Air bnb Aircover Reimbursment Request

[Matt4928]

Hello Everyone.

I am looking for a bit of guidance on a pretty unique situation.

Over a month ago I had a guest commit suicide at my property. It was a very cut and dry case for police which was concluded within 6 hours due to the fact the guest shot himself on facebook live. 

Unfortunately, this left a pretty big mess in the master bedroom because of the blood splatter and spillage. I incurred costs to clean the spillage which included ripping up the hardwood and throwing away basically all of the furniture in the room- totaling about 17k between the cleanup, replacing floors, and furniture.

Well this all had to be done thru aircover which gets sent off to a third party insurance company who collects the evidence: Police report, third party estimates for serviced (Bio-Cleanup, Flooring, comparables for furniture or receipts). This process took about a month to do everything and get approved by the investigator and sent back to air bnb for disbursement. 

Its been 10 days and I still have not heard back from anyone like the investigator said I would.

I've reached out multiple times to support who in turn creates a new ticket and says they cannot do anything, everything outsourced to India and they do not really understand what's going on completely. 

I have tried to contact everyone possible but they say this is outside of their realm and they can upgrade me to a manager but it will be 24 hours and they will email me.. this goes no where every time. 

I'm trying to figure out how to figure out when my money will be sent since my flooring is all ripped up and things need to be replaced.

I finally get a response from a random person with air bnb who says I need to reach out to the ambassador who originally opened my claim, I just emailed her this morning.

Has anyone dealt with anything similar and how did you combat the obstacles?

When did you receive payment?

Is there a person I can contact other than the general support line?

[Fred13]

I doubt anyone has had a similar experience as to a suicide in their place, as to getting reimbursed and now caught in a ping pong game of responsibility and shuffled around from one person to another is the norm the minute a claim is made.

I would venture to predict Airbnb will give you 'something', but 17k is unlikely; after all to what degree are they really responsible for the mental state of a guest if they had no more clue to their madness than anyone else. Airbnb are not psychologists, a police force nor have their own private Swat Team, they are a simple booking agency. Granted at times they sound like they want to be a lot more.

Good luck, you will need a lot of it for this case.

[Robin4]

@Matt4928 

Hello Matt, you know we in the hosting community often say that guests can be pretty thoughtless towards their host, but this situation of yours takes it to the next level.....I understand catastrophic events happen which drive individuals to take extreme action but, it's hard to conceive a person would rent anothers property to commit suicide? Why not just go out in the back yard or the bush and not involve anyone else!

Matt I can understand that this must have been traumatic for you but the problem you are going to find is, Airbnb are not an insurance company, they do not issue a product disclosure statement to define a level of cover. Aircover and its predecessor 'The Host Protection Scheme' were introduced as marketing tools to entice hosts to list with the company. The whole compensation thing is 'airy/fairy'.....it involves external assessors, legal representatives and contractors, and the suitability of any claim for processing is going to be a company adjudicated decision. It is the staff's  duty to minimize financial exposure to damage claims and, as unpleasant and traumatic as it is, I can fully imagine someone in the resolution centre saying....'Hang on, our hosts are treating and washing blood stains out of towels and bed linens on a daily basis how come it requires the entire rebuilding of a room for 17k to get rid of some blood splatter".

Matt, they are going to want to pass the buck!

This will in all probability be seen by the company as a money grab on your part, a bit like the host who submits a claim for $2,800 for a new outdoor setting a guest has ruined with cigarette burns. The host submits photo evidence of the damage and legitimate estimates for the replacement of his outdoor setting.....what he doesn't volunteer is, he paid $350 for that outdoor setting at the local charity shop, an outlay he now wants $2,800 in compensation for! 

What I am saying is, does this clean-up really require an expenditure of 17k?

All I can suggest to you is to stay being very pleasant with your dealings with the resolution centre. Ask them for their help, don't start getting agro because nothing seems to be happening. Support staff will go the extra yard for those clients that are pleasant and ask for help rather than demand it. Resolution is hard, it's hard on you and it's hard on that support rep because he/she is not going to instantly sign away $17k in company funds.

Keep at it Matt but keep these guys batting for you, not against you! 

Cheers.........Rob 

[Fiona256]

You need to claim on your property and contents insurance. What Airbnb offers is, as others have said, just a lure to encourage hosts to sign up. It can't be relied on.

[Pat271]

I don’t have anything constructive to add, but I’m so sorry this happened to you!

[Sudsrung0]

@Matt4928 

What a nightmare for you, I only hope Airbnb do the right thing here and sort you out,

On top of what happened the stress you must be going through, I dont know what I would do,

This is not the first time a guest has rented an Airbnb to commit suicide, there are a few stories out there

[Kelly149]

@Matt4928  I’ve been paid for several claims. 

communication is always sketchy. They want you to respond in detailed, verifiable paperwork. They’ll take 3 vacations during your claim, never explain their reasoning and often make no sense whatsoever. 

they prefer to reimburse vs pre-pay 

they almost always pay deprecated, pennies on the dollar amounts. After-all why should you get new floors for old, is their thinking. 

No, there’s never a way to reach anyone useful. 

sorry for the experience and hope you get relatively compensated very soon. 

[Anonymous]

@Matt4928  The turnaround time for complex and high-value damage claims is often around 6 weeks. I think you can expect to be eventually compensated for the cleanup and flooring, but anything for the furniture would be a surprise. 

One thing the brand really hates is for a disturbing story like yours to go viral on social media, so Twitter might be your best bet for accelerating the process.

[Mariann4]

I read about a similar story in a FB-group where a host had a guest in her basement unit that started out as a guest with a drinking problem and ended up with a guest dying from bleeding out when an arteria bursted. The damage to the unit was substantial due to the guest dying while taking a shower and the blood went with the water all over the unit. The entire unit had to be ripped apart. It was a hard job for this host to get Airbnb on board.

I don't think I can link to a FB-group on here. But if you are on FB you might get lucky if searching for some keywords, @Matt4928 . Maybe her story have some details about how to proceed.