An amazing experience

[Daniel7514]

I have to tell you a story (its a bit funny)😅, so I went to let two guests into an Airbnb that they rented for 28 days🏠, they arrived at 11am on a Saturday and all was great☑️. Later in the day (at around 5pm), I get a personal message on Instagram that said: 📲

"Hello Daniel,

Apologies for contacting you so informally however this is my only way to communicate.
This is ** from Apartment ** that rented on Airbnb.
So we kinda locked ourselves out in the balcony and locked the door as well.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused however we kindly ask for your assistance."

So I get there 🏎 and I see them on the balcony,🤣😂 I laughed at them when I saw them I couldn't help myself, they laughed too and we all laughed together 🤣😂(all fun and games before we knew what this was going to cost😱🤑💸) I went there to try and help them with the spare key which did not turn because they had the original key inserted into the other side of the door🚪 while they were locked on the balcony behind the sliding door.

I had to call a locksmith out🔑, he informed me he needed to break the door lock in half to open the door and then replace the entire lock with a new one🔨🔧.

I informed the guest and they agreed and accepted that the costs will be covered by them 💵(because I mean I didn't lock them on the balcony🤣) little did they know that this locksmith was probably from Dubai or something because when I got the bill it was R3 485 💸💵. Although the guests did feel the locksmith was truly expensive, they agreed to pay.

My insurance would not pay because of the circumstances🔨🚪 so I decided to see if Airbnb could help me using their resolution centre💻. I uploaded all the photos and invoice with an explanation and within 1 hour⏱ of me sending the refurbishment request to the resolution centre at Airbnb they responded with this:✍️

"Hello,
Thanks for reaching out to us, we’re terribly sorry to hear of the damages incurred during this stay.

We would like to confirm that payment has been processed to your preferred payout account for the property damage you documented within the Resolution Center.

Situations like these are rare, and I hope you'll go on to have many more positive hosting experiences in the future.

Thank you for being a great host!

Happy hosting,
Airbnb"

😍🚪🔑🔨🔧💵 No stress, no argument nothing. they paid the full amount in 1 hour of escalating the claim to Airbnb

[Robin4]

@Daniel7514 

Daniel, it's always nice when a user comes here and tells us of the success they have had using the Airbnb resolution process. We hear of so many complaints, but it seems bad news travels faster and further than good news, so thanks for taking the time to let us know.

If I can just make one comment, emoji's seem to have taken over the world but, I have always regarded them as being the province of personal communication. I spent so much time trying to decipher your mass of emoji's I lost the total gist of your post!!!

Try to limit your use of them to maybe one or two at the end of the post rather than hitching multiple examples to every sentence.

It takes away a lot of the impact of what you have to say!

Cheers......Rob😉

[Daniel7514]

Hi Rob,

thank you for your positive comment, I agree, credit must be given where it is due. thanks for the feedback about my excessive use of emojis, it is duly noted. 

I love your listing in Australia by the way, I'm so glad it's doing so well. I hope to travel to Australia one day and stay a few nights. 

have a lovely day. 

Daniel 😁

[Robin4]

@Daniel7514 

Apart from marrying the girl of my dreams Airbnb is one of the best things I have done in my life. Beautiful people just keep coming and enriching our lives. 

I have never had to use the resources of the Resolution Centre....I have a damage fund built into my listing amount that I dip into when something minor happens, as it does from time to time. That way I don't have to hassle anyone, I just put it right and get on with the business of hosting and making money.

Daniel, the door is always open for you mate!

Cheers.......Rob

[Ann72]

@Daniel7514  I ❤️ emojis 😂

[Ann72]

@Daniel7514  Great story!!!  Like @Robin4, I'm so glad you shared this because of its positive outcome.

Last month I had a guest who ruined a set of sheets and refused to pay.  She blamed me for having expensive sheets lol.  Bada bing bada boom, Airbnb came through without batting an eye.

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

The guest wouldn't have known the replacement cost of the sheets if she hadn't ruined the set that you were gracious enough to provide for her use.

[Ann72]

@Debra300  Yes, but it's an amusing detail.  I work with novelists, remember?  🙂

[John_Cathy0]

I wish I had the same results. We had a guest clean out our unit (50"tv ,sheets, towels, furniture) and have had 7 claim associates and multiple texts asking if problem resolved never able to actually speak with a

resolution member. Very upset as they did indicate that this individual was vetted to book airbnb!  The service sure has changed!!

[Lise120]

je pense effectivement que cela change, car j'ai sollicité le centre et j'attends la réponse, ce qui n'était pas comme ça l'année dernière. De plus je trouve qu'effectivement les vérifications ne sont pas faites correctement, en ce moment j'ai une réservation faite au nom d'une personne femme et j'ai accueilli un homme à la place, airbnb ne m'a pas répondu.. Il faudrait que cela soit plus rigoureux sur le formulaire de réservation à savoir que la réservation est nominative et que si une autre personne se présente à la porte, on puisse le refuser, sans remboursement, d'autant plus qu'on ne connait pas son identité, ni les commentaires..

[Odessa-and-James0]

@Daniel7514 

Wonderful story! I believe a good sense of humor goes a longgg way in this business!

So awesome of Airbnb to help you out. I think they're fantastic!

Cheers!!

Odessa Christiana

[Jennifer2550]

You are a wonderful host!  Cheers

[Huma0]

@Daniel7514 

I had a similar experience when a guest broke the front door lock leaving me trapped in the house, which I only realised just before some new guests were checking in. My experience was not so funny at the time, especially as the guest did not want to pay for it. This was an expensive, high quality lock and replacing it, with locksmith's fees and all was going to cost over £400. 

However, I was surprised how quick and easy it was to sort out with Airbnb. I just had to provide the quote from the locksmith, photos of the broken lock and they had the correspondence between me and the guest which made it pretty obvious that he had broken it. I have no idea if they accessed the guest's deposit (that was only £300 anyway) or paid the whole amount out of their Host Guarantee. Either way, I got reimbursed to the penny.

I am getting the impression from a lot of posts on the CC that hosts have more success with medium sized claims like ours, rather than larger ones like @John_Cathy0 . It seems that when there's a lot of money involved, the case managers are probably briefed to try to find a way out of paying for it.