No WiFi in Airbnb

[EatingRipeCamembert]

How much refund would you request if there was no WiFi in your Airbnb?

We're here for six nights, four of us, phone signal barely works in the area.

Having no WiFi is having a big impact on our holiday, teen & young adult DC are cut off from contacting friends and we can't watch TV or films in the evenings.

We can't do the things we'd usually do in between going out.

I'd never have chosen somewhere without WiFi, the property is listed as having it and the host has been very casual about it not working. I asked for it to be fixed but the host says she can't give me any assurances. I've asked for a partial refund and she's said she'll need to ask her brother, but hasn't got back to me.

I've seen that Airbnb has a facility to request a partial refund, I have to suggest the amount.

We paid around £1700 for 6 nights, what's a reasonable amount to request for a partial refund?

I'm guessing wifi box is a router and not the cabinet in the street which would be out of her control.

Appalling attitude from the owner. Clearly someone who doesn't understand they may not have got your booking without wifi or had you known it wasn't working. If an eSIM is such an easy solution they could have got them for you! Time for a crap review and to push Airbnb for a partial refund.

OP, do you know what is wrong with the wifi box?

I'm only asking because I used to work as a network engineer, and I know many other Mnetters still do. If we know what the issue is we may be able to suggest ways to fix the issue with relatively cheap equipment you could suggest the air b n b host buys. At least that way you would have wifi for most of your stay.

I do agree the host is being shitty and you deserve a partial refund but if it was me I'd be looking at ways to fix it so I could enjoy the rest of my stay rather than being hyper-focused on a refund.

My initial troubleshooting would be to reset the box by powering it off for 60 seconds or using the reset button, check the cable going into the box is secure, and test if the broadband connection is working using a laptop and ethernet cable if I had one.

If you know who the supplier is you can usually Google local outages with the postcode and if the issue is outside the property it will tell you when you can expect service to be restored.

Re: ESsims, they are quick and easy to set-up and would provide a decent alternative if you could get a 5g signal. Could you ask someone local which network has the best reception in the area?

wtf?

Ohhh this response makes me see red… they are horrible.

I would respond calmly

We are certainly not blackmailing you, what a horrible accusation. However, we feel we have been lied to. If the wifi was not working before check in , as it clearly wasn’t why did you not give us advance warning. Also most wifi companies can repair issues very quickly these days and as of yet you have not shown any urgency to repair the wifi.

While having wifi may not be pertinent to you - for my family which includes teenagers it is very important for an enjoyable holiday, therefore the lack of wifi which was advertised has negatively affected our once a year and very much looked forward to holiday. I will be escalating this to air bnb as I would hate for any other family to have their hard earned holiday been disappointing due to your lack of respect for your guests.

The host’s argument that the loss of wifi is beyond their control is not robust. It was part of the booked service. The same argument could apply if the roof blew off. That would not be within the host’s control either, but clearly you would need them not to charge you.

What’s more, the host can claim compensation from the Internet Service Provider. This should be passed on.

The host is running this accommodation to make a profit. Nothing wrong with that, but with that comes responsibility. OP, please come back and let us know the outcome.

I personally wouldn't get into a war of words with the host, I'd just keep repeating "WIfi was a utility listed for the property. Wifi was not provided. We are therefore requesting an appropriate refund."

You shouldn't have to justify why you wanted Wifi and how its omission is impacting your break. That's like somebody saying "there's no hot water" being met with the response "well we only take cold showers so it doesn't bother us".

Are there places advertised as available without WiFi?

I replied to the host's last message with this

Hi, thank you for suggesting a solution to the WiFi problem. Could you please let me know where I can find the shop to buy the SIM? Many thanks

That was a while ago and he hasn't replied.

Not sure yet but I may go quiet on this thread for a while and update when I leave the property. The host's response has made me feel I'm getting into an argument, which makes me feel anxious.

Also an old back problem has flared up which is making me anxious too. It's pouring with rain here too. Not the best holiday! But fortunately we have another leg of the holiday in different accommodation to look forward to.

