Reply within the hour to anything urgent, name the exact problem, say what you will do and by when, and promise nothing you haven't checked. Give AI a six-line fact card, ask for a reply under 120 words, delete any refund or deadline it invented, send it yourself, then log the cause and the fix.
AI is good at tone and poor at facts. Left alone, it will describe an engineer arriving "shortly" when nobody has been called, or offer a refund you never decided on. Money you send through the Resolution Centre is final once it goes, so the decisions stay with you and only the drafting goes to the machine.
Seven kinds of complaint and what each first reply must do
Almost every complaint lands in one of seven buckets. The bucket tells you who fixes it, how fast, and whether Airbnb is likely to hear about it. Airbnb's ground rules for home hosts set the pace: a reply within one hour close to check-in time or when a time-sensitive problem arises during the stay, within 12 hours to other messages during a stay or in the five days before arrival (both for messages received in local daytime hours), and within three days when check-in is further away.
| Type | How it usually arrives | The first reply must | Fix and speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleanliness | A photo of hair, a stain or a greasy hob | Apologise for the specific thing, ask for the photo if it is missing, offer a time for a re-clean | Cleaner or you; same day while the guest is staying |
| Something does not work | "No hot water", "wifi down", "oven dead" | Offer one safe self-check from your manual, then a fix time | Handyperson or supplier; urgent items within hours |
| Not as listed | "The photos show two beds and there is one" | Check the listing text, agree what differs, say what you will change | You, by correcting the listing as well as helping this guest |
| Cannot get in | "The code doesn't work", "no key in the box" | Resend the exact steps, offer a call, say who is on the way | You, in minutes |
| Noise | Neighbours, street, building work, other guests | Ask when and where, act on what you control, say plainly what you cannot | You for your own guests; the building contact for the rest |
| Safety or health | Gas smell, alarm sounding, damp, pests | Put safety first and name the emergency step | Immediate; you and the right service |
| Money | "Refund me for all three nights" | Hear them out, state what you will offer, point to the Resolution Centre | Your decision; Airbnb steps in if you cannot agree |
Two cautions before you use the table. How angry a message sounds is separate from how serious the fault is: a furious note about a broken toaster still needs a short, practical answer, while a polite note about damp needs action before anything else. And one message can hold two complaints, so answer the one with a safety or access element first.
Six lines on a fact card, filled in before you open the chat
Open the AI window last. Before it, fill in six lines. Writing them takes about three minutes and is the main reason a draft comes back usable.
- What the guest said, copied in, with names and contact details removed.
- What you can confirm, and how you know: a photo, the cleaner's checklist, a lock log, your own check last week.
- What you cannot confirm yet.
- What you can do, and by when. Only things you control.
- What you will not offer today: a refund, a free night, a visit tonight.
- Your next update time, and the one question you need the guest to answer.
Line 3 does most of the work. A model fills any gap with something plausible, so a card that says "I don't know whether the pressure is low or the boiler has locked out" stops it announcing a diagnosis. Line 5 does the rest: the model cannot offer what you have told it is off the table.
You are drafting a message from a short-term rental host to a guest who has a problem.
Use only the facts on the card. If something is missing, ask me a question instead of guessing.
Write under 120 words, warm and plain, for a phone screen. Start with the specific problem in the guest's own words.
Say what happens next and when. Do not promise refunds, credits, visits or times that are not on the card.
Do not blame the guest, mention reviews, or give technical instructions that are not on the card.
British English. Sign off with [your name].
CARD
1. Guest said: ...
2. I can confirm: ...
3. I cannot confirm yet: ...
4. I can do, and by when: ...
5. I will not offer: ...
6. Next update: ... Question for the guest: ...Paste your own text after each number. If your plan keeps instructions between chats (a ChatGPT or Claude project, for instance), store the first five lines there and paste only the card each time.
No hot water at 8:40 pm on arrival night: card, draft and cost
The scenario is a two-bedroom flat at $140 a night, booked for three nights by a family of four who arrive on a Friday evening. All names and figures here are illustrative. At 8:40 pm this lands in the Airbnb thread:
No hot water at all. We have two kids and it's freezing. Sort it now or we're leaving.
