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.

[Summer37]

I think that a lot of why you have so few claims about property damage by guests is because it is so time consuming to make a claim. There have been many times when guests have broken house rules or damaged my property and I haven't made a claim. I am already busy taking care of the mess and it is often easier to pay for the damage myself, than go through all the red tape you require to make a claim

[Lizzie]

Thanks for your reply @Summer37. This news must be music to your ears then. 🙂

I hope you will find these changes the team have been working on useful to you, if you do ever have to put in a claim. 

Thanks again for your thoughts here. I hope to speak with you more around the Community Center.

Lizzie

[Az2]

I am not sure is this  a right place to talk about such issue, but I recently had to talk with very rude case manager. I really don't want to go into details, but I am pretty sure much good could be done with little more higher skilled people for case management. As it was stated by previous host most of the time it is really easier not to call for help and to leave issues unsolved...

[Maria38]

@Summer0 thy have broken my lavabo twice in my flat and I could never even get my security deposit!

So I am so happy airbnb is taken that into consideration now

[Jess78]

I hope I don’t have to be one of the first ones to test out whether these platitudes hold any truth. I still wish Airbnb wouldn’t create smoke and mirrors about security deposits. If they don’t collect one, don’t tell your hosts to “set a security deposit” amount. That is dishonest. 

[Danita1]

Charging a security deposit makes it less likely that a tenant will book. 

[Douglas162]

 What do I exactly need to submit for a damage claim? The last time it occurred, it required me to get documentation of the cost.  I was out of town and the  timeframe was too short to get everything required. 

[Lindsay169]

I'm currently working through a claim with little or no answers or help from the claims department. The guest did about $5,000 worth of damage to my property and I've been getting the runaround from Airbnb. I hope this will change things, but I honestly doubt it after the disdain i've received thus far. If there was another platform to host as easily, I would have switched to it long ago to avoid dealing with Airbnb customer service ever again. 

[Susan990]

Re Lindsay169 story, I discovered a blog post from California that spoke of taking an Airbnb damages claim  successfully  to small claims court in California. Wondering if this applies to all the states? The article also talked about filing it with the BBB- Better Business Bureau. 

[Duane4]

@Lindsay169 you'll get an offer of $250 to settle that claim just like everyone else. 

[Lydia94]

You left out the most important part, each time a guest destroy our homes this guest gives us a ONE star review and airbnb support this wishes act. When a host report a problem with a guest the review from the guest needs to be removed. No host can ever recover from a one star review. And I also agree that no host has the time or energy to report every damage eccapt very large once. 

[Maria2697]

 It is also extermly unfair that the claim has to be reported _before_ the next guest checkes in. We have guests booked back to back and the time between check out and check in is TWO HOURS while cancelling on guests is penilized heavily by Airbnb. 

Furthermore, of course we don't want the claim to be filed _before_ the responsible guests leave a review! Most guests react badly and retaliate if asked to pay. I am yet to meet a guest simply adimitting to breaking something with "My bad, here is the $100 you requested". What is _even the point_ of the procedure requiring asking money from guests???

[Maria2696]

That’s amazing news as I’m one of those still awaiting a claim and payout to a lot of damages done by a guest. It’s a very stressful situation and it has takes so long and makes me worried for upcoming bookings... What if anything should go wrong again etc. so I’m now contemplating cancelling those bookings as I just don’t feel confident I’m protected. I hope for others hosts in the future, they won’t have to experience a similar situation to mine. Fingers crossed! 

[Roberto838]

I wonder if this will apply to past claims also? Previous guests damaged my property, but they didn't admit it. I tried in all possible ways to understand what happened, because if it really wasn't them, then it meant that a pipe had broken down and I would have had to do major works. I told them to just tell me what happened, that it wasn't necessarily their fault, and maybe if they described exactly what happened, we could find out that there was some fault in my property. They finally admitted the issue - but then Airbnb used my words against me to say that the issue must have been in my property - even if I invited them to come and check as that wasn't the case, and even if it was quite clear how things went.

So if Airbnb puts in place these "tricks" not to pay the hosts and to say that a damage didn't happen, then this post is not going to solve the issue unfortunately. I think we need an injection of trust in the system, because at the moment it looks like Airbnb is just trying to get out of paying damages. 

This is not just based on my personal experience - a quick search on Reddit/Google shows that hosts just don't trust the Host Guarantee scheme.