Airbnb "Million dollar liability policy" is BS

[Genevieve37]

I had a theft in my home over a week ago and contacted Airbnb and the police immediately. Over $3000 worth of electronics were stolen from my house while I was sleeping! Airbnb said a case manager would be assigned and call me in the next 24-48 hours. Well 72 hours passed and I started calling every morning with them saying it's high priority blah blah, when obviously it's not because now it has been over a week and I still have heard nothing.

I have been doing Airbnb for over 2 years now and used to love and brag about how awesome it was. Now I HATE Airbnb and can see they don't give 2 flips about host protection. I even had problems getting $10 for a ruined hand towel so it's stupid of me to expect they would come through on $3000 for my loss. They literally have done nothing to help and don't respond to my emails.

Without hosts they would not have a business, so they should really try and pay more attention to their customers. If you are a host and are considering or doing Airbnb thinking you are protected with their liability policy think again. They don't care about anything but themselves and $$$

[Home-In-Montreal0]

@Genevieve37: I have rented apartments for over 5 years with airbnb and it happened ONCE to me that i was stolen for a big amount (i think it was 7000 $ but i am not sure exactly as it is 2 years ago) by an airbnb Guest. Airbnb had contacted me by phone saying there was a problem with this guest who had made a last min booking and told me to go and check on him. When i arrived all the appliances (washer, dryer, tv, fridge, stove) were stolen, they were all brand new. i had a police report done and had to buy everything again and airbnb was wonderfull to deal with and paid everything back in the next week or so. They told me that these guests had actually rented 3 apartmetns at the same time in montreal and during the day they were moving things out with a big truck and did probably empty all 3 apatmtents. my cleaning staff saw the truck arriving and some other long term tenants in the building saw the guests move the appliances but they thought they were just movers and that all was ok so no one reacted! but all this to say that YES if it is an airbnb guest that stole everything and if you have a police report and you have bills of things you had to buy to replace stolen items, there is absolutely no reason airbnb would not repay you back. 

all the best to you

joanna (from Home in Montreal)

[Rachael26]

@Home-In-Montreal0

@Genevieve37

Joanna - thank you for your story from 2 yrs ago - and how interesting that Airbnb were the ones to alert you - and perhaps that also helped with your follow up claim. 

What I would be curious to know - and it may help others on here as well - is after that happened - did you change any procedures or policies on how you handle guests and bookings? Did you do anything different, or with items in the property, as a result of that awful theft?

Thanks again for sharing!

[Home-In-Montreal0]

yes it did change things

i now make sure people have fully verified accounts

i ask more questions 

when last minute bookings or if it s a montreal phone number (the thiefs were from montreal, my home city) i call the guest once they have booked to have a PHONE conversation and i FEEL if their story makes sense or if its fraud or not OK people.

we have become very good at this and now have no more problems. but we realised we have many times detected the problems beforehand thanks to screening

[Genevieve37]

Thanks all for feedback and disccusion. I will try to twitter them to see if I can get a response. I have an excel sheet and documentation for all the items, I just have no one who is emailing me back to even respond to the message. I still don't have a case manager so there is no one to go over any procedure. I gathered all the steps on what to do by reading forums because they told me my case manager would tell me the rest.

I'm very jealous on how prompt Airbnb handled your situation I can't imagine how upset I would be. Right now i'm at the stage that it's more about principle that Airbnb should cover the loss and not insurance because otherwise why even have their guarantee. I feel like I walked into a retail store with a major problem and I went to customer service desk and as I started talking they just walked away. (In what world does customer service like that exist???) There is definitely lack of customer service and it's worse than I have ever encountered. 

[Robyn13]

To protect clients airbnb should not allow cancellations until the host is contacted and give at least 24 hours before returning money.

[Robyn13]

Twice I had people contact me saying don't be alarmed if I see a moving truck in the driveway. One time the guy said je and his buddies are movwrs and asked for my address before booming. I declined them asap. You should check on the tenants or have someone check on them. 

To avoid all the stress inveat in cheap furniture from kinini and walmart. Put you nice furnitued/ dishea tv in storage.

[Genevieve37]

Update!! I reached out on twitter today and a few hours later I received a response. I sent them the police report, and documentation on the losses and have been issued a payout. Thank you thank you thank you. My faith in Airbnb has been restored.

Thank you all for responding to my post and helping me through this!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Genevieve37 that's wonderfull news! :)))) I didn't belive you will get anything. Maybe there is hope for Airbnb after all 🙂

Bravo Airbnb!

[Rachael26]

@Genevieve37

Well done! I guess the telephone and email are dead - long live twitter and Facebook (I never thought I would EVER say that! 🙂

Keep on at them and get all your paperwork and estimates ready so there is no more delay.

And please let us know how you get on - we are all rooting for you!

Best Wishes.

[Rachael26]

@Genevieve37

I am so glad AIrbnb came through for you with a settlement.

Why don't you take a minute and write another post -

this time with the heading "Airbnb "Million dollar liability policy" came through for me"  or something similar....

It is great that host issues, complaints and problems get vented and sometimes resolved in these community forums - but not as many success stories or happy endings get published - and I think your story is such a great one - and will be so very useful for many other hosts, new and old, that I think you should share. Especially if there are any tips that you have learnt and what you will do different as a result of the (awful) experience.

But, whatever you decide to do - my congratulations again to you on your result and carry on with your hosting - Best Wishes!

[Zacharias0]

As others have said, Im sorry this has happened to you. Its a AWFUL situation and makes you doubt humanity and makes us all question the trust of strangers. I've been in a similar situation and AirBnB will give you the run around for what seems like an eternity. The case manager will call once and only once and at the most random of times. If you call back asking to speak to one they are NEVER available and I'm sure they don't even exist. The people who pick up the phone should be case managers. You could call 3 times a day 7 days a week and all at different times and the case manager will NEVER be available.

I didn't get paid out and it was delayed two weeks and I told them I would cancel every reservation upcoming and they would have to deal with it if they dont pay me my money. Well after I alerted my upcoming guests to call AirBnB about their soon to be cancelled reservations and actually having one cancel, turning my house off of Instant Book and calling them every day and being really persistent with the person who picked up and talking common sense they eventually paid out my funds. You have to play hard ball with them.

Im not sure why they make it so hard to get your funds so you can be up and running again. Its really pretty awful. Please keep us up to date with how it goes.