AirCover request? GOOD LUCK getting reimbursed for your actual out-of-pocket costs!

[Max-And-Stephanie0]

AirCover is a joke and much worse than the previous system. We had about $6,000 in damages and were very meticulous to gather photos, videos, invoices, and statements from the cleaning and repair crews. I understand how this kind of thing goes, and I respect that Airbnb has a responsibility to carefully review and deny any claims that are poorly supported or where the host is trying to gouge them. I get it.

However, as expected, our request was slashed, but without any kind of real reasoning. There were about thirty people staying for 4 days, drunk and smoking the whole time with unsupervised young children, from diaper age to preteens, running around wildly (per the Ring doorbell). One of the most frustrating examples is that for the smoke remediation service, we used the same crew we've used twice in the past, and we had no problem getting reimbursed 100%. This time, the invoice was cut from almost $1,000 to $250, with the only explanation being "That's industry standard." It absolutely is not. Industry standard in our area is $4,000 for a whole-house service. I've called three times and nobody knows where to refer me. I also emailed over and over asking for a simple response about the Stanley Steemer invoice. We had to have a sofa, rug, and stair runner professionally cleaned due to extreme filth--the rug was literally dragged outside and left in the rain, covered in mud, and the sofa had alcohol and soft drinks spilled on it in addition to nail polish, ground-in food, and cigarette smoke. Despite all evidence being uploaded within about a week, it was never listed on our claim response--they simply overlooked it. And when I pointed it out over and over, I never got a straight response, just a copy-pasted answer.

So I decided to escalate. Guess what? The resolution team member who handled our claim said I didn't need to submit a written notice of dispute (which is what the fine print says to do, by the way), and instead he said I can call and ask to talk to the "concerned department." And then he also gave a different address that's not the same as what's in the fine print. So I called, and yep, the next person I talked to had no idea what I meant. We've moved to sending a written notice of arbitration. Atrocious service. GOOD LUCK if you have an AirCover claim. We are seriously considering moving off this platform.

[Sarah977]

@Max-And-Stephanie0   While I am very sorry you had such extensive damages and totally sympathize with the frustration, disappointment and anger at the abysmal Airbnb customer service, I wonder sometimes why off-site hosts of entire home listings, which are the most prone to party/damage issues, expect Airbnb to be able to keep paying out multiple claims of thousands of dollars.

I don't know the circumstances of this house trashing you had, but there are many ways hosts can avoid or deal with these scenarios before so much damage can occur. I'm not trying to blame the victim here, just saying that hosts can't just assume Airbnb will cover any damages. I agree they mislead hosts into thinking Airbnb will support them, and that is unaccceptable, but hosts really need to have systems in place for prevention of bad scenarios in the first place, and their own str insurance.

For instance, when you see a party going on or more people entering on your cameras, it needs to be acted upon immediately, booting out the extras, or all of them, hopefully pre-empting extensive damages.

[Max-And-Stephanie0]

@Sarah977 Listen, I get it, I know that. We've been doing this for years and don't expect Airbnb to reimburse for broken items, or definitely not at full value--that's what contents coverage is for. And we don't even expect them to pay for lost revenue due to canceled bookings, even though that's something they guarantee. I'd even go so far as to say we don't expect them to pay our cleaning invoices in full. What I DO expect is a certain level of competence in reviewing the claim--i.e., not overlooking items that were fully catalogued and submitted on time, not denying invoices without justification given, and not reducing invoices to thousands of dollars below industry standard. Beyond that, I'd also hope to have a clear, actionable dispute process--hosts should be able to escalate claims without this level of hassle. The fact that our remediation specialist told us two incorrect things about escalation shows me either the system isn't in place, or the training is severely lacking. Our specialist told us to call and they'd escalate; I called three times. Each time they said "it's with the right department," and yet nobody else other than "Andrew D" reviewed the claim, ever. Then Andrew also told us to submit in writing to an address other than what's found in the fine print. Again, we know how to do this. We know we need other protections in place (e.g., real insurance, a rigorous vetting process), and we have them in place. We also have an emergency fund for things just like this, and we used it. I'm just frustrated because Airbnb makes big promises and categorically does not back them up. Really hope you never have to deal with something like this, because if you do, you'll see what I mean.

[Max-And-Stephanie0]

Oh, I will say in this case we didn't check the Ring doorbell during their stay because my husband was out of the country and I was dealing with a very sick kid. It just happened to be the perfect storm. And I would have thought the AirCover policy exists just for this type of situation. Nope.

[Kathleen819]

I thought we are prohibited from having security cameras

[Max-And-Stephanie0]

@Kathleen819 You aren't prohibited from having them as long as they are disclosed and they are only located in common areas! We only have one on the exterior, none on the interior. Most hosts I know have a Ring so they can keep an eye on things. Highly recommend that investment.

[Stephanie365]

Only on the interior. Exterior cameras are allowed as long as they're disclosed.

[Todd647]

Only on the interior spaces. Outside they are permitted - and a must.

[Daniel9196]

The point is that Airbnb flat out lies on their website to get hosts to list with them. Most of what is on https://www.airbnb.com/aircover is completely untrue. "Host damage protection covers you if your place or belongings ever get damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay." That's the protection promised by Airbnb. The Host Damage Protection they "say" they have is 90% of the reason I felt comfortable enough to list on Airbnb. But as I'm seeing from all the comments, It's all completely untrue and just a scam/fraud from Airbnb to get us hosts to list with them. After reading through the T&C's it seems that unless the damaged item is brand new, you won't see any money for repair or replacement. They have the terms in place to weasel out of any claim.

