Damage to our home

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Greetings Everyone

I am sharing my story because I feel all hosts need to know how important it is to protect your home from unruly guests. We recently had our first guest in our vacation home on the Columbia River by the Gorge Amphitheatre. Sadly our first experience did not go very well. We met the group coming in (a party of 😎 , we went over the house rules walked them around our home and felt like we connected with them. Our home is a special place in the world, and we really were hoping to attract people that would enjoy it! Unfortunately our guests decided to host a party there and had over 50 people in our home.Our floors subsuquently were damaged (over $14,000). We contacted airbnb , we were directed to message the guests to see if they would pay for the damages, after 3 days of no resolve we were allowed to escalate this to a case manager and seek coverage under the "Host Guarantee". Our case manager asked us to get a bid from a contractor as well as furnish them with the original cost of the flooring (not the easiest thing to find but we did), they had us send pictures of the damage to them as well as getting a professional statement from the contractor. We did all of this (keeping in mind we live over 2 hours away from our vacation home), Airbnb emails us with this; keep in mind the damage is over 800 square feet

Hi Bryan and Lisa,

Thank you for your patience throughout this process.

After careful review of all related documentation and communication, we have issued a $50 security deposit payout for the reported damage. You can view this payout in your Transaction History.

While the documentation you provided far exceeds this amount, Airbnb is only able to reimburse for fair market value of the damaged areas in question. The average laminate flooring costs from $2.40-$4 per square foot and since you have higher grade flooring, we've issued the payout based on $5 per square foot for the 10 feet of estimated damage.

It's been a pleasure to assist you. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this case.

Best regards,

Sydney
www.airbnb.com/help

$50 on damages over $14,000 (we have a $1500 security deposit on our rental who knows were that went) and no further explanation as to how they came up with $50. We have emailed, called and have gotten no support or help, I am shocked as a frequent airbnb traveler I have always had a good experience. But as a host this can't be the way business is conducted, we are devasted. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to where to take this issue?

Sincerely 

Bryan and Lisa

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Heres the latest response; keep in mind our home is on the water valued around $500,000 with numerous other homes valued around the same.

Hi Bryan And Lisa,

Thank you again for your responses and for providing the additional estimate. We appreciate the time you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team and wanted to make certain that we got back to you. After a thorough review of your case, we regret to inform you that we will be upholding this as our final decision.

Upon review of the new estimate and the original photos you provided, Airbnb has determined it it unable to reimburse you as requested. We have found that the photos of the damage you provided as well as fair market value in your area does not warrant and support reimbursement for $5,840.23 in repairs. We regret that this decision has negatively affected you, but we believe this to be a fair resolution, all things considered.

Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with regard to these disputes, which is outlined in our Terms of Service. Now that we have reviewed all facts provided and arrived at a decision, as of July 17, 2017, we consider your case closed, and we will disengage from further discussion on this topic.

All the best,

Sydney

[Barbara620]

Just a question do you have insurance on your short term rental?  and if so wouldn't that have kicked in?

[Betsy28]

This is exactly the reason WHY Airbnb should include a damage deposit towards an insurance policy that will protect its hosts.  

My experience is this:  

I stayed at a condo that I found on www.homeaway.com and  included in my rrental was  a damage insurance that I think costs me $99 but was refundable if there were no damages.  The owner had 15 days after the rental ended to report any damages with photos and a estimate of repairs.  

Is this something that airbnb can seek out for their hosts???  Worried about my property damage.  I don't really want to have to go back and forth with my renters on this issue.  You plan for wear and tear but damages is another issue.  thanks

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Betsy

Thank you for reaching out to us, ideally Airbnb would follow what they advertise but clearly they are not interested in doing so. We are currently waiting to go into the pre-arbitraton process to see if we can settle on something fair!

Thnaks

Bryan and Lisa

[David126]

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[JT-On-Behalf-Of0]

@Bryan-And-Lisa0 I'm so sorry for your situation. I would continue to escalate this issue until you get a supervisor who will stand by you. Good luck!

