Airbnb does not protect you from damage or awful guests - Here’s what to do to protect yourself

[Heather1338]

We hosted the guests from hell who totally trashed our house, stole things, and broke every rule including having a party. We documented everything they did and got a cleaning quote for a deep clean, and submitted it on the last day possible because it took that long to get everything together and airbnb took 3 days to get back to me and said it was outside of the claim date when their poor customer service took that many days to respond. We took our listing down for many months as we were so mad but eventually put it up with some new protections of our own in place that airbnb does not give you tips for because they only care about making money.

Here’s what we did that has really helped not getting those awful guests and has worked for us in the last year -

Raised our prices

Raised our minimum stay

Lowered our maximum guests

Charge $10 pp for guests over 4

Turned off auto book and decline shady inquiries

Install a front door camera so you can see if extra people outside of the reservation are coming

Left a notice about $250 cleaning fee for leaving it in a poor condition

DECLINE ALL LOCAL GUESTS (these have been everything from prostitutes, drug dealers, and people looking for a place to party) 

And most importantly, check the condition immediately after the guest checks out and start a claim right away.

Air bnb doesn’t care it takes time to notice things are missing or find new damage, they care about themselves and making money, not you as a host or your place.

[Robin4]

@Daniel9196 

Daniel, thanks for your kind response, and that is the great part about being here on the Community Center.

As hosts Daniel, we are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we all have different experiences and issues to deal with, and being a part of the CC enables us to put all those pieces together to form an accurate picture of the life an Airbnb host can expect. It prepares us for the unexpected, those situations we had not thought about.

The first thing I decided to do when I was about to become an Airbnb host was to become active here on the CC. For the first 3 months I never said a thing, never wrote a post or gave an answer, I just watched all the posts and answers, and a few scenarios kept coming up, week after week, month after month.

1/......."I am a host, how do I contact Airbnb by phone, I have an urgent problem and I need to talk to someone and I can't find Airbnb's phone number anywhere!"

2/......."Why will Airbnb not let me use my security deposit? I have set a $300 security deposit, the guest has broken my bedroom window and Airbnb says the guest has to approve the repair before I can use the security deposit to get reimbursed".......

Cant tell you the number of times I saw that one!

3/......"I needed to cancel a reservation because my child was in an auto accident and Airbnb said the cancellation did not meet the 'Extenuating Circumstances' policy and have now penalized me and I have lost my Superhost status".

4/......"Airbnb tells us hosts they have our backs covered with a $1m Host Protection Scheme. The 3rd last guest burnt my kitchen counter-top by putting an oven baking pan on it and I have to replace the counter-top but, because I couldn't get a claim with the photos and a replacement quote to the resolution center before the next guest arrived they are refusing my claim!"

5/......"A guest left after one night of a 4 night stay saying there was too much street noise and  although I said I would partially refund them 2 nights, they gave me a one star review because I didn't give them all their money back. I have contacted the resolution Centre and they have told me there is nothing they can do, the review is within review policy guidelines."

Daniel, reading post after post like these made me realize that Airbnb are a guest centric company! If there is a judgement decision to be made, it will (in most instances) be made in favor of the guest.....and that did, while not exactly frighten me but, it made me vary cautious in what I did with Airbnb. It did enable me to put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, with the help of wonderful contributors here like Dave&Deb from Edmonton.....Clare from Templeton .....Helga from Paris.....Andrea from Amsterdam.....David from Como, and many more.

It made me realize that, the only one covering my back was.....me, and if I was going to make a success out of hosting, I needed to put in place the framework for doing it, not rely on Airbnb! I have never got to a situation where I have thought....'I will let Airbnb sort that one out'!

I have had a situation where I have had 2 entirely separate confirmed Airbnb guests arrive here at my single listing for the same night! Airbnb support were useless so I had to hunt around with local hosts to relocate one of the bookings Airbnb thrust onto me for that one evening! These things are going to happen, and you need to be ready for them when they do.....not hope for the best!

Daniel, don't expect anything and you wont be disappointed! I have listed with other booking platforms at various times and I can't tell you one is any better than another. They all have there good points, and they have their not so good points.....so starting over again on another platform building up your referral base all over again will cost you sh*t loads more than the cost of another washing machine! Put some money aside to be ready for that odd problem that will happen sooner or later!

The main objective with hosting is to keep a steady reliable source of income coming in and the best way to do that is not create waves and find the smoothest course through that Airbnb hosting ocean!

All the best mate.

Cheers.........Rob

[Helen3]

Please can you stop spamming our community to promote your cleaning services @Emil3363 

This is a community for hosts and guests. It is against the terms of this community for commercial services like yours to try and use it for advertising.