Hosts need to be aware of aircover/host protection

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

I had a guest that was using our washing machine from 4pm to midnight, she messaged me after the house was already flooded at around 1am. She said that there was f27 code, but she thought it was 27mins left which I think is a stupid excuse because after 27mins and she was still having issues, she should have messaged me immediately. From 4pm to midnight is 8 hours and within that time, i never received not even one message from them. It flooded our entire first floor, we tried saving our carpet but it was still soaking wet after vacuuming it the whole day. We decided to remove the carpet and submitted the claim to airbnb. I have estimates from flooring company, mitigation company, and receipts/similar items of the personal damage and it was $20,000+ ish. After 76 days of waiting from airbnb, airbnb/aircover offered me an insulting amount of $959.50, nowhere close to the amount i filed. I am a superhost with 5 stars reviews for almost 5 years and this is what i get. Aircover also dont have phone number to call, whenever I call airbnb, they tell me a scripted answer which is “we will escalate this to the specialize team and they will get back with me via email”. This could be days to weeks before someone gets back with me. It is so stressful and depressing living in a house where it is damage and I thought after having the report from the 3rd party that airbnb hired, finally i will get the payout to fix my house, but it was just another stressful result. To all the hosts, if you experienced something like this, what should you do? If you have not experienced something like this, pls find a way to protect yourself. Airbnb is not as good as they advertised it to be, airbnb said hosts are covered for up to 2MIL, im only asking help for $20k-ish and they offered me $959.50. This is so sad. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 sadly you have learnt the hard way that Aircover is a) not a proper regulated insurance product (except for liability) and b) it pays a depreciated amount so if the damaged goods were a few years old they would only pay a small percentage of a price from years ago. If it is not too late I would claim on your own insurance policy.

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

Aircover is a joke, nothing than a marketing scheme to get more hosts list their homes. Our home was brand new when we moved in, even a 5 years old carpet that didn’t have any damage at all before this flood shouldn’t be $959.50 out of the $20k claim. I think it is too late to file in our own insurance, we have been waiting for 77 days (today) from airbnb. I dont know what to say to our insurance to why it took us all this long to report. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 I would tell them that you were claiming from Airbnb and it has taken this long to be effectively rejected by them.

I totally agree Aircover is a marketing pitch and do wonder if they could be challenged under false advertising laws.

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

Your homeowners insurance knows you are doing airbnb? Im not sure ours is, i didnt think I needed that coverage because airbnb advertised that we are covered under them. I had claims before and they always paid, highest was $900 ish and airbnb paid it, so I really thought this wont be any different. They even had an adjuster and inspector that came here to make report of the incident. $20k claim and came back with $959.50 offer is not even 5% of the claim. I dont know how they came up with that stupid no. 

We need class action against aircover/airbnb for this false advertisement.

[Helen3]

a horrible situation to find yourself in. 

Standard home owners insurance is invalidated if you are renting out your home for commercial purposes .

you need your own home insurance for short term lets

to be fair Airbnb does make it clear their guarantee only covers limited circumstances and only offers depreciated amounts for replacing goods. Having said that the payout offered seems low. 

you can go to arbitration with Airbnb if you want to dispute what they are offering. I think you have to pay something like $400 dollars and they appoint an independent person to review .

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

It is very low, i asked them a breakdown of how did they come up with that amount vs. the filed claim. Still waiting on their response. I completely understand, but less than 5% was offered to me is really insulting to us a hosts. Thank you for the information, i also filed a complaint on BBB, now i have to wait to get a response both BBB and the specialist team. If this is not resolved, i will proceed with the arbitration and. If someone filed class action, i will also join them. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 You would need to read the Ts and Cs but I think you are also allowed to sue in the small claims court. I don't know if you can claim 20k but its cheaper than arbitration. You signed away your rights to class action when you used Airbnb but I have no idea if that is legally enforceable.

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

I can do both, my state allows up to $20k. That’s just a waiver to deter suing them, there is already class action against airbnb regarding the covid19 forcing the refund to the guests on behalf of airbnb hosts money. Im still doing more research, but i will push this step by step until airbnb pays us the amount of damage. 

[Ana2038]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 , your right to be concerned if your homeowners insurance is unaware you’re running a STR in the home. If you decide to file with your homeowners insurance, I would not disclose your home is an STR/Airbnb. Luckily, my homeowners insurance is aware we have a STR on our primary residence and covers it. I would never ever rely on Aircover/Airbnb to cover damages…etc…

Best—

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

Experiencing this, i will protect myself more. Airbnb does not have our back like they advertise it to be. May I know how much extra payment you make for adding the STR insurance and which homeowner insurance you are with, if you dont mind me asking. 

[Ana2038]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 , we don't pay anything extra unless we wanted to raise our liability coverage an addl 1 mil on top of the current coverage. Now, our home insurance carrier grandfathered our STR unit (sits on same lot as our primary residence). I don't know if they would do the same for new policies.  

Best--

[Drew-and-Ryl0]

That seems like an awesome deal! Thanks for sharing

[Helen3]

I would not suggest Drew lies on an insurance claim @Ana2038 .

1) it's illegal and they can take you to court (or certainly they can in the UK)

2) they would want to know why @Drew-and-Ryl0 @took so long to make a claim and he couldn't tell them the truth. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Drew-and-Ryl0 We absolutely have specialist short term rental insurance for our property - The rebuild cost would be getting on for £1m (not that it is worth that much) so not insuring it is not an option. Most homeowners policies do not cover short term rentals. The bigger issue though is that most homeowner policies are voided not just for the period the property is let but for all periods of time if it is used for STR. As such if the place floods or burns down between guests the host has no coverage whatsoever.