If Airbnb is Treating hosts like criminals needing to prove their innocence, I'm amazed they are still in business. But I guess enough hosts like myself list thinking Airbnb protects their hosts from damages as they promise, and don't realize it's a lie until they need to make a claim, which thankfully doesn't happen often for most of us.

Does Airbnb not realize that without hosts they have no product to sell and therefore no company??

And I don't know about anybody else, but in Canada I could not find an insurance company that would cover me for anything related to Airbnb. It took me a long time to find a company that would sell me House insurance for just me BECAUSE of the Airbnb rental under the same roof. Some would if I rented for less than 150 days a year, some 170. But even those would not cover anything related to the rental. (So I'm not sure why they have a stipulation in place for something they won't cover anyway)

If you are reading this and haven't done so, contact your insurance provider and make sure they will cover you if you rent any part of your house out as a short-term rental. Most don't, and you won't realize this until your future insurance claim is denied.

[Emilie]

@Daniel9196 I appreciate your honest feedback on this, thanks for sharing your concerns about Aircover here. I just wanted to check as well, have you run into any issues yourself? If so I'd love to hear more about it so we can try and help!

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Daniel9196]

@Emilie  @Catherine-Powell 

"AirCover: Top-to-bottom protection" what a load of lies. Most of what is on https://www.airbnb.com/aircover is completely untrue. "Host damage protection covers you if your place or belongings ever get damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay." That's the protection promised by Airbnb. The Host Damage Protection they "say" they have is 90% of the reason I felt comfortable enough to list on Airbnb. But as I'm seeing from all the comments, It's all completely untrue and just a scam/fraud from Airbnb to get us hosts to list with them.

I had a guest damage the Washing machine making it completely in-operable. After submitting every single thing required as listed under the Reimbursment Process on the Host Damage Protection page, I was told that wasn't enough and they needed a "Damage report from a reputable company". They then told me that the first one submitted wasn't good enough because it didn't say with "Certainty" how the guest broke it. It then took me almost a month of going through every repair company in the city to find one that was willing to Guess with "Certainty" how the guest might have broken it. Most company's either told me that wasn't their job, or they didn't want to guess in writing due to liability issues with the third parties involved. After getting a sufficient damage report submitted, I was told "We will proceed with the payout".  "Oh great" I thought. Then 5 days later I'm told because the washing machine was 10 years old that it has no value and they will pay $0 for it's repair or replacement. (so why did they jerk me around for a month to get a Damage report if they had no intention of paying in the first place?)

But then said they contacted their supervisor and will pay 20% of the repair(So generous!)...

So basically the fine print under Host Damage Protection means for my listing that, with the exception of the new fridge and hotplate, the guest could destroy every other appliance and piece of furniture in my unit and Aircover would pay me $0 to repair or replace the damaged items because of the  "proper deduction for obsolescence and physical depreciation"

However this wouldn't have bothered me so much if they were just honest up front about it, instead of telling hosts lies like "Host damage protection covers you if your place or belongings ever get damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay." In Canada I could not find a home insurance company that would cover anything to do with Airbnb. I had an almost impossible time trying to find insurance that would cover just Me because of the Airbnb rental under the same roof. I finally did, but they won't cover anything related to the rental. I foolishly thought that would be fine because Airbnb offers and brags about their "$1M damage protection". Which doesn't actually exist for hosts. Lesson learned, I will keep looking to find insurance to cover my listing. But in the meantime I've taken down my listing and am trying to decide if I even keep using a company like this that upfront lies to their hosts. I will probably end up switching to another company that is at least honest up front about what they cover and don't cover.

[Daniel9196]

And when I posted this as a discussion it was quietly removed without notification or reason...

[Sarah977]

@Daniel9196  A lot of users who post complaints here are under the impression that their post was removed because it was critical, but as you can see, this forum is full of critical posts from users.

What you think was removal isn't. Many times when you submit a post, especially if it is long, it "times out" and when you hit reply, it disappears into cyberspace. It's a site glitch that has been complained about before, but it appears that the programmers have no interest in fixing it.

The only posts which get removed by the moderators here are those that violate the forum policies- expressing discrimination, using profanity, personal attacks, advertising, etc. 

Posts aren't removed for ranting about Airbnb practices.

Next time you write a post, copy it before hitting Reply, so if it disappears, you can easily just paste it back into a new message box and repost.

[Daniel9196]

Thanks @Sarah977 . The post was still there the day after I wrote it when I looked at my profile, but since then has "magically" dissappeared. As has a comment I posted somewhere else. When you look at my profile it shows 10 Posts created. But when I click "View All" it only shows 8.

I'd appreciate it if you could check my re-post titled "Aircover: Pretty webpage, Zero substance or follow thru" and let me know if you see any reason it might have violated a forum policy. Wouldn't they contact me to let me know? Ahaha, there I go again expecting "Customer service". My bad. 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Daniel9196  Hey, I'm not customer service, I'm just another lowly host :-). But I've had lots of my posts do a disappearing act before I learned to copy and repaste them.

I can definitely see your new re-post. 

Yeah, I've also seen posters complain that something that was posted then disappeared (not the above issue, but actually appearing and then disappearing as you say yours did) and one of the moderators responded saying it was some tech glitch, sorry, and reposted it.