Airbnb just royally screwed me when, for the first time in 5 ½ years, I actually had some serious guest damage!!! I had a couple check in for 3 days and they seemed very nice and happy to be here. Chatted with them for a few minutes when they were on their way home and the girl of the couple seemed a lot more subdued than when they arrived and a few minutes later when I went into the cottage to start stripping the linens, I think I know why: the cotton matelasse' bedspread and the sheets had blood all over the place in addition to pink gum stuck inside one of the pillows, gluing the pillow case to the pillow protector! WTF?! I wasn't sure if I was looking at a crime scene or not. I immediately masked and gloved up and took a bunch of photos and then realized I'm not handling biohazards so I bagged up the king bedspread and the queen sheets/pillowcases/pillow protectors and threw them in the trash along with the gloves and mask. Some blood had seeped through to the waterproof mattress protector but I though I could soak that in bleach for a few days (along with bleach pen and Oxyclean, it's barely noticeable now). Called Airbnb right away and, I'm sorry, but it took me HOURS on the phone to try and find someone I could understand. I get that Airbnb has likely outsourced all of its customer service, but I couldn't really understand the people who sounded like they were in India. I could understand one person at one point who is asking loudly "DO YOU FEEL SAFE?" What? I was online at the same time looking up replacement items for cost and also trying to fill out the damage forms, but I kept coming to a page that wouldn't let me advance. My anger and frustration grows... I eventually get a lady I could understand who is in Latin America (I'm of Hispanic heritage so I can understand Spanish-accented English most of the time, lol!) and this is where it gets real: I tell her the $347.68 it will cost to replace these items will be covered under my security deposit which I have had for years in the amount of $500 (when I kept trying to get the people in India to understand this, I did have someone say something that sounded like they were telling me I DON'T have a security deposit), so could she help me get this going. This Laura A. was super helpful and we got the claim filled out and the photos and explanations downloaded and on its way. Then she digs deeper and finds that while, yes, I DID have a $500 security deposit, it was taken away in the last few months, but she didn't know why. She sent me a screen capture to prove that I formerly had one. The she tells me I have to try and get reimbursed from the guest FIRST. Seriously? This is such bull**bleep**. I have sent several messages to this guest and she never responds, what a surprise. I had to make several more calls and was told by other people that Airbnb has NEVER allowed hosts to have a security deposit. I told them all that's crap and just look at the community forum because hosts have discussed it forever. Apparently Airbnb says guests are now told that their method of payment may be charged for damage, but we, as hosts, are now completely out of the loop and when we have damage, we have to go begging to try and get made right. This is unacceptable to me. So, we are now 12 days later and, after getting several emails telling me that if I don't cooperate by submitting the claim information (which I have now done 7 times), Airbnb tells me they can't help me. Then I get another lady on the phone in India that I could understand a little bit better and she tells me she'll look into this and call me back in 30 minutes. She finally called back 3 hours later. I asked what happened to the 30 minutes she told me initially and she says "Oh, sorry, I decided to take my lunch break." I told her she should have told me that instead of leaving me hanging. I eventually get some other guy who keeps telling me to resubmit and then I got an email from some lady saying this guy was going to be gone for a few days and she's handling his claims but she can't do anything until he returns!!!! I am beyond furious at this point. So now I get this email from this bozo this morning telling me that Airbnb will only reimburse me $96. I didn't realize being an Airbnb host (which has been trouble-free up to this point) meant I would have to actually PAY guests for staying in my cottage and destroying my belongings. Unfortunately, this is my only source of income at the moment, but I'm going to try and find another rental service that allows a security deposit, which is the reason I've never charged a cleaning fee, figuring if there is ever any damage, I'm covered by that deposit. The other thing that sucks is that since I am not going to be getting a review from this guest, I won't be allowed to post one, either, so I can't warn other hosts why I won't rent to this person in the future and they might not want to, either. I feel so screwed by Airbnb right now. I'm fighting the paltry reimbursement figure they came up with, but I'm disillusioned with what Airbnb tries to represent itself as. We supply the vehicle for Airbnb to make millions of dollars every year and they have absolutely taken away our host protections by taking away our security deposits. Has anyone else had an experience like this that you were able to finally get full reimbursement?
