Damage to our Rental.....

[Kathy252]

It's rare, but it happens.  It happened to us this last weekend -- a guest who did not follow our house instructions -- left trash strewn about our home, dishes, everything looked like a trashed hotel room.  On top of that, they broke several pieces of our dishwater and stained our beautiful slip covered on our dining room chairs.  I immediately called the Superhost line and was helped by a man with a thick Spanish accent that was somewhat dismissive, and provided several warnings about what a guest could do in these circumstances.  Seems like AIRBNB has long been "guest" centered vs. protecting its' hosts.  We learned that if we filed a claim, the guest would certainly get an email, and could potentially leave a retaliatory review.  Those experienced superhosts know what I mean.  It would be great if they had our back, but I was not provided with any reassurance whatsoever; instead, I was told that we just have to accept whatever review they provide unless it's extortion of some kind.  This is simply not acceptable to us.  Now, we don't even want to make a claim against the $400.00 in damage they cause.  This should not be how this process works!  Anyone.....??

[Sarah977]

@Kathy252  It shouldn't be how it works, but it is.

Hosts definitely have to weigh whether it's worth it to file a claim. It's certainly not worth it for small items like stained towels or bedding or a few broken dishes. And replacing those kinds of things are part and parcel of being in the short term rental business.

The fear of a bad review really needs to not be taken into consideration, though, if the damages are more extensive. So the bad guest leaves a bad review, so what. It could be a big concern for a new host who has hardly any reviews yet,but for hosts with pages of reviews, it's not nearly as big a deal as hosts seem to think it is. 

Firstly, you can leave a review  response. The briefer the better- "This is a revenge review given in response to this guest being asked to pay for the extensive damages they caused. Please refer to our other reviews for an accurate account of what to expect when booking with us."

Guests aren't as stupid or gullible as hosts seem to think. They aren't going to believe your place is a filthy dump when you have scores of reviews saying it was lovely and immaculate. Nor are they inclined to slog through the type of long ranting reviews full of bogus complaints that revenge reviewers often leave.

[Kathy252]

Thanks Sarah.  Sound reasoning.

[Anonymous]

@Kathy252   Without knowing all the specifics of your conversation with this service rep, I actually can't glean that he did anything wrong (and with all due respect, as a fellow Californian I'm sure you're more than capable of fielding Spanish-accented English without it needing to be an issue).

It is objectively true that initiating a request for damage compensation requires you to contact the guest first. Why wouldn't it? Airbnb doesn't want to just finance less scrupulous hosts' home renovations by letting them bypass the mediation step and demand a direct payment for alleged damage. And if you were a guest who felt unjustly accused of damage you didn't cause, surely you'd be pretty outraged if you were also denied the right to post an honest review of your experience. 

I agree with @Sarah977  on this one. Doing the right thing always has unpleasant consequences, especially when it comes at someone else's expense - that's just an unfairness built into everything in life. You just have to decide whether the claim is worth the likely negative review. So far you have across-the-board excellent ratings, so I don't think you have as much to lose there as a newer host would. But if you still feel that this is a dilemma your listing service is obliged to protect you from, I'm afraid I can't recommend an alternative company that works that way. Good luck with that.

[Kathy252]

Andrew and Sarah, thank you -- sound reasoning.  And yes, you have to weigh out all these issues.  With all that being said, I do feel that AIRBNB is less "host" centered than being "guest" centered.  I do find VRBO to be much fairer to its' hosts.  I guess you have to decide which platform best suits you.  99% of the time, our guests are all amazing, then you get the one set that steers everything upside down.  Ugh.  Thanks again.

[Sarah977]

@Kathy252  You certainly won't find any argument from me or any other host re Airbnb's guest-centric attitude. It's a bad state of affairs and extremely disrespectful of hosts. You can bet it's no co-incidence that the length of time for making a claim is exactly the same length of time as the review window.

But hosts who realize how Airbnb operates at least don't have the same expectations as hosts who naively think that Airbnb is their "partner" and will support them. 

We just have to deal with the reality and try to do whatever we can to prevent problems before they can happen, so we never have to deal with customer disservice.