We are in Italy, and have waited a week now for a new router. We even got turned away from the shop, with routers right in front of us, because the engineer made a mistake with his paperwork. We have good phone signal though. We have a BnB next door, and fortunately it's on a separate router, but its completely expected to work. No less than the fridge, or the cooker. I'd cancel and refund as the host.

I think the host is wrong to say it doesn't affect the quality of their accommodation. It's one of the filters for facilities, so clearly it's considered as such by Airbnb. I would never choose a place with no WiFi and think they shouldn't be saying it has no effect. If the dishwasher, fridge or washing machine wasn't working I'd expect some form of compensation, WiFi is no different.

Agree that wifi is no different to other facilities.

The host should be saying “right, I have asked the cleaner if she can go to the shop tomorrow, how many esim cards will you need and would 6pm suit for her to drop them off?” He is trying to make you solve his problem by talking about some unspecified shop.

Your holiday TIME is one of the key things you are “spending” on a trip. If you have to dick about tracking down a shop and understanding the tech in a foreign language, that’s a morning that one person isn’t getting to spend sightseeing.

How would an e-sim work if there is only really a mobile signal in the garage? Else you would just use say ee-roaming at £5 per day per person.

Just tell the host to go and buy x number of sim cards and deliver them to the property. You can then see if they work. They won't be as good as the proper wifi but may be adequate. If not, then press for at least 50% refund or find somewhere else to stay and claim 100% refund. None of this is the OP's problem and they shouldn't have to waste their time trailing around trying to find a shop selling sim cards only to find they don't work well enough. Sounds like the host is just one of the bad Air BNB hosts who just wants to make a profit without doing any work.

OP isn’t entitled to a 100% refund if she finds somewhere else to stay. That’s bad advice.

She would have been had she "rejected" the property at the start of the stay. But now she's been there, maybe half week, it's more a matter of compensation, or if she leaves now, she'd be entitled to refund of the "unused" number of days.

I’m not sure that is the case for Airbnb, though you may be more familiar with their t and c than I am.

eSims you buy online. They are a QR code not a physical sim. You would need to have an eSim ready phone which is most newer ones. You can check by going into settings, network settings and sim settings. If you have the option to add eSim you can scan an eSim QR code. If you don't you need a physical sim which most supermarkets and off licenses sell.

Yes we used an e-sim when on holiday in the US and it worked really well, wasn't expensive about £10 for enough data for social media, whatsapp, email but not for streaming movies/TV.

Also you need to have a good mobile phone signal for that to work and I'd argue that having to stand in a certain place in the garage isn't a good mobile phone signal.

I think greater visibility should be given on listings regarding the speed/quality of WiFi, especially with more people renting whilst also working remotely. I found it really useful when looking on the Greek Islands that some hosts said "has WiFi but not fast enough for streaming" etc. That helps set expectations.

You do see some listings which say things like "fast wifi" which helps. Shame there isn't a requirement to state the likely speed so that people can make informed choices.

We stayed in a holiday let once that proudly offered wi-fi and Smart TVs in every room. Trouble was that the speed was too low to actually use the Smart TVs - they were useless as they kept buffering. I was the first to mention it on the reviews, and then looking back at the listing a few months later, I noticed a few other people had mentioned it too!

I don't really know why more people don't leave reviews about the negatives. Are they frightened of repercussions in some way. We can't have been the first people to have suffered the very slow broadband, but once we'd mentioned it, others seems happy to mention it too!

I tend to put stuff in private message to the host rather than in the reviews eg “only one pan, please add more” “it wasn’t clear how to turn X on, please add to the house instructions”

Or I will have messaged them whilst there and they can often fix the problem if they live locally or have an agent.

The host knew it didn't work before they arrived - they sent a message to that effect. But they havn't actually dealt with the problem at all. And from the tone of their messages, they don't sound as if they are arsed about it at all. There's no indication they've called anyone out, no offer of providing an alternative, etc. They're just abdicating all responsibility to the OP to either make other arrangements or put up with it. Very poor on the part of the host/owner and they need to be pulled up for their lack of interest/action.

I know all that @taxguru I read the thread. I was replying specifically to your question about why people hadn’t raised the smart Tv issue YOU had in their reviews.