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.

[Stephanie365]

@Emilie  @Catherine-Powell    @Sybe   @Quincy  @Lizzie   considering how awful AirCover is proving to be, can anyone explain why we can no longer charge a security deposit?

Clearly it's not because AirBNB prohibits them because some hosts can charge them. The bigger corporate entities and multiple property owners who use a channel manager are allowed to charge. Why aren't smaller hosts allowed to protect their assets, too? This is rather classist and discriminatory since the rules are not being applied equally to all hosts.

Allowing hosts to charge a security deposit would certainly cut down on the careless damage by guests knowing they would actually lose their deposit instead of just telling AirBNB to kiss off when they break something. They would actually be more respectful when they have skin in the game.

I'm still waiting for "Anna L" to get back to me about my claim. 

[Alyssa378]

I couldn't agree more. The idea of Aircover was meant to assure of protection of our homes and valuables at a higher coverage than what we were charging as a deposit. This assurance was the only thing keeping me on the Airbnb platform – which has gotten more and more demanding, time-consuming, and frustrating for hosts who, when anything goes wrong, have to talk to Airbnb Assistance representatives that are there to "help", but are almost entirely unable to do anything. Everything is out of their hands and they do not read your specific situation with any common sense, but simply send you links to their codes and conditions and wish you luck as a valued host.

A deposit would have least covered some of the cost that I am very unsuccessfully trying to recover from a guest that broke our washing machine. This is not a huge claim and the guest has clearly admitted to it being their fault, but Airbnb will not even open the claim based on the submission time (which was delayed due to waiting on the technician's official diagnosis/solution). 
The support team and Airbnb policies and standards – meant to "protect our community" as "Adriana" told me today –  are only there for them to easily and inexpensively fall back on and to protect Airbnb. These policies only support big businesses and unfortunately, the smaller hosts (which are how Airbnb started in the first place), are no longer cared for whilst having to bend over backward trying to keep up with new standards and requirements.

Following the very frustrating and irrational email thread from today, I will be getting my apartment on other platforms that are growing against Airbnb so I can stop using Airbnb. I have been a host and user for over a decade and although had put a lot of energy into building up reviews and standards, it looks like it is no longer worth saving.

I know I am not alone in this as many other friends and hosts I have are having the same issues and are slowly moving to other platforms.

[Maja280]

Hi Alyssa,

I'm new to this as a host so I wonder what are other hosting applications besides VRBO?

[Elizabeth2671]

On July 2022, I had a couple with several dogs coming to my brand new house in Paris. They left the house on a terrible state, dirty with dogs sleeping in our beds but more important with extremely deep and expensive damages including breaking tiles and sink in our brand new marble luxury bathrooms.

We immediately request Air Cover  that in the first week insured us that the damages will be refunded. We did then the reparation for more than, 4 900€ of costs. 

Since then, and after requesting from all invoices, airbnb has totally abandoned us in that situation. We sent more than 90 emails, I have made more than 85 calls to the client service with all the time a promise of the service to be called back for a quick resolution and with never any called made. 

I could never imagine such a way for airbnb to treat their clients. I have filled a police report, even wrote to the director or AIRBNB France Emmanuel Marill, and still, strictly NO ACTION from airbnb. 

Has someone already experienced such a chaotic experience with airbnb ? 

[Jenine15]

Yes I have! Over $6000 in damages. Refused the way we do police reports in Queensland Australia (all online) all you get is a number, refused all receipts and cut all communication 

[Jenny]

Hi @Elizabeth2671 

I'm sorry to hear you've not had a response on this.

I've passed your details over to Airbnb Support and asked if they can provide you with an update, and I've let them know that this has been ongoing since July.

I hope you hear from them soon.

