Skills library

Guest Issue Resolution

Resolve the guest's problem, protect the review, and keep the host's payout — in that order. A resolved issue that produces a four-star review costs far more than the refund would have.

This is the exact playbook text every Supahost agent ships with — installed for each member, removable in one click. Platform policies change: verify any deadline or dollar amount against the current Airbnb or Vrbo help center before you rely on it.

Step 1: Establish the clock

Before anything else, determine and state:

Is the guest currently in the property? Mid-stay issues are time-critical and recoverable. Post-checkout issues are review-management and money problems, not fix-it problems.
How long ago did the guest report it? Airbnb's Rebooking and Refund Policy gives the guest 72 hours from discovery to report a Reservation Issue. Inside that window the host's payout is exposed; the host's leverage is to resolve it directly first.
How many nights remain?
Has the guest already contacted the platform? If yes, the host is no longer negotiating privately — everything written is evidence.

If the guest is on-site with a habitability problem, respond to them before doing any further analysis. Speed is the single largest factor in whether this becomes a bad review.

Step 2: Classify severity

Place the issue in Tier 1–4: habitability and safety (Tier 1), major amenity failure (Tier 2), comfort, cleanliness, and expectation gaps (Tier 3), requests rather than failures (Tier 4). The tier drives the response time, the fix, and the money.

Do not let the guest's tone set the tier. A furious message about a slow wifi connection is Tier 3. A calm message about a gas smell is Tier 1. Classify on the facts.

Step 3: Decide the remedy

Produce a specific recommendation with a number and a rationale, never a range and never "it depends."

Core principles:

Fix beats refund. A space heater delivered in two hours costs less than one night refunded and produces a better review. Always propose the fix first, with a time.
Offer once, generously, early. Escalating offers across three messages teach the guest to keep pushing and read as bad faith. One well-calibrated offer, made fast, closes.
Never pay to suppress a review. Offering money in exchange for a review — or for removing one — violates both platforms' review policies and is itself grounds for enforcement against the host. Compensate for the service failure. Say nothing about the review.
Never refund off-platform. Refunds go through the platform. Off-platform payments void the host's protections and violate the terms.

Step 4: Draft the reply

Every reply follows the same skeleton: acknowledge the specific problem, apologize once without groveling, state the concrete fix and when it happens, state the compensation if any, confirm the next step.

Draft it in the host's voice.

Hard rules for the drafted message:

Write it as evidence. Assume Airbnb or Vrbo support will read this thread. Be factual, dated, and specific.
Never admit fault for something not yet verified, and never speculate about causes.
Never argue about what the listing said. If accuracy is genuinely in dispute, fix the listing and move on — route it to listing-conversion-audit.
No blame directed at the guest, the cleaner, the previous guest, or the platform.
One apology, in the first two sentences. Repeating it reads as either insincere or as an admission.

Step 5: Close the loop

Every resolved issue produces two follow-ups. State both:

Operational — the root cause fix so this does not recur. Route to turnover-ops if it is a cleaning, supply, or maintenance failure.
Review — if the stay was materially affected, expect a rating hit and prepare. Route to review-response.

Money-in / money-out mechanics

Know the exact policies, deadlines, and dollar limits governing:

Airbnb Rebooking and Refund Policy (Reservation Issues, 72-hour reporting, payout reduction)
Airbnb AirCover for Hosts (damage protection limits and the 14-day filing deadline)
Airbnb Resolution Center (60-day window, 24-hour guest response)
Airbnb Major Disruptive Events Policy
Vrbo Book with Confidence Guarantee (12-hour misrepresentation reporting, 3-night alternative accommodation)

Verify any deadline against the live help-center article before the user relies on it. Both platforms changed these policies in 2025 and 2026.

Guardrails

Never state a policy outcome as certain. Say what the policy provides and that the platform decides on the evidence. Do not tell a user they will win a claim.
Safety overrides money. Gas, carbon monoxide, fire, structural failure, electrical hazard, no heat in freezing conditions, no water, or a security breach: the guest leaves or the hazard is neutralized, immediately, before any discussion of refunds. Never advise a guest to stay in an unsafe property to preserve a booking.
Threats and extortion. A guest demanding money under threat of a bad review is a Reviews Policy violation on both platforms. Advise the host to stop negotiating, keep the threat in writing on-platform, and report it — not to pay. Route to review-response.
No legal advice. Deposits, damage disputes, evictions, and local rental law vary by jurisdiction. Lay out the platform process and the facts; recommend a local attorney for anything beyond it, and say plainly that this is not legal advice.
Discrimination and harassment. If a guest reports discriminatory or harassing treatment, or the host's proposed response is discriminatory, stop and address that directly. Do not draft it.