No hot water at air b&b

[pinkflower223]

So for context we are staying in lake como for a 4 day 3 night stay, I booked the apartment on booking.com for around £400 when we arrived the host told us that unfortunately after the last guests came the hot water stopped working, and because we arrived on Sunday he couldn’t get anyone out to fix it but would get on it first thing Monday, it’s Tuesday evening now and still no hot water and we leave in the morning, we are travelling with a baby so hot water is essential especially because there is an incredible heatwave here, unfortunately moving to a different accommodation wasn’t offered nor do I know if it was an option due to the remoteness of where we are staying, the host has been kind and generous, but I do feel we should be entitled to a partial refund due to not being able to wash our baby or steralise bottles etc fro 4 days. Am I being an arsehole as my partner thinks I am.

Of course they should refund you for not having hot water!

We stayed at an air bnb type accommodation in the UK earlier this year and the hot water stopped working. The hosts gave us an extra night once it was fixed. We were fortunately able to take advantage of this.
I would agree a partial refund would be appropriate.

Yes hot water is a basic amenity and whilst it is not the hosts fault necessarily, they need to account for the inconvenience. I would definitely expect a part refund

Your partner thinks expecting hot water is some kind of optional extra?

Of course you should ask for a refund, why is this even a question

I would expect a bit of a refund but could you not just have boiled the water you needed for washing and sterilising?

Of course you should get a refund! Don’t be a doormat!

Yes we have been boiling hot water as and when we need it, just difficult for washing baby when it’s 37 degree heat, I think partner just sees more the emotional side of things, as the host have been lovely and have cooked us food and made us cakes, and picked and dropped us off at our destination, the hospitality has been great, but the lack of hot water has been a major issue. I just wanted to hear other peoples perspectives, so thank you!

I would expect a refund. That would significantly affect my enjoyment.

If not a refund then another stay for same duration free of charge

I have been a holiday landlord and would refund for this. I have given a partial refund for no hot water for a few hours when boiler broke, but I got someone out same day to fix.

What would people say is an appropriate percentage to ask for in a partial refund for a stay with 3/4 days with no hot water, I know everyone will have different opinions.

Who did you book through? What are the t&cs? Can you complain through them?

Hot water Is a basic need I would refund in full for days affected

We have just come back from lanzerote and spent 7 night 6 days no air con on a villa we had paid £2666 for air BnB highest offer was £284 I’ve said I’m taking it further and will do a charge back on my card until resolved as have all the evidence

The host probably could get an emergency plumber out but probably for cost reasons decided not to do that.

Hot water is a basic essential, yes you deserve a partial refund.

I would agreed a refund of sorts but I was also staggered at how cheap this was £400 for 4 days in August! That’s insanely cheap.
we had a similar issue on our honeymoon and I think we received a small refund but certainly not the full amount because that was the only issue. For us hot water meant no shower for the 2 days until they were able to move us to another room but that was the only real impact.
I would say sterilising etc isn’t affected by no hot water as you’d ordinarily boil a kettle for that so whilst not ideal I don’t think it should have had too much impact on your stay.

The standard Airbnb refund for something like this would be 30% so suggest that. Have you complained through the booking portal at all?

Yeah it was a good price for August, however it is very remote and only really walkable until certain areas so I think that’s why the price was cheaper, yeah lovely hosts, it’s just a shame we haven’t been able to get the water fixed it’s an apartment on top of another however the whole building has lost hot water so couldnt even be offered to potentially use down the stairs, we have managed to boil stuff but they haven’t got a kettle here it’s some sort of coffee contraption (we are not coffee drinkers lol) but it takes 10 minutes to boil and then once you’ve tried to use it for babies bath to add into cold or fill it up enough to sterilise bottles it’s gone cold🥲

In Italy there’s generally a very different idea of what constitutes an emergency response. My DS rents not too far from Como and when he or his friends have had events like no electricity, or water pouring through the ceiling, the response has been that they’ll get to it in a couple of days. Getting hold of decent tradespeople is really tricky at times, especially at this time of year where lots are on holidays.

I think a partial refund would be fair though.

Given that you booked through booking.com you are lucky to have actually had something that vaguely matches what you were expecting. I have had some terrible experiences with them and will not use them ever again. I agree a 50% refund would be appropriate but I have very little confidence you'll get it. The last straw with booking.com was when they cancelled my booking at the last minute causing me to lose £400+ in consequential loss for which they offered me £50 off my next booking.

Based on all you've been given by hosts, lifts food etc no I wouldn't because you can easily boil water for sterilising etc and a short stay

You shouldn’t be sterilising a baby bottle with hot tap water!! You need boiling water. Even if they did have hot water you wouldn’t be able to sterilise or make up baby bottles with hot tap water.

We would do a partial refund for our villa if a guest was experiencing these problems. Yes it’s not our fault and we often get power cuts in the height of summer due to capacity issues. If the enjoyment of your holiday has been affected, we would give anywhere from 10% to 20% depending on the impact.

You can always looks at ABTA for guidance on this.

I'd give a small refund for this in my cottage if it impacted the entire stay. We have had the boiler go before and if it's fixed within the day, I don't refund but if it goes on longer than 24 hours I would probably do 10% ish on days impacted. Interestingly I would always recommend booking this accommodation type on air bnb, because air bnb will step in and they manage refunds and host payments - they'd do a fixed refund no discussion regardless of how kind the hosts were. Unfortunately Booking.com do not step in during these situations (you can try them but generally they're very hands off, and will just tell you to work with the provider). As a result, i think all you can do is ask the host and hint at the impact on your trip and therefore your review. Use AI like chat gpt or Gemini to draft and kind/polite and gentle request for a refund that works for you and that tells the host that you're not happy to accept kindness/fobbing off. However, they can and knowing Italians probably will see this as a "nothing we can do" situation and given its so hot, you can still have cold showers etc. And one or two pans of boiking water in a bath will be OK for a baby surely, they don't need a warm bath, just not a freezing one. So it wouldn't bother me on holiday too much (my kids barely wash though!)
Surely they could at least offer you an electric kettle or huge pan so you can boil water on the hob?

I also think the hosts have made up for it by being lovely. The lifts would have cost you. You’d have had to boil water anyway for bottles etc.
If it had cost you thousands then maybe, but it was £400. I’d leave it.