Airbnb - No hot water

The strong wind (or something else) broke the gas hot water system in my Airbnb. We live nearby so went to check but unable to re-ignite the pilot light.
Anyway we need to head out for work so unable to fix it until later. The guest is here to visit relative so he said he can use the shower at their place. I offer the guest a full refund should he wish to check out right away or 50 off per day until it is fixed. The guest is very understanding but he didn't indicate he will take any of these offers.
I am absolutely mortified, any suggestions to make things better for him?

 

At someone suggested elsewhere, offer 20% or whatever on their next stay before Easter next year- costs nothing if they don't take it up.

 

Yeah yeah, good idea!

 

No, that is not good enough!

Why should someone pay MORE money, even though discounted, for another stay when there is a problem with this visit? Many never return if travelling around, or may want to stay somewhere different.

Give a decent discount on this current stay in compensation or risk a poor review.

No hot water is a biggie. Arranging urgent repairs should be at least as important as heading off to work.
Marg

 

Not something to play around with a broken gas hws,maybe depending on excess on your insurance try and claim for storm damage ..imho..

 

I would take time off and get it fixed/replaced immediately

 

Bit hard to judge how fair the $50 offer is without knowing the nightly rate e.g. if it is $500/night accommodation then $50 is on the low side for no hot water IMO. I would think the minimum of $50 or 25% of nightly rate in refund.

Has the guest responded at all to your suggestion of refund? Perhaps they don't require a refund...

 

Call a plumber/gas fitter

 

It is absolutely a biggie, as said we were prepared to offer a full refund and on top of that a discount for the next stay.
We (optimistically) think that the pilot light just need sometime to reset, if it doesn't work we do need to get an urgent repair or even a new system immediately.
I'm way pass the "bad review" phase now, it is what it is.

 

The nightly rate is 80, so 50 refund is 62.5% off if he wants to stay on.
On a second thought, I will just give him a full refund for the first day, it doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

 

I assume that was done when the hws couldn't be restarted

 

UPDATE:
1. We reignited the pilot light after we come back, hot water is back on.
2. We refunded the poor gentleman the first night in full and we offered him a 20% for his second stay. (Thanks @Scott No Mates for your suggestion.)
3. We are going to get a new hot water system without the pilot light this or next week.

Misfortune come in pairs, today the garage door of the building where my other property is in broke down. Lucky the Body Corporate will take care of it and lucky it is not an Airbnb. I can't imagine if a guest needs to return a rental car and catch a flight somewhere, only to get trapped inside the garage and can't get out. This will be worse than no hot water!

 

This happened to me once when i was renting an apartment. It was on a weekday morning and everyone was lining up to get to work. The suggestion body corporate guy provided was either wait for the technician or to lift the door manually, someone holds it and cars can go out. We did that and it worked. It was fixed when we returned from work.

 

Automatic doors have a manual override/release so they can be opened manually. If you have ever wondered what that red pull tab is on your auto roller door... thats it!

 

Pilot lights can be a real ******* to relight. Mine is Rheem and instructions are so strict and all has to be followed to precision. My plumber pointed that out.....$99 call out for 5mins job. I had trouble restarting and it said elsewhere to shut off gas for 10mins before restarting...The gas has to be shutoff and unless ALL pressure is cleared it wont flow again. Thats why its says wait 10mins. Its designed to stop gas leaks. Plumber says its cause of so many call outs. None read the full instructions. Doh,

Emergency release on inside for all auto doors BUT it then leaves door unlocked / open until latch / pin re-engages later (manually). We had that worry when blackout happended one day. YouTube university gave me the answer.

 

Bless my partner who insisted that he can reignite when the totally stressed me wanted to call an emergency plumber. I will take him to his favourite steak place tomorrow as he saved me a call out fee lol.

 

I imagine the issue was in the dark. The instructions on the heater are prob faded and in dark and also in fine print. I can attest to all of this. And somewhere in the fine print it says ....wait 10 mins or hold left hand in air and twirl right ankle clockwise.

 

Yeah, "chuck a sickie".