Need advice on a business / moral delimma

[hehateme000]

We manage peoples' vacation homes. We rent them out, clean them, maintain them. The homeowners rely on us for this, and we take our job very seriously.

On March 1, a guest made a reservation at one of our properties for a 5 night stay, beginning March 12. The total rent was $1600 and change, and was due immediately.

They paid. We sent confirmation numbers, directions, etc.

On March 17, our housekeepers went to clean the house and found that the guest never arrived. We called the guest and they said "Oh...we meant August 12...we are terribly sorry!"

Now, my manager is wanting us to refund all of the money and allow them to re-book. The problem with that is that the homeowner will now lose this rent. This was spring break week and we undoubtedly could have rented it during this time. I believe it is unethical for the homeowner to indemnify and hold harmless the guest for a mistake (albeit an expensive one) that the guest made.

My manager feels that I am heartless in this, but in in my opinion, our first priority is to our homeowners. We can't just go refunding folks - and costing our homeowners - because people aren't paying attention to what they are doing. This seems VERY straightforward to me.

Am I off base here?

I work in hotels as a front office manager so I see this stuff happen almost every day. Every case is different. Sometimes I will refund someone that wants to cancel, and sometimes I won't.

I honestly would not reimburse them because for one, they had the confirmation. For two, March 12th is a Sunday and August 12th is a Saturday. You are absolutely right in this situation. I would just remind these people to look at their confirmation. Also explain to them that the reason we cannot refund is because we held a room for you, when we could have sold it to someone else. That is their penalty.

If someone calls and says their mom just died, I might be more generous. Then again, I work in a 101 rooms hotel that can sell a room even on the same day. For you I am sure it is something that has to be more planned out.

What I might do is give them a better deal if they rebook for August, that way they are feeling like you are helping them out (which you are) and you also keep your money for March. Ultimately though they need to realize that this is 100% their fault and should not try and make you feel bad for not giving them a refund.

Also, I know I keep saying "you" as if you are making the decision. I know you are not, but it is easier to type that way. lol.

[scfr]

I realize it's probably too late for my 2-cents to mean anything in this particular situation, but . . . I've had to help negotiate a lot of claim settlements in my life. Recognizing that it's a bad situation and everyone involved is going to feel a bit of financial pain, I'd look for a solution that everyone could live with. Just one example: Explain to the renter why you can't refund their money, but offer them 2 or 3 nights free in August (especially if it's a less-busy time, if the homeowner is willing), and then offer to the homeowner some waiving of your management fees to help offset part of the cost of those 2 or 3 free nights. In other words, share the pain among the 3 parties to the transaction.

No one is going to walk away happy, but hopefully no one will walk away feeling like they were taken advantage of.

[TexasHusker]

I realize it's probably too late for my 2-cents to mean anything in this particular situation, but . . . I've had to help negotiate a lot of claim settlements in my life. Recognizing that it's a bad situation and everyone involved is going to feel a bit of financial pain, I'd look for a solution that everyone could live with. Just one example: Explain to the renter why you can't refund their money, but offer them 2 or 3 nights free in August (especially if it's a less-busy time, if the homeowner is willing), and then offer to the homeowner some waiving of your management fees to help offset part of the cost of those 2 or 3 free nights. In other words, share the pain among the 3 parties to the transaction.

No one is going to walk away happy, but hopefully no one will walk away feeling like they were taken advantage of.

Yes, the problem is, when we as a management company make costly mistakes, the homeowners and guests aren't exactly interested in sharing our pain.

A few months ago, a guest ruined some carpet and wouldn't pay, and the homeowner claimed it was our responsibility to get the money from the guest. So we ended up paying for new carpet.

If I begin sharing the pain for homeowner and guest screw-ups, I'll be out of business soon.

[PeggyHefferon]

Yes, the problem is, when we as a management company make costly mistakes, the homeowners and guests aren't exactly interested in sharing our pain.

A few months ago, a guest ruined some carpet and wouldn't pay, and the homeowner claimed it was our responsibility to get the money from the guest. So we ended up paying for new carpet.

