Appealing denial for Air coverage

[Vince3024]

Hi fellow hosts,

I'm hoping to get advice from anyone who has successfully appealed an AirCover Host Damage Protection denial, because I'm stuck and could use the community's experience.

What happened:

A guest checked into my property in the evening. Around midnight, the area lost power due to a PGE area-wide shutoff. My water runs on an electric well pump, so when the power went out, the water stopped flowing. The guest opened faucets/shower fixtures, found no water, and left them in the open position. They then packed up and left the property in the early morning hours.

When PGE restored power later, the well pump kicked back on — and because the fixtures were still open, water flooded the entire home. The damage came to roughly $30,000.

The problem:

I filed my Host Damage Protection claim on time with documentation. AirCover denied it, saying the damages "weren't attributable to a responsible guest." Their reasoning seems to treat the power outage as the cause. But the outage didn't flood my home — the guest leaving the water fixtures open did. Those are two separate things, and I think the denial confused them.

What I have:

• The full Airbnb message thread (guest confirming arrival, reporting no water, and leaving overnight)
• PGE outage and restoration records for the address
• Photos and video of the flood damage
• Itemized repair/remediation invoices

Reference: Claim/Reservation HM2P4ECMKB

My questions for the community:

1. Has anyone gotten an AirCover denial reversed on appeal? What actually worked?
2. Is there a better escalation path than replying to the denial email and calling support?
3. For those who've dealt with negligence-based claims (vs. obvious damage), how did you frame it so the reviewer understood the causal chain?

Any guidance is appreciated. I've valued being part of this platform and just want a fair review of the evidence. Thank you.

[Emiel1]

@Vince3024 

Some questions came to my mind:

Even if fixtures are open, why did water not go into drains ?

Did the guests checked-out in the early morning ?

Did the guest report the "no-water-issue" to you ?

I agree it is rather stupid to leave fixtures open (and leave) after detecting no water comes out.

What about covering by your home insurance ?

[Robin4]

@Vince3024 

Vince, I feel sorry that you have had this experience, but I do to a point have to agree with @Emiel1 .

Sure the guest acted irresponsibly in leaving the faucets on but, on the other hand guests are not supposed to be able to assess and predict the idiosyncrasies of your plumbing system....they naturally assume they are coming into a property with a generally approved functioning water system.

My comment would be, apart from some kitchen sinks, all baths/basins/troughs are fitted with an overflow outlet to prevent flooding from happening, and shower water obviously drains through the shower floor grate. Where were these protections in your property?

Did the guest possibly leave a flexible pressure hose water outlet outside the water containment area? 

Sure the guest is dumb but, if your plumbing system met relevant plumbing standards this should not have been a major issue. I have come into my listing and found appliances left running, electric blankets on the bed, the air-conditioning, a tap left running but no damage has ever resulted. An electric kettle is left running, it automatically turns off before damage can occur. Industry tries to make things as failure/ Id*ot proof as possible.

I say this Vince because I can understand Airbnb walking away from this issue, a guest didn't cause this unless they deliberately damaged the plumbing in some way, a failure in your system caused it, and you have to understand Airbnb is not an insurance company, Aircover is a marketing tool to entice more guests to host with Airbnb! They don't charge you a premium or issue with a policy statement, they adjudicate decisions and there is no legal obligation on their part to cover this, and they do take whatever opportunity they can to limit their exposure to damage claims. 

This damage you should more likely claim from your general household insurer, most covers that are not located in a flood prone area will accept water damage as part of the policy coverage.

Airbnb is a booking platform Vince, don't expect anything more of them than that, as hosts it's up to us to protect ourselves from unexpected events.......including the odd stupid guest!

Cheers.........Rob.