Airbnb's Secret Security Deposit

[Phil-And-Aquilla0]

I have experienced a rather questionable scheme that Airbnb has  set up. A  prospective guest was attempting to make a booking.and asked me if I could waive the $500 security deposit that was showing. I told her we don't have any security deposit!! Anyway I contacted a support agent and we both agreed that it must be a glitch in the system. That seemed to be the end of it. However, a  week later the support agent got back to me and told me she had had feedback from a special handling team about the issue. Apparently it wasn't a bug but something called "Airbnb Security Deposit". This is applied, she went on to say, to some listings that do NOT have a security deposit set so that any reservation booked on that listing could have the "Airbnb Required Security Deposit" collected.

Two points on this. First it would seem like good manners to inform hosts when this is being done to their listings. Secondly it  has the effect of potentially putting off prospective guests. They see a large deposit and they might well go elsewhere. This new scheme has been so under publicized that even the support agents seem unaware of it! I contacted another agent and asked if Airbnb ever imposed security deposits. He was not aware of any such measure. However when I explained what had happened   he investigated further and found out that, yes, Airbnb do now impose deposits. He admitted that this is to protect Airbnb. So much for the much vaunted $ 1,000,000 host guarantee!! An email apparently was sent on the 11th April last year which now I vaguely remember but Airbnb only started general release of the scheme in November.  I suspect, from feedback I have had from other hosts,  that the real reason for this new security deposit scheme is because so many hosts have been unhappy about the way claims have been handled: either they have not got any money back at all  or, if they have, they have  had a lot of hassle getting it!

[Sarah977]

@Phil-And-Aquilla0  Wow, how outrageous! Airbnb comes up with yet another way to screw hosts without their knowledge. If they are actually charging a guest's creidit card for this and holding onto the $ until the stay is over with no damage claim, this would hugely add to their bank account and the interest they are are collecting on these held funds.

[Phil-And-Aquilla0]

Hi @Sarah977.  What was explained to me is that the security deposit is only an authorization rather than an actual payment and that they only charge the guest in the event of an approved claim. But still not happy about it especially as the guest clearly thought it was me requiring the deposit rather than Airbnb! 

[Sarah977]

@Phil-And-Aquilla0  It would certainly disturb me to find out Airbnb was doing this to my guests. I don't charge a security deposit or even a cleaning fee. I host a private room in my home, have lovely guests who have never damaged anything in over 3 years of hosting and cater to a budget-traveler crowd. 

I could see Airbnb doing this to guests who have some history of damage claims against them, that would make sense, but if they are doing this to good guests with good reviews, that's unconscionable.

[Susan151]

@Phil-And-Aquilla0  @Sarah977  I thought that this new policy was announced as part of the post-shooting modifications. AirBNB stated that they could choose to have a security deposit for any guest or listing that was higher risk.

[Sarah977]

@Susan151 @Emilia42  Yes, I remember those emails as well. 

@Phil-And-Aquilla0  Did this guest have any bad reviews or mention of bringing more people than she booked for or having a party or anything like that? 

[Susan151]

@Sarah977  @Phil-And-Aquilla0  You will never know why someone might have been flagged since that will fall into the "privacy" category. It does seem to me that you can't be outraged that AirBNB is doing nothing and then be outraged when they do something.

[Sarah977]

@Susan151  That's very true. But it would be good if Airbnb informed us of exactly the circumstances under which they might apply this security deposit that the host has nothing to do with. They wouldn't need to disclose any "private" information about a specific guest to do this. As I recall, their wording in those emails was quite ambiguous, as are almost all their policy notification emails.

[Phil-And-Aquilla0]

The guest was booking on behalf of her sister who was visiting her so I suppose  that could explain the demand for a deposit.. The guest herself had two previous reviews, both very positive and worked as a nurse in a top local hospital. No mention of bringing more people or having party. The Airbnb support agent that I contacted and who then contacted the guest clearly had no idea about the Airbnb deposit scheme. The guest messaged me: "The Airbnb support told me to ask you if you can remove the security deposit so that I can proceed to my booking." Of course that wasn't possible as it was Airbnb who had imposed the deposit!

[Emilia42]

 Airbnb Customer Service reps really don't know much, so it doesn't surprise me that they were all apparently unaware of this. I did receive an e-mail or two from Airbnb back in April 2019 which talked about the new changes on how they were handling security deposits.

Here are a few community forum threads when the e-mails first started circulating:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Security-Deposit-Changes/m-p/990358

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Security-deposit/m-p/989487

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/140/how-does-airbnb-handle-security-deposits

I believe this was in response to people in a big city in the US booking a place at last minute for one night and then wreaking havoc and deleting their profile. Airbnb or the host could not retrieve any money for damages. 

[Terence47]

This explains why my bookings has gone down dramatically! No point calling air b&b host they’ve never been helpful when dealing with previous issues.  

[Phil-And-Aquilla0]

I've just had this update from the original agent who dealt with the issue:

"This security deposit is now in treatment group, it was ended Dec 2, 2019, it so happened that they extended this experiment, that was why the guest was able to see it. This shouldn't be a problem moving forward, since this experiment was turned off, so future guests will no longer see this information." 

So from this message with the rather strange reference to "treatment group" and the slightly contradictory statement that it ended Dec 2 "but they extended this experiment" it looks like Airbnb has dropped the deposit scheme for the moment at any rate. Nothing like informing people...including your own agents who clearly have no idea of what is going on!

[Portia6]

Treating unknowing hosts as corporate lab rats under in a "treatment group" scheme for the purpose of research & development is just down right shady.  Even if you found a slight passing mention of their right to do this in some fine print of the contract with them that we agree to accept, doesn't make it any less shady either.  Especially since their secret "treatment group" was potentially losing guests/income because of their failed experiment.  

More so, for some reason I seem to remember reading that update and noticing that they would add a deposit on select hosts that chose NOT to have a required deposit, but didn't say how they were going to pick and choose who would be effected.  Don't quote me on that verbatim of course, and I may have just completely dreamt that last night for all I know.