Options Bad guests, worse response from Airbnb

[Jason843]

Am extremely disappointed in the way my home has