Fraudulent cancelation - AirB&B did nothing

[John2948]

Guests stayed in our very nice ocean front  home in Portland, Maine (20 +5 star rating)  and then made a fraudulent claim about cleanliness and got a full refund without AirB&B even speaking with us.  We made many efforts to connect with them, but their offshore customer service never followed up.  What a great way to get a free vacation!!  AirB&B's  indifference to us as host was amazing.  All they have said is that the case is resolved.   Knowing how unresponsive these folks are to hosts I now plan to actively support a ban that is on the Portland ballot against short-term rentals.   To have this system work the must be real accountability and this has shown AirB&B to have no interest in this.   I hope that more "guests" do not discover this avenue to free lodging. 

[Anonymous]

@John2948  One concern that a lot of hosts had about signing the "Enhanced Cleaning" pledge was that it would create an extra avenue for grifters to demand refunds. Without it, "cleanliness" is somewhat subjective, but once you've promised specific tasks it's much easier to prosecute a case against you. Now that Airbnb plans to make this pledge compulsory, we could be looking at even more abuses of it.

I don't know what the Portland ballot measure is proposing, but it's hard to see how more local restrictions will lead Airbnb and other STR listing sites to a  greater sense of accountability to their users. What tends to happen is that Airbnb et al. continues to profit from listings that violate the restrictions, while law-abiding hosts get thrown under the bus. If you intend to throw your support behind the measure, I hope it's because it's sensible regulation that's good for the community - rather than because of your experience with Airbnb specifically.