If I begin sharing the pain for homeowner and guest screw-ups, I'll be out of business soon.

Was there a security deposit in place that you were able to keep to at least recoup some of the expense?

[TexasHusker]

Was there a security deposit in place that you were able to keep to at least recoup some of the expense?

We used to charge a security deposit, but we had to keep it so infrequently that the extra bookkeeping burden outweighed the benefit. Plus the fact that we no longer charged a deposit served to generate more reservations.

[PeggyHefferon]

We used to charge a security deposit, but we had to keep it so infrequently that the extra bookkeeping burden outweighed the benefit. Plus the fact that we no longer charged a deposit served to generate more reservations.

That seems odd to me because the security deposit was never a factor for me.

[scfr]

Yes, the problem is, when we as a management company make costly mistakes, the homeowners and guests aren't exactly interested in sharing our pain.

A few months ago, a guest ruined some carpet and wouldn't pay, and the homeowner claimed it was our responsibility to get the money from the guest. So we ended up paying for new carpet.

If I begin sharing the pain for homeowner and guest screw-ups, I'll be out of business soon.

I guess I completely misunderstood. I didn't realize that you were willing to absorb the cost of the incorrect booking by paying the homeowner while refunding the vacationer.

[97guns]

We used to charge a security deposit, but we had to keep it so infrequently that the extra bookkeeping burden outweighed the benefit. Plus the fact that we no longer charged a deposit served to generate more reservations.

Deposits seem to be the norm in the hotel industry, won't help in this case but a clearly identified cancellation policy would. I'm staying at a hotel right now, been at 5 different hotels in the past 6 days and every one of them took a deposit. I think it detours people from leaving damage

[msomnipotent]

The only time I have been charged a deposit was when we stayed at a hotel with our dog, cats, and fish. And that was a "non-refundable cleaning deposit", which, as I had argued, is not a deposit but a fee. There is a difference! I agree with paying an extra cleaning fee for pets. Just don't call it a deposit when you are not going to give the money back.

The only time I have ever heard of a hotel charging an actual deposit was when the guy in front of me was paying cash. I assumed they would just charge your credit card if you went rock star on their room. I have stayed at several rental homes and didn't need a deposit. Again, I just assumed they would charge the credit card for damage, if there was any. They may have blocked a portion of my credit without me knowing about it, which I guess would be a deposit of sorts, but never an actual deposit that I had to be refunded.

[Singuy]

I feel that many are not mindful when it comes to things like this. My wife, being a fee per service optometrist, have many people per day not showing up during busy seasons. Sometimes we have family of 4 not showing..or showing up way later and then DEMAND to be seen!

People are unreasonable and I have been thinking about implementing a policy to charge people a penalty for no call/no show. Each time slot costs us 40-120 dollars..so we potentially lose out on 300-400 dollars/day just from no shows. Not a huge deal now since the benefit of a no show is that my wife doesn't get to do the work. It's a whole different beast when we start hiring 3rd party optometrists to work....

So yeah they should be charged. Why spends 1.6k on a room for 5 days and get the dates wrong.

[GoodSteward]

What a terrible way to have to learn to pay more attention. I know when I'm booking things dates can get messed up, but when it's all over I double check dates to make sure. If they would have checked back over after doing this it would be ok, but since they made the mistake and they didn't catch it in time, it's sadly part of doing business. This was up to the homeowner, not up to you guys. If they said no, it's out of your hands.

I feel bad for those people, but like you said it isn't your money to be playing with. As a homeowner, I probably would have given a partial refund (maybe half), but that would strictly an act of charity at this point. Not obligation. A hotel wouldn't do that this late in a reservation, so I don't see why a homeowner should be expected to either.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'd just always ask the homeowner what they want to do.

[TexasHusker]

Well, well! The no-show guest has disputed the charge of $2200, citing that the property / services were not as described.

Of course, they no-show'd because the quality just wasn't there.

Don't you just love honest people?