Airbnb Answers: A new claims process that’s faster and simpler for hosts

[Airbnb]

You asked: What is Airbnb doing to better support hosts if things go wrong?

The short answer is: a lot! Before we dive in to the exciting changes we’re working on, there’s one important thing to keep in mind: Instances of property damage on Airbnb are quite rare. On average, significant claims of damage happen less than 0.004% of the time.
That means, you could host a new reservation every day for 63 years and never expect to have to file a significant damage claim.

But it’s true that accidents do happen, and if they do, we want your home and valuables to be protected. That’s why we created safeguards like the Security Deposit and $1 Million Host Guarantee in the first place, and that’s why we’re committed to making sure they work for you. 

We’ve heard from you that the process to access these safeguards feels like it takes too long and is too complicated. And that it’s hard to access your Security Deposit or get reimbursed through the Host Guarantee. And that’s unacceptable.

So we’re completely revamping the process for damage claims to make it more host-friendly. Here are four big changes you can expect:

Now, you’ll have more time

You used to have to report damages within 72 hours after check-out or before your next guest's check-in, whichever was earlier. Now you have 14 days, or before next guest's check-in, whichever is earlier. We’re also going to be giving you a lot more time to complete the claims process— it’s longer than two weeks now.

You don’t have to do as much legwork

We’ve reduced the amount of documentation required for most claims.

You can expect a fair payout

We’re now consistently including sales tax and other associated costs in our reimbursement to hosts.

You can expect quicker answers

We’ve revamped the way the Airbnb support team handles cases like these to make it faster and easier for hosts. Already, since we’ve introduced these improvements, claim-resolution time has decreased by more than 20% in the past few months.

We’re looking at the full picture here, and we realize we have a ways to go. But we’re actively working on making the entire experience better for you when you need support.

Thank you for your feedback on this important issue so far, and please keep letting us know how we can improve. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more improvements roll out.

View this and other answers from the Host Q&A here.

[Verron0]

It would really help hosts if the Ambassadors that we called help guide us through the process and from the start of each time we spoke about a booking if we didn’t have to open a new chat.  Each comment the chat closes and I have to start all over.

lastly, quit encouraging hosts to pursue loss of use.  It is a trick.  If I block off my calendar for covered repairs then I cannot get loss of use. If I leave it open and cancel any bookings then I lose my super host status.  

please reconsider! 

[Craig674]

I am a fairly new host and was excited about Airbnb’s AirCover policy and purported support of hosts. Recently, my fifth tenant since I began, caused a well documented $4k in damages to this newly renovated upscale property. Airbnb’s own safety team was even involved throughout the night trying to evict the party. The police finally had to be called at 5am to stop the noise and party. Despite all damage being documented and sent to the resolution center, Airbnb decided they would only reimburse $193.88. They would not even forfeit the tenant’s $500 security deposit. I am hesitant to continue with Airbnb after this experience and have no faith whatsoever in the AirCover policy they are promoting. Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Linda3377]

I filed a claim in the allotted time frame and have been denied the claim. I have pictures of the damage and the renter even admitted to the damage and said she would pay. Does anyone know how or if you file an appeal? The one ambassador who I first worked with stated that if I didn't get a resolution with the renter they would help me. Then I got two ambassadors that say my claim wasn't filed in time but I have info in my inbox from the first ambassador in the timeframe but they are still denying it and I cant get any response to my emails when I ask them to explain how it wasn't in the timeframe and I have sent them the info feed from my inbox showing the dates I first talked to an ambassador.  Any suggestions or help is appreciated. 

[Rolland-Henri0]

I have had a mother and her 2 daughters for 2 nights and they completely broke a door going into a goat pasture that was LOCKED.  Guests are leaving today and I have not checked the cabin yet, but am fearful of what they have done.

