Hi,
I recently had a guest stay at my full property rental for one night and it turns out the guest was running a scam. He tricked a young girl into handing over cash and gave her my property keys under the pretence that the property was his and he was renting it out long term. He then disappeared with the keys and left me to deal with the poor upset stranger left in my flat who I then had to deal with. I reported this guest to the police and to Airbnb.
As he had taken my keys and had access to my property, I got an emergency locksmith out at a cost of £135 and as the guest booked through Airbnb I put in a claim with the invoice the locksmith gave me which I assumed would be covered by 'Aircover'.
After I submitted my claim, another Airbnb host left feedback for this guest with a similar story of the guest scamming someone else by pretending they owned the property and leaving without locking up.
I put forward this claim on the 19th March. At first I received very attentive email messages that kept informing me that this was being investigated and that they were going to contact the guest. The guest has blocked my phone number, blocked the female victims phone number and I'm assuming has likely blocked Airbnb so I doubt there is any hope they can claim the funds back via the guest...But I'm covered under the "Airbnb Aircover guarantee" right?
I've just tried to email to chase and now I get an instant 'Postmaster' message saying that Airbnb has blocked my email address. I can no longer message via the email thread for my claim.
Following this, I've used their Airbnb support message system and have just been told this has been raised to the relevant teams and someone will be in touch. I've asked when I could expect a response and asked how I will be responded to, either by phone or email but the team member isn't answering my question.
I am rapidly losing faith in Airbnb as they don't seem to be interested in helping and the fact that I can no longer send them an email and their customer support is shockingly unhelpful and non responsive is concerning me. What happens if a future guest trashes my place or breaks things, when they can't even resolve a simply lock change claim?
Also, the guest is still on the platform and has not been removed. That's at least two hosts now that have complained of a guest causing huge trouble and no action has been taken.
How long do claims normally take and should I be concerned at Airbnb's lack of support?
Many Thanks,
Greg
