBnB as a client is that their resolution centre is very helpful, and should get you your refund.

Thanks for the advice everyone. We've still got another week here and we have a lot of other important life stuff to deal with at the mo but we'll contact the resolution centre once we leave.

Commercial PAT testing is snake oil.

And a legal requirement in many landlording circumstances, eg hmo licencing etc.

we’ll contact the resolution centre once we leave.

If you haven't left yet, make sure you contact the host through the Airbnb app/message service, don't just do it verbally.

Commercial PAT testing is snake oil.

And a legal requirement

No it isn't. The law states that electricals have to be safe. Getting some bloke round to stick stickers on things is a convenient way of demonstrating this but it's not required by law.

in many landlording circumstances, eg hmo licencing etc.

You naughty selective quoter you. As a registered manager of many rental HMO's I can tell you that I can get my HMO licence revoked and be prosecuted without doing PAT tests anually. It is a legal requirement if the local authourity licencing scheme demands it.
The govt legislation around licencing schemes effectively allows councils to make their own law - it is all well documented. So whilst its not on the GOV page, it is an implication of the 2019 housing act that we have to comply with councils demands to operate a HMO, not doing so is prosecutable. That includes PAT tests if the council demand it in their local variations. (I doubt this applies to airbnbs though).
Further the implication of local authourities making their own law has been challenged in the courts on various requirements (eg in Durham they succesfully revoked the requirement from the council to have satisfactory tenant references - the landlords argued that students for example do not have references, and many landlords use their own nouse and interview technique to decide who to let to and don't want to be micromananged by the council when the issue does not concern safety). However I doubt any landlord or landlord group will challenge over mandatory pat testing in local licencing schemes as it is cheap and not onerus.
Lastly as you note it is convenient, from the point of view pragmatism and of transparency and culpability . If I don't PAT test, how do I prove to tenants that I know a device is safe? And how do I prove to tenants and fire, police, insurance, courts in the event of a disaster that I had carried out my duty of care? At £40 a house from one of our contractors its a cheap convenient way of ensuring safety and duty of care.
My landlord insurance policies also mention PAT testing or equivalent by a competent person- the equivalent is me going around documenting, how do we know if I am competent? My PAT tester has a cert from NIC/EIC.

For example this form Crawley HMO Application

States

Electrical appliances
• You must provide electrical safety test certificates for all appliances provided in the property. For example a) Cooker b) Microwave
c) Washing machine d) Portable electric heaters etc. Please note only those appliances provided by the landlord need to be checked.