[Jeff1632]

I hope this is all true But, it you think these enhancements (Any of them) are already in place rest assured they are not. I had Guest this past Friday that was Horrible! I had two back to back bookings on the books right after that. The guest was extremely messy, He smoked in the house, it looks like a lot by the number of butts, and lighter i found. He had dogs breaking another house rule of not Pets. One of his dogs chewed the corner of my Ottoman and proceeded to pull out the stuffing. The dog also urine soaked one of my rugs in the bedroom.  the floors were filthy and the base boards and some of the walls were scuffed up by the dogs as well. To make matters worse this "Guest" decided to do some craft project on the porch using spray paint. There was blue spray paint overspray on the porch concrete. The futon was covered with pet hair dirt and slobber. I did take some pics of the most obvious things But my next guest was arriving at 4:00PM so my main focus was to prep the house and fix all I could as fast as I could. Thankfully I have several futon Mattress covers so I changed it out I removed the torn up furniture from the property taking furniture from my own residence across town to make up for the damaged items. I was very apologetic to that  next nights guest be cause she had said she was happy to find a Non Smoking house.  I let her know we had issues with a smoking guest the night before. I kept trying to get to a actual contact number but went ahead and filled out the a brief complaint Thinking they would get back in touch with me. I had cured and remedied many of the issues from the bad Friday night stay but there were still issues needing attention. I knew I would be taking the Ottoman in to get the upholstery fixed but the soonest I could get it in was  Tuesday to get a estimate. Still No support staff are getting back in touch with me. So I get home Sunday night, sit down and try to relax  a instant booking came through from a local. I made the decision to cancel that booking  of course it was within the 24 hour check in time so that tide my hands, Then and only then am I  given a number to call and talked to a "Support Person" who proceeded to tell me I had not made a timely enough claim and lacking receipts and enough pictures to support my claims. He was not helpful Not at all! He told me I should expect to get penalized for Mondays booking.  I have sent in receipts now from dry cleaners and a estimate from a upholstery shop. They will have the furniture for 3 weeks.  What am I hearing back from the support Center. Nothing. Not even crickets . I called that number from my house Phone so I do not even know what the number was I called to finish the cancelation and I still do not know what "Penalty" I am getting. 

[Giselle104]

Estou me sentindo extremamente desprotegida pelo site, tive que procurar a policia para denunciar o tamanho do estrago feito em minha propriedade, para minha surpresa a hospede que veio indicada e verificada pelo site, tem varias passagens de delitos na policia, tais como trafico de droga, roubo, agressão entre outros. Ela destruiu vários itens e furtou outros, até um recipiente com cocaína achei na minha casa.  Agora aguardo o reembolso (US$1.100,00).

[Mike1034]

Glad to know that AirBnb makes some improvements toward the claim process. However, there are still areas to improve

(1) The replacement of damaged items have to take a depreciation based on years used. Some of items could be considered for this. For example linens and other bedding supplies. But for most of furniture, this should not be applicable. A damaged piece of furniture sometimes cost much more than just replace the single damaged item. For example, recently a guest had party in my AirBnb house even though we have house rule of no party and events. They broke one of my dinning chairs. If I cannot find a matching one, I may have to replace all four chairs. But AirBnb only compensated for one damanaged chair with a depreciation based on age. 

(2) Extra cleanning effort is not taken consideration for the claim. The guest I mentioned above had hosted party in my house and consumed more than 20 bottles of liquor. They left trash everywhere on the floor and on the table surface and in every room. Eventually trash was stuffed into six full trash bags. Normally the cleaning of three bedroom house takes 2-3 hours for a couple of people. But in this case, it took two people of six hours to clean completely.

(3) There is no penalty for violation house rules. e.g. Definitely a host cannot claim anything for the violation of house rules. We have no smoking policy, no party and events policy on our listings. But some unwanted guests smoked not only cigarettes but also weeds in our house. Not only it is a rule violation, but also we had to spend time and effort for extra cleaning. In one case, we had to open all windows for two days in order to get rid of the bad smell in the house. 

