@Alan2194
I agree with @Mike-And-Jane0
Don’t be fooled by Airbnb’s seductive support pages claiming that Airbnb is there to help you if something gets damaged. It’s bait.
AirCover? Before you put your trust in it, it’s probably worth understanding exactly what it is.
Is it insurance? No.
In 2023, Airbnb was fined $20,000 by Washington State’s insurance regulator for operating as an “unauthorized insurer” in connection with its Host Damage Protection program, which at the time advertised coverage of up to $1 million for damage caused by guests.
The regulator ordered Airbnb to obtain a specific insurance policy in order to continue offering the program in Washington State, and also required it to review previously denied reimbursement claims. From that point on, claims and the amounts to be paid were supposed to be assessed by an insurance adjuster licensed in the state.
Fortunately, Airbnb now makes this crystal clear in its own terms: Host Damage Protection is not a contract of insurance, is not insurance, and does not replace any insurance policy an Airbnb host may already have or may choose to purchase independently.
So what is it?
It’s basically a form of contractual guarantee. Under Airbnb’s current terms, the primary obligation to compensate you for the damage remains with the guest who caused it. Airbnb steps in, under certain conditions, but only as a guarantor of that obligation.
In plain English: the guest comes first, Airbnb comes second. And that’s where the fun begins.
If a guest breaks something, it’s not enough to say, “I’ve suffered $ 600 in damages, AirCover has to pay me.”
Under the current terms, you’re required to first pursue your claim against the guest and then, if I remember correctly, within 14 days of check-out, make every reasonable effort to recover the amount owed from them.
If the guest doesn’t pay - as is usually the case - you can then move on to filing a claim through Host Damage Protection.
But here’s the catch: any claim you make to Airbnb has to be backed up by legitimate, verifiable evidence of the damage: photos, documents, repair estimates, proof of ownership, etc.
So this is not an insurance policy that works like: “Your property was damaged? Send us the invoice and we’ll reimburse you.”
No. It’s a ****** contractual mechanism, subject to conditions, limits, and exclusions. Under the current terms, Airbnb says it will process the claim within a “reasonable period of time” after receiving the form and all the necessary documentation.
How long that takes depends on the amount being claimed, the nature of the damage, how complete the documentation is, how many claims they’re dealing with at the time, and a number of other factors nobody really knows anything about.
So no: there’s absolutely no promise of an immediate payout. And for anyone renting out a property, that’s not exactly a minor detail.
Because it can happen that, for an $800 claim, after the usual AirCover back-and-forth, after screenshots and repair estimates, if you’re lucky, after an exhausting round of haggling with an Airbnb agent who, after giving you the full runaround from Dublin, Ankara, or God knows where, will pull out response 86/E from the “internal AirCover rulebook” you eventually reach a “settlement” at $300.
I’m not saying it will always go that way. Maybe the stars will align, the planets will cooperate, and everything will work exactly as it’s supposed to. I’m just telling you to be prepared, because it can happen that Airbnb won’t cough up a ****** thing or that you do get your money, just not all of it.