Jenny

[Paul9467]

I’ve been having so many issues with aircover and no one reached out to me. I requested that someone reach out on July 18th and they said they would call and no one ever did. I have more than 2k worth of damage done to my property along with stolen items and Airbnb told me I need to pay for the items and then they’ll reimburse me… meanwhile I can’t afford to do this because Airbnb won’t cover my losses. Aircover is an absolute joke. I used it one other time for a $300 planter that was smashed in the house. The guest agreed that $150 was fair but aircover only paid me $6 and said that was the market standard! What an absolute nightmare Airbnb has been.

[Colin168]

I've been waiting 4 months for Airbnb to pay out an AirCover claim for some serious smoke damage to my condo. All I get is weekly emails from their overseas customer service center thanking me for my patience and letting me know they are going on their "rest" for a few days. I made a huge miscalculation that they would pay me the $2000 claim so I could get up and running again. My bad. As a result, I have cancelled over $8k of bookings (which would have brought in close to $1k for Airbnb in service fees), and I have no idea when I can afford to start up again. I feel really screwed over by Airbnb, and the dozens of service reps that have thanked me for being a SuperHost, while doing nothing for me, has made it all the worse. 

[John1512]

Sadly, it's good to know we're not the only one's who have recently been told by their AirCover rep that they'll get back to us after they return from medical leave. That's right, medical leave. Hey, we empathize with the need to convalesce but perhaps transfer us to another rep first? When they finally "returned," they then said they were going on "rest days," just like yours did, and would get back to us after they were rested. Still waiting for our claim to be handled a month later, a very well documented, very cut & dry claim. Has anyone found a way to escalate or is that just farfetched with Airbnb these days? After 5 yrs of hosting, I'm continually baffled by all the many ways their customer service challenges our loyalty. Decent customer service isn't easy but it's not impossible. Like why can't we review the Airbnb team members like we do guests + hosts?

[Eddie313]

I write to express my profound disappointment and concern regarding a recent experience with Airbnb. Despite assurances from the company's founder that Airbnb Cover would provide support in case of damage to our property, I have faced significant challenges in securing compensation.

For context, my property has a rating of 4.87 based on 99 reviews, indicative of our consistent quality and commitment to guests. Unfortunately, during a recent stay, a guest accessed our cleaning cellar without authorization, utilized all the available linen and pillows, left considerable disarray, and damaged a curtain.

Upon discovering this, I promptly reached out to Airbnb's customer service to gain clarity on the correct protocol for filing a claim. The representative assured me that they would handle the claim on my behalf. After completing the required documentation, I was surprised to find that my claim was closed due to a supposed lack of response to a message, which I never received. Persistent follow-ups were met with repeated assurances that a specialized team was addressing the issue. However, after a month, I was informed that my claim was closed due to incorrect procedure, namely, that I should have contacted the guest prior to initiating the claim, even though this step was taken by Airbnb on my behalf.

It's worth noting that my claim was a mere total of $90 USD: $20 for additional cleaning and $70 for the damaged curtain. Given the circumstances and the negligible sum involved, this ordeal has considerably altered my perception of Airbnb.

[Mae379]

We’ve had similar experiences with Airbnb not covering damages. I’ve made only 2 claims for damages in 8 years as superhost. One for $50 and recently for $533. Both were closed by Airbnb claiming they’d tried to reach me about my claim and closed the case. Airbnb claims department NEVER called or messaged me to follow up about my claims. Despite my documented attempts to reach them! And this last claim was against an outrageous abusive guest that harassed us and left a homophobic voicemail, which was well documented. Airbnb took down my review of this guest because I quoted his voicemail! Even though I did not spell out his profanity!!
Airbnb needs to do better than this for its dedicated superhosts 😞

[Zheng49]

I also had an aircover claim that was slashed. 

One of the guests scratched the floor extensively with the chair. It cost $1000 to repair the floor but airbnb customer support said that this is normal wear and tear. It's definately not! No guests have ever done this kind of damage to my floor before in my 2+ years of hosting. 

Although to be fair, I did get partially compensated for the damages done to my room. But it does have me questioning whether aircover can sufficiently protect me in the future.