[Lisa140]

Like some of the posts above, I am considering other sites and/or getting off this platform.  I absolutely agree that if you have to make a damage deposit, guests not be allowed to reivew.  Whatever changes they are suggesting they made, the resolution process is as unweildy as ever, if not possibly worse.   It's nearly impossible to upload pictures in the res. center, in the time frame given, and there's not an option to add them later.  You can ask for an email address ( thier email system is such that you can't forward anything and you have to create a chrome folder etc to ping documentiation into the specific response email)  but then that  info you thought would add to the case,  isn't looked at after all; and is a waste of time. You can't call the resolution department -- you have to wait for them to call you.  They straddle their times so that you may get an email at 6 am, or 12 midnight. You'll get a designated person working on it, but you don't know what days they may or may not be in the office, so that you can submit further to them, respond and get a response. Then that designated person is no longer working on it. I have had things go from desk to desk to desk, each perosn having a different take and the rules change; whatever siad no no longer being upheld, being asked to resubmit things over and over, then suddenly there is a new team and they ask you to resubmit again - no forwarding an email . Now they are asking for surveillance of extra people, and they actulaly take the guests side if they lie about it, then say, "we don't take sides"..... Basically I think the resolution center is designed for you to give up.  I spent so many lost hours on a couple of recent  situations that I was quoting Kafka daily.  These last episodes have me seriously questioning being on this site.  I am just on the  brink of losing my superhost status becasue of the damage/ unauthorized use/guests that I just experienced. ... and their being allowed to review.  The complany is changing, again.  Another post above mentions that bookings have decreased since they have added airbnb Plus and now, HOTELS.  The kinds of guests I am getting have completely changed as has their attitude.  Since we are sharing the site with hoteliers, that's no surprise. I don't think I will be staying long....  and I am going to very much change how I do business.  As far as resoloutions go, I am now upping my price ( to what it should be anyway) so that I can better handle the damages, rather than lose time, money and hours of energy.  Back Hole Department.

[Lisa140]

Like some of the posts above, I am considering either other sites and getting off this platform.  I absoltuely agree that if you have to make a damage deposit, guests not be allowed to reivew.  Whatever changes they are suggesting they made, the resolution process is as unweildy as ever, if not possibly worse.   It's nearly impossible to upload pictures in the res. center, in the time frame given, and there's not an option to add them later.  You can ask for an email address ( thier email system is such that you can't forward anything and you have to create a chrome folder etc to ping documentiation into the specific response email)  but then that  info you thought would add to the case,  isn't looked at after all; and is a waste of time. You can't call the resolution department -- you have to wait for them to call you.  They straddle their times so that you may get an email at 6 am, or 12 midnight. You'll get a designated person working on it, but you don't know what days they may or may not be in the office, so that you can submit further to them, respond and get a response. Then that designated person is no longer working on it. I have had things go from desk to desk to desk, each perosn having a different take and the rules change; whatever siad no no longer being upheld, being asked to resubmit things over and over, then suddenly there is a new team and they ask you to resubmit again - no forwarding an email . Now they are asking for surveillance of extra people, and they actulaly take the guests side if they lie about it, then say, "we don't take sides"..... Basically I think the resolution center is designed for you to give up.  I spent so many lost hours on a couple of recent  situations that I was quoting Kafka daily.  These last episodes have me seriously questioning being on this site.  I am just on the  brink of losing my superhost status becasue of the damage/ unauthorized use/guests that I just experienced. ... and their being allowed to review.  The complany is changing, again.  Another post above mentions that bookings have decreased since they have added airbnb Plus and now, HOTELS.  The kinds of guests I am getting have completely changed as well as their attitude.  Since we are sharing the site with hoteliers, that's no surprise. I don't think I will be staying long....  and I am going to very much change how I do business.  As far as resoloutions go, I am now upping my price ( to what it should be anyway) so that I can better handle the damages, rather than lose time, money and hours of energy.  Back Hole Department.

