Key points
- To be heard. Something went wrong and they want you to say so, plainly, without excuses.
- To have it fixed. The aircon, the wifi, the noise. If it is still happening, money is a stand-in for "please make it stop."
- To feel they were not taken advantage of. They paid for a certain stay and got a bit less. They want the gap acknowledged.
On this page
A guest writes "the aircon was weak on the first night, I think we deserve a partial refund." Your stomach drops. You want to be fair, you do not want a bad review, and you also do not want to pay for a problem that was fixed in an hour. Most hosts either cave straight away or get defensive. Neither is needed. Here is a calmer way to handle it.
What the guest actually wants
Behind almost every refund or discount request is one of three things.
- To be heard. Something went wrong and they want you to say so, plainly, without excuses.
- To have it fixed. The aircon, the wifi, the noise. If it is still happening, money is a stand-in for "please make it stop."
- To feel they were not taken advantage of. They paid for a certain stay and got a bit less. They want the gap acknowledged.
Money is often the only lever they know how to pull. Give them the first two and the third usually settles on its own.
What they are worried about: that you will ignore them, argue, or blame them. That worry is what makes the second message sharper than the first.
Questions to answer for yourself first
Before you type a reply, settle these.
- Is the problem still happening? A live problem needs a fix today, not a discussion about money.
- Was it your fault, nobody's fault, or theirs? A broken water heater is yours. A city-wide power cut is nobody's. A guest who never switched the heater on is theirs, and even then you reply kindly.
- How long did it affect them? One evening out of seven is different from the whole stay.
- What does the platform's resolution process say? On Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo the money side runs through their own process. You do not have to decide it in the chat.
- What is your own line? Decide once, in a quiet moment, what you will and will not offer for common problems. Write it down. Then every reply follows the rule instead of the mood.
A host we will call Alex runs six units in Bangkok. His rule: fix first, apologise honestly, never discuss amounts in the message thread, and let the platform handle anything beyond that. His refund conversations got shorter and his reviews did not get worse.
Three replies you can copy
No "Hi" at the start. You are already mid-conversation. Keep it short.
Thank you for telling us, and sorry the aircon was weak on your first night. The technician replaced the remote and it has been running cold since this morning. If anything else is off, message us straight away and we will sort it the same day. For anything regarding the booking itself, the platform's resolution process is the right place and we will respond to it there.
Thanks for your message. We checked the log and the hot water was back within forty minutes of your first message on Tuesday, and the rest of the stay had no reports. We are sorry it happened at all. We are not able to adjust the booking from our side here, but if you would like to raise it through the platform, we will reply to it honestly and promptly.
Thank you for letting us know. We want to understand exactly what happened before we reply properly, so we are checking with the cleaner and the technician now. You will hear back from us today.
Notice what none of these do: promise a figure, argue, or mention anything about platform guarantees or cover. The reply listens, states what was fixed, and points the money question to the platform's process.
Mistakes hosts make
- Offering money in the first reply. It teaches guests that complaints pay, and it skips the step that mattered: fixing the thing.
- Arguing the facts in a long paragraph. The guest reads the length as defensiveness. Two sentences of fact beat ten.
- Promising a refund and then finding out you cannot process it that way. On the platforms, the money follows their process, not your chat message. Say less, deliver more.
- Going silent. Every hour without a reply makes the request bigger.
- Taking it personally. The guest is unhappy with a night, not with you. Reply like a front desk, not like the owner.
- Writing in a different tone at midnight. If you are angry, draft it, sleep, and send in the morning. Or let someone else send it.
How Tokay handles it
Tokay is an AI front desk. Pam, the agent who answers guests, works from the rules you gave in plain sentences and from a three-level knowledge base (general, building, apartment). A refund or discount request is money, and money always goes to the host first. Pam does not promise discounts, exceptions or refunds you did not agree to, and if your rule for a situation is missing, Pam asks you instead of guessing.
So when Mei writes "I think we deserve a partial refund," the message lands on your phone with a draft ready to approve, edit or deny with a tap. Anything upset or sensitive is treated the same way. If the problem was a broken item, Sam updates tomorrow's cleaning brief so the cleaner or contractor checks it. If a review arrives later, Andy drafts the reply the morning it lands and you approve it.
The point is not that the AI decides. It is that you never miss the message, and you never answer it tired.
Questions hosts ask
Should I ever offer a discount before the guest asks?
Sometimes, and only for problems that were clearly yours and clearly affected the stay. Offer it through the platform's process, not as a figure in the chat, and keep it consistent with the rule you wrote down.
What if the guest keeps pushing after a polite no?
Repeat the same calm answer once, shorter. Then point them to the platform's resolution process and stop debating in the thread. If the tone turns threatening, see when a guest threatens a bad review.
Does fixing the problem fast actually reduce refund requests?
In our experience on our own apartments, yes. Most requests come after a problem sat unanswered for hours. A fast, honest reply and a same-day fix remove the reason to ask. The something is broken page covers that side.