The card, filled in
| Line | What the host writes |
|---|---|
| 1. Guest said | No hot water on arrival evening; two children; says they will leave |
| 2. I can confirm | Boiler serviced in March; the cleaner's checklist shows the hot tap run at 12:15 pm and ticked |
| 3. I cannot confirm yet | Whether pressure has dropped or the boiler has locked out |
| 4. I can do | Point them to the pressure reset steps on page 4 of my manual now; book the engineer's 8 am slot tomorrow; an electric heater is in the hall cupboard |
| 5. I will not offer | A refund tonight, or an engineer tonight (none is available) |
| 6. Next update | 9:30 pm. Question: what does the boiler display show? |
The draft, and the four things to change
The first draft came back looking competent:
Hi [first name], I'm so sorry about the cold water tonight, especially with the children. Please don't worry, we'll get this sorted. The boiler is probably low on pressure: check the grey dial on the front, which should sit between 1 and 2, and use the silver key underneath to top it up. If that doesn't help, I'll send an engineer tonight and give you a full refund for the inconvenience. Let me know what the dial says. [your name]
Four things need to change:
- The grey dial, the 1-to-2 range and the silver key are not on the card. The model made them up, and boiler instructions are the last place for invention. The reply should point to page 4 of the manual instead.
- "Engineer tonight" contradicts line 5. The real slot is 8 am tomorrow.
- "Full refund" is also on the do-not-offer list.
- "Please don't worry" tells a family in a cold flat how to feel. It goes.
The version the host sent:
Hi [first name], I'm sorry about the cold water tonight, especially with the children. It's most likely the boiler losing pressure, and the reset steps are on page 4 of the house manual in your Trips tab. Could you try them and tell me what the display shows? If the water isn't back in 15 minutes, I'm booking the engineer's 8 am slot tomorrow, and there's an electric heater in the hall cupboard for tonight. I'll message you again by 9:30 pm either way. [your name]
What it cost and what changed
The family stayed. The engineer's call-out came to $90, and the host sent a $28 credit through the Resolution Centre, which is 20% of one $140 night. Airbnb's refund page says that once a stay has started, the Resolution Centre is the only way for a host to send money to a guest. Total: $118 against $420 of nightly rates, about 28%. A full refund would have cost $420, and under Airbnb's rebooking and refund policy for homes a refund it issues can come out of the host's payout.
The permanent fix cost nothing. Page 4 of the manual gained a photo of the pressure gauge with the safe range marked in the host's own handwriting, and the annual service moved from March to October, before the heating season. If you want to build a manual that carries that kind of detail, the tutorial on building an Airbnb house manual from your own notes covers it.
Five edits worth making to nearly every AI draft
- Swap the generic apology for the specific problem. Before: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused." After: "Sorry the oven wouldn't heat tonight."
- Replace times you cannot guarantee with a time you will write again. Before: "An engineer will be there shortly." After: "I'll update you by 9:30 pm."
- Delete money words the card did not contain: refund, compensation, free night, discount. Those decisions are yours.
- Turn blame into a pointer. Before: "As stated in the house manual, the oven has a child lock." After: "The oven has a child lock; the steps are on page 3."
- Cut to 120 words. Guests read on a phone, often standing in the thing they are complaining about.
Send the reply yourself. Whether Airbnb allows automatic replies is a separate question, and what Airbnb allows when hosts use AI to reply is worth reading before you let any tool post for you.
Cleanliness and "not as pictured": two harder replies
Hair in the shower, a mark on the sofa
A guest sends two photos: a long hair in the shower tray and a stain on a cushion. The pull is to defend the cleaner, because your changeover photos show a clean tray at 11:52. Resist it. The guest's photos are dated now, and "our cleaner's photos show it clean" ends the conversation badly. The card says: confirmed, the shower photo from the changeover; not confirmed, whether the cushion mark was already there; can do, a re-clean tomorrow between 10 and 12 or today if they are out; will not offer, any money until I have seen both photos.
Hi [first name], thank you for the photos. I can see the mark on the cushion and the hair in the shower tray, and I'm sorry both were there when you arrived. A cleaner can come tomorrow between 10 and 12 to re-clean the shower and swap the cushion cover, or today if you're out this afternoon. Which suits you better? I'll check in at 3 pm to confirm.
Keep the changeover photos for later and don't quote them unless Airbnb asks. They matter if the guest reports a reservation issue to Airbnb, because the policy says Airbnb will in most circumstances try to confirm the concern with the host. The fix goes on the cleaner's side: add "check the shower drain" and "turn the cushions and photograph the seat" to the handover sheet described in the tutorial on coordinating cleaners and changeovers.
A sea view that is a sliver
The complaint reads: "Your listing says sea view. I can see a strip of water between two roofs." There is nothing to fix tonight. The fault is in the listing, and Airbnb's standards for hosts say the listing page, and anything else a host says about the home, should describe it accurately. The card records a partial view from the balcony corner, a listing photo taken there with a wide lens, a $25 credit that you have already decided on, and a listing edit before the next booking.