Deb

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[Mariann4]

So sorry to see your so bad experience @Bryan-And-Lisa0!

Do you tweet? I see others who have had terrible losses due to bad guests and poor jugdement from the CS (they are often young and inexperienced) have tweeted to the founder himself and had different results. His name on Twitter is bchesky. I'm sure he doesn't like to have too much of these sort of things public on his profile. After all Airbnb is advertising that they have their host's back! And that they offer unique houses with personalities. If they want to advertise this they should be up for the cost. I can only imagine what income they have with the fees they charge... Being more helpful towards their hosts are much cheaper than bad reputation...

Mariann

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Thank you so much Mariann for the idea, I do tweet and think that is a good idea! I am truly in shock about this and how we have been treated. So sad, it could be so much more cooperative if they would truly back up their hosts. We are very calm and easy going people, but a $50 offer on a $14,000 bid is awful.

Bryan and Lisa

[Helen3]

So sorry this happened @Bryan-And-Lisa0

You didn't answer an earliery query about you submitting a claim on your specialist home insurance for short term lets.

In your situation I would go to your local broadcast and print media, particularly if you have good photos of the damage.

I'm a little suprised that with a large property to list, you didn't have video coverage for your property which would have meant you could immediately have contacted the guest and police to end the party and had Airbnb cancel the booking.

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Helen

You could have not been more right, we regret very much not having a video feed, never thought it would happen. We met and spoke with the group and truly felt good after we left them! This is our 2nd home and do not have short term coverage available on it, we are currently looking into getting renters coverage and changing the terminology of our policy from a second home to a rental. Sadly, this had to happen before we relized it as a neccessity. Appreciate the feedback as we are learning this after the fact.

Bryan and Lisa

[David126]

@Bryan-And-Lisa0

1. My supposition is that the number of hosts who have insurance that covers short term rentals is tiny
2. Most who have some sort of insurance do not have cover for their STR business
3. Then the issue arises if they did have STR insurance what it would actually cover. Usually would have substantial deductibles and presumably these are several incidents.

[Koda0]

Hello David, I actually sent you a messege on Facebook messenger but I always see posts about protecting the host, is there anything in place for protecting the guest?

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Mariann

Do you have thoughts on how I would message Brian Chesky our situation? Twitter only allows followers to send a DM and the number of characters are limited when tweeting?

Bryan

[Kevin740]

Your story is quite disheartening.  I fear I will encounter the same difficulty.

I have a long term guest (2 months) who is rather careless.  He has repeatedly left puddles of water on bathroom floor because shower curtain wasn't properly closed.  As a result, the room below--the living room--had sustained expensive damage: plaster falling from travelling water from bathroom.

I showed the guest the water dripping from living room ceiling, but he has not seen the fallen plaster about 3 sq. ft.  Do you take this up with the guest?

If airbnb is going to send me a check for $50, that doesn't cut it.

How would you folks handle?  Thanks!  Kevin

[Spencer69]

We just had our Airbnb home trashed by guests. Broken- chairs, window, couch, door, egged the exterior of the home and parking lot, inside was so disgusting it was unbelievable!  Smoked inside(non smoking home), the list goes on and on. The guest did chime in before the 72 hour resolution period was up and admitted to all, claiming she didn't do all of it as it was her other guests that caused lots of damage. Airbnb gave me a $104.00.  Yipee, my time in providing the case, photos, communication with the guest and eventually Airbnb case manager was very costly...time alone. If i new it was a dead end from the start, I wouldn't have attempted to make a claim and go through the time consuming process. Airbnb did the same to me as with Bryan and Lisa by "ending all further communication" as the case is closed...."so sorry".... really?  This company should be turned into the attorney general as Airbnb continues to cause harm the public; fraud, false adverstising-claiming "host guarantee" but not paying appropriately to hosts with well proven and documented  damages and in my case, the guest even admitted to causing the damages.  WOW Airbnb