[Johann61]

Newbie host here and experienced a “bad guest” checking out today. There are a couple of issues with this particular guest but in keeping with this thread I’ll comment on what I had to go through today after discovering the guest left my space in shambles and damaging items in the bathroom. Had a darn time finding a way to contact AirBnB to report the issue. Luckily I personally know a superhost, a call her got me a phone number. Called, was told that I needed to go online to the “resolution center” to start a claim. After reading through a lot of the responses on this thread, not feeling super confident AirBnB really has my back as one of its new hosts...

[Peta7]

We were always under the impression, like many others, that the Airbnb Insurance policy was just an Urban legend? 

[Denis289]

Saludos from Cuba.  We're having problems with reclamations, not from property damage, but for missing payments.  We've emailed Airbnb multiple times and even have called them from Cuba which is super expensive, and no answer since they leave me on 'hold'. My wife has tried calling from another country and they tell her they can't help since I'm the only authorized person in the account, but i cannot reach anyone from cuba. I have contacted VaCuba as well, and no response either.  I know we are not the only ones affected by this and have recurred to using this forum to see if we get help in this matter.

Sincerely,

Denis Monzon Vega

[Az2]

Been waiting for almost 2 weeks now, later reps just stopped answering my emails 🙂

[Susan295]

I need to report damage by a guest, and having looked how for over an hour all I can find is the claim money from guest section,  does anyone know of another way to report?

[Cleona0]

Airbnb support?

It failed yet again.

I recently had a guest who refused to leave on departure day, and in fact stayed an extra night!

I reported this to Airbnb while contemplating ringing the police.

Abagail was assigned to help resolve the issue.

Airbnb support was limited to asking questions: - Did you contact the guest?

                                                                                          Did they agree to pay for an extra night?

                                                                                          Did they agree to pay an extra cleaning fee? (cleaner to return)

My answers were YES to all three questions.

I was told that Airbnb would charge the guest for an extra night plus the cleaning fee.

Now, when I contact Abagail to ask why I have not received this payment, my emails are ignored.

 I´ll take my super host skills to another booking platform.

[Cleona0]

Update:

The outstanding payment was finally received when the cleaner produced and invoice for double time.

A couple of weeks later I received a letter canceling my superhost status! 

Coincidence? I had superb reviews.

[Christine1]

Dear Victoria in San Diego California,

You are an experienced Superhost, with lots of good reviews from happy considerate and appreciative guests.

I am so sorry to hear about this awful experience.

I hope that Airbnb will soon be able to assist you to receive just compensation from the guests who were responsible.

Best regards, Christine.

[Christine1]

A recent comment was made to the effect that Security deposits discourage guest booking.

Response

But do you really want a guest who is not willing to pay a security deposit? It's a signal that they intend to be cautious and leave everything the way they found it.

For me, it's a tool to screen out guests who might be lacking confidence in their own conduct.
They first save up the money they need to pay for extraordinary foolishness or they can practice situational awareness, until they get really good at it.

Once guests are very good at being cautious and well behaved they may develop the confidence to pay a security deposit, and gamble on their own skilled good behaviour. Yippee! I didn't get pinged for my security deposit. It's kinda like they get a good review.......

I tried to tag the writer, but the site is a bit wonky...

regards.

[Christine1]

In reply to a writer who complained that Airbnb booked his property to people who were under 25 years of age.

Response.

Airbnb doesn't rent your property you do.

Once a person is over 18, you cannot discriminate based on age, and they haven't developed host tools to manage this criteria, It's something you would need to actively manage yourself, and you will be in a heap of hot water once someone puts in an official complaint of ageism. From the sound of things it would not be hard to prove age based discrimmination and that might cost more. 

The more valuable and high risk you situation, the more active, you will need to be in your management.

It was more likely to be another reason other than age which was the cause of distressing and poor tenant/guest behaviour which you described.

Regards, 

[Lilly28]

P.S. Guests who admit the damage and pay for it - should not be penalized, of course.