Hi [first name], thanks for telling me. You're right that the view is a partial one: the water is visible from the balcony corner, not from the sofa, and the listing photo makes it look wider than it is. I'm changing the listing text today so future guests know what to expect, and I'll send a $25 credit through the Resolution Centre.
Then do the edit. "Partial sea view from the balcony corner" is honest and still sells the balcony. For wording that stays accurate without sounding apologetic, see the tutorial on writing the listing description with AI.
When a guest ties a bad review to a refund
The message reads: "Refund all three nights or I'm leaving a one-star review." Airbnb's review policy says neither hosts nor guests may threaten a negative review to obtain unwarranted compensation, a refund or another incentive, and that reviews may not be given or withheld in exchange for something of value. That cuts both ways. You cannot offer a credit for a kinder review either, and you should not let an AI draft hint at one.
Handle it in this order:
- Decide what the fault is worth on its own merits. If you would have offered $28 for the cold evening before the threat arrived, offer $28. If you would have offered nothing, do not start now.
- Keep the reply to the facts and to one line on money, and leave reviews out of everything else.
- Screenshot the message and keep the thread intact. If it continues, tell Airbnb.
Heat is where AI earns its place. Paste your furious first draft and ask for the same facts in a calm voice:
Rewrite my draft so it states only these facts, in a calm voice, under 90 words.
Do not mention reviews except one sentence saying any offer is not linked to what the guest writes.
Do not add any offer that is not in my draft.
MY DRAFT: ...Before and after. The draft: "This is blackmail. You stayed three nights and your only problem was a boiler." The calm version:
Hi [first name], I'm sorry the stay fell short. I've looked at what happened with the hot water, and the $28 credit I offered for that evening stands. I can't link money to reviews, so that offer isn't tied to what you write. If you'd like to ask for more, the Resolution Centre is the place, and Airbnb can look at it with both sets of photos and messages.
Reviews come later. Airbnb's policy says a review won't be removed solely because of dissatisfaction with its star rating, that mentioning factors outside the host's control (a noisy neighbourhood, say) doesn't necessarily break the policy because future guests may find it relevant, and that subjective opinions such as a small, cramped kitchen can help future guests. A public reply therefore usually matters more than a removal request. The tutorial on responding to glowing, mixed and bad Airbnb reviews covers that stage.
The Airbnb clocks that sit behind your reply
You write for the guest, but Airbnb may read the thread later. The points below come from Airbnb's help pages as they stood in October 2026. Check each one on the live page before you rely on it, because Airbnb edits these pages often.
| Situation | What Airbnb's pages say | What it means for your reply |
|---|---|---|
| A guest reports a problem | Under the rebooking and refund policy for homes, guests must report a reservation issue within 72 hours of discovering it, and should try to resolve it with the host first | A quick, specific reply turns most of those 72 hours into fixing time |
| Airbnb steps in | In most circumstances it tries to confirm the concern with the host; a refund it issues can reduce or remove the host's payout; hosts can dispute a claim by contacting Airbnb | Keep dated photos, checklist ticks, receipts and the message thread in one folder |
| You refund | After check-in, only the Resolution Centre can send money to a guest; it is final once sent; Airbnb processes it within 48 hours; requests run to 60 days after checkout | Settle the amount before any draft mentions money |
| No agreement | Either side can ask Airbnb to mediate, and the page warns that for mediation requests you have only one hour to respond | Keep notifications on during stays |
| Damage | Reimbursement requests also go through the Resolution Centre, with a 14-day window from the guest's checkout | Photograph at every changeover; see the tutorial on Airbnb damage claims |
| Emergency | Guests are told to contact the emergency services immediately and to use Airbnb's 24-hour safety line for other safety concerns | Your first message follows your safety plan, not an AI draft |
One more rule from the same ground rules page: a listing should be clean and free of health hazards before check-in, and cleaned between every stay. Treat it as the standard a guest's cleanliness complaint will be judged against.
Safety complaints: write the first message yourself
Two kinds of message should not begin as an AI draft: anything with a safety element (gas, fire, carbon monoxide, electrics, flooding) and anything about an injury. Write the first message once, calmly, from your own safety plan, and save it as a quick reply. Airbnb lets hosts store quick replies under Messages, Settings, Manage quick replies, so the words are one tap away at 2 am. Keep it short and put the instruction first:
Please leave the property now and call the emergency services. Don't try to fix it yourself. Message me when you're outside and I'll arrange the right engineer straight away.
Have a gas, fire or electrical adviser check the wording that applies to your property. Afterwards AI becomes useful again: for the follow-up message, the incident note for your records and the fix plan.
A fix log with five filled-in rows
Answering a complaint is half the job. The cost sits in the repeat. Plan every fix in four moves: contain it today, find the cause this week, change something permanent with an owner and a date, and decide how you will know it worked. Then give every complaint a row in a spreadsheet whatever the outcome. Here is an illustrative log for a quarter:
| Date | Stay | Type | Root cause | Fix | Owner | How you will know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar | A | No hot water | Boiler pressure low | Reset steps and gauge photo added to manual; service moved to October | Host | No hot-water message in the next ten stays |
| 11 Mar | B | Hair in shower | Drain not on cleaner's checklist | Drain check added with a photo | Cleaner | Photo present on the next five changeovers |
| 19 Mar | C | Wifi down | Router's socket switched off | "Keep on" label and a manual line | Host | No wifi message in the next ten stays |
| 2 Apr | D | Could not find parking | Directions assumed the guest knew the street | Photo of the bay added to the arrival guide | Host | Next five check-ins arrive without a parking question |
| 9 Apr | E | Noise from upstairs flat | Outside the host's control | Listing text mentions a lively building; earplugs in the drawer | Host | Check wording of the next two reviews |
Each root cause points to one of five fix types: information (the manual or arrival guide), a checklist item for the cleaner, maintenance, an accuracy change to the listing, or a consumable you ran out of. If a row has no fix type, you have written a symptom rather than a cause.
Planning one fix with AI
Row 3, the wifi that went down, shows the method. Give the assistant the facts and ask for causes and checks, not a verdict:
A guest reported the wifi down on night two. Facts: the router is in the hall cupboard; its lights were off in the guest's photo; the cleaner was in the flat that morning; the broadband provider shows no outage.
Give me three likely root causes, the quickest check for each, and the cheapest permanent fix for each.
Ask me questions if you need more information. Do not recommend buying anything until a check has ruled out a free fix.A useful answer reads like this. Cause one: the router's socket was switched off or the plug was knocked out. Check: look at the socket and ask the cleaner whether it was used for the vacuum. Fix: a "keep on" label, plus a line in the manual and on the cleaner's sheet. Cause two: a one-off router fault. Check: restart it and watch the lights for ten minutes. Fix: nothing yet, so log it and see whether it recurs. Cause three: a provider fault. Check: the provider's status page and a second device. Fix: nothing you can change, so put the provider's contact details in the manual.
The last instruction in the prompt matters, because a model asked only for fixes will happily propose hardware, such as a new router or a mesh system, before anyone has checked the socket. In the log the host picked cause one because the lights were off and the cleaner had been in that morning, and the fix cost a label and a sentence.
A monthly read with AI
Once a month, paste the log with names removed and ask for patterns:
Here is my complaint log for the last three months. Group the rows by root cause.
Tell me which two changes would have prevented the most complaints.
Flag any row with no way of checking the fix worked.
Do not invent causes that are not in the log. If you need more information, ask me.A typical answer on the table above would read: "Three of five rows trace to information guests could not find (hot water reset, router, parking). Those are fixed by editing the manual or arrival guide, not by sending anyone to the flat. Row 5 cannot be fixed by you, so set expectations in the listing text. Row 2's check only shows that the cleaner took the photo, not that guests stopped finding hair, so add 'no cleanliness message in the next ten stays'." The last sentence is the useful one. A check that only proves a task was done never tells you whether the fix worked.
Keeping guest details out of the chat
Treat guest messages as personal data. Before pasting, strip names, phone numbers, emails and addresses, and keep only a first name and a stay letter or reservation code. In personal ChatGPT and Claude accounts you can switch off the use of your chats for model training in the privacy settings (labels change, so look for the training setting rather than a fixed name). Business plans do not train on your content by default, but ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both start at two seats, which rarely suits a one-property host. Never paste payment details or door codes into any chat.
If a co-host or cleaner also answers guests, give them the same card and the same five edits, so that two people do not make two different promises about the same boiler.
Three numbers that show the replies are working
- Time to first reply. For urgent messages in a stay, aim for the hour Airbnb's host standards ask for. Check the thread timestamps once a month.
- Complaints per 100 booked nights. Illustration: 9 complaints across 62 nights is 14.5 per 100. If next month brings 6 across 70, that is 8.6 per 100, and the fixes are doing something.
