Damage to property

[Ursula31]

My guest broke a china plate and on the morning of check out he apologised and agreed to pay to have it repaired.  I took it to a restorer the next day.  The cost was going to be £120.  He refused to pay so we agreed to go to the Airbnb Resolution Centre.  Airbnb denied my request on the basis that someone else had checked in subsequently.  But, and here is the thing, there was no dispute over culpability.. I am not going to charge anyone else.   The man who broke it is not denying damage but he has disappeared into the ether.. is that right?  Really?

[Anonymous]

@Ursula31  If you submit a Resolution Request, and the guest clicks the button to accept the charge, there shouldn't be any intervention from Airbnb. It only becomes a "claim" if the guest declines the charge.

And to be honest, that charge is absolutely absurd. Why on earth would you supply a fragile china set to guests in which a single piece costs more than your nightly rate? I can see having super expensive crockery if you're renting a historical chateau for £2000 per night, but at your rental rates a guest should not feel like an accidental breakage of a highly breakable item is going to cost them a fortune. You can get a perfectly decent plate at Ikea for £1 that is suitable for a rustic house in the Cotswolds, and keep your heirloom china for your own personal occasions.

[Nanxing0]

It looks like you didn't go through the claim procedure according to what Airbnb asks. If you read the host guarantee instructions, Airbnb specifically said you need to submit the claim and evidence "within 14 days from the guest’s checkout, or before the next guest checks in, whichever is earlier". If you have guest checking in on the same day, what you need to do is to submit a request for money from the reservation before the next guest's check in time, with the photo you took. For the price, just put a number and choose "I'm guessing". Then the guest has 72 hours to respond and you have the time to assess the cost, then you can do adjustment on the price accordingly. 

The host guarantee terms are quite weird, but I have went through the process several times with no issue at all. I have heard a lot of people being frustrated that Airbnb is not paying for their damage, but all due to them not following the procedure precisely. The Airbnb host guarantee is quite picky on this I have to say.

[Sarah977]

Occasional breakage of dishes is considered normal wear and tear and not something reasonable hosts charge a guest for. That you have a plate in your Airbnb that costs that much to repair is absurd. Guests don't need heirloom china or $300 comforters- your Airbnb should be furnished with things that can be easily and inexpensively replaced.

I've never been a guest, but if a host tried to charge me that much for an accidentally broken plate, I'd refuse to pay, too. Most hosts overlook things like that as long as the guest otherwise didn't trash the place and fessed up like your guest did. It's when damage is obviously the result of being geerally disrespectful of the property and the guest trying to hide the evidence, or denying that they did it, that would lead hosts to claim for damage.

@Ursula31

[Sarah977]

P.S. I notice that many of your responses to guest reviews reference things that the guest must have mentioned in private feedback, because the reviews they left were quite positive with no complaints. 

Don't refer to things that the guest didn't say in the written review-you just draw attention to a complaint (whether valid or a result of the guest not bothering to read the listing info)  no one would ever know about otherwise.

And as an aside, I'm not sure if you're aware, but your photo gallery has many duplicate photos.

@Ursula31