- Repeats. Count the complaints whose root cause already has a logged fix. This is the number that matters: a repeat means the fix did not work or nobody checked it.
Once a month, read five sent replies aloud. Listen for a promise you did not keep, a sentence you would never say to someone's face, and any urgent reply that took longer than the hour.
What hosts ask after a complaint lands
Can I refund a guest myself without Airbnb?
Yes. Before check-in you can refund from the reservation page, and once a stay has started the Resolution Centre is the only way for a host to send money to a guest. Airbnb tells the guest and processes the refund within 48 hours. A sent refund is final, so settle the amount before any AI draft mentions money.
How long does a guest have to report a problem to Airbnb?
Airbnb's rebooking and refund policy for homes says a guest must report a reservation issue within 72 hours of discovering it, and should first try to resolve it with the host. Money requests in the Resolution Centre can be filed for up to 60 days after checkout. A fast, specific reply inside those 72 hours is your best protection.
What if the complaint is exaggerated or simply wrong?
Answer with facts rather than a rebuttal: the listing wording, dated cleaner photos, your message timeline and any receipts. In most circumstances Airbnb tries to confirm a guest's concern with the host, and a host who disagrees with a claim can dispute it by contacting Airbnb. Stay helpful in tone even when you are sure the guest is mistaken.
Is it safe to paste a guest's message into ChatGPT or Claude?
Remove names, phone numbers, emails and addresses first, keep a first name and a reservation code, and switch off model-training use in the privacy settings of a personal account. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team don't train on your content by default but both start at two seats. Never paste payment details or door codes into any chat.
Further reads
- Airbnb No-Show Wants a Refund: Reply Scripts Drafted With AI — Reply scripts for the refund request that follows a no-show.
- Airbnb Message Templates: 9 Messages From Booking to Checkout — The nine routine messages that prevent many complaints.
- Airbnb House Rules: Write Clear Rules and Check-In Messages With AI — Set expectations before arrival so fewer complaints start.
- Hotel Guest Complaints Handling: Service Recovery Scripts With AI — Service-recovery wording borrowed from small hotels.
- Can AI Handle Customer Complaints Without Making Them Worse? — Where AI makes a complaint worse, and how to stop it.
- How to Automate Airbnb Messages: Test the AI Before You Switch It On — Test AI replies before any of them reach a guest.
- Best AI for Airbnb Hosts: Lodgify, Hospitable, Guesty, HostBuddy — Lodgify AI Co-Host, Hospitable, Guesty ReplyAI and HostBuddy compared on what each handles, list prices and how to test them.
- Hospitable Airbnb Software: What Each Plan's AI Actually Does — Which Hospitable plan gives you which AI: suggested replies, Message AI Assistant, Inbox AI auto replies and MCP, and what to test on the trial.
- Is HostBuddy AI Worth It for an Airbnb Host? — An independent look at HostBuddy AI for small Airbnb hosts: list prices per property, a trial test script, escalation checks and a pre-commit checklist.
- Lodgify AI Co-Host: What It Does and What to Test First — Lodgify's AI Co-Host drafts guest messages and chases chores. Here is what it does, what is unpublished, and a two-week test plan.
- Airbnb Co-Host Business: Run Several Owners' Properties With AI — A multi-owner workflow for an Airbnb co-host: permissions, fee models, a monthly owner statement with a check cell, inbox triage and cleaner coordination.
- Airbnb Upselling: Early Check-In, Late Checkout and Extras With AI — Floor prices for early check-in, late checkout and extras, a calendar check, and one AI prompt that writes offers without discounting or over-promising.
- ChatGPT for Short-Term Rentals: 10 Host Jobs and the Prompts to Use — Ten host jobs from listing text to cleaning briefs, each with a prompt, a copy-ready sample and the checks to run before a guest sees it.
- AI Agents for Short-Term Rentals: What a Host Can Do Today — Ten host jobs rated from hand over to keep, with the checks that stop an AI agent promising refunds or double-booking your cleaner.
- AI Chatbot for Vacation Rentals: What It Should Not Answer — A three-question test, a sorted list of guest messages, hand-off wording and twelve test messages for a rental chatbot that knows its limits.
- Hotel Front Desk Scripts: Can AI Role-Play Difficult Guests? — How to turn your own guest disputes into AI role-play drills for front desk staff, with an in-character prompt, a scoring sheet and trainer notes.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Airbnb Help Centre pages read in October 2026: ground rules for home hosts, rebooking and refund policy for homes, refund your guest, when to use the Resolution Centre, request or send money in the Resolution Centre, and authentic and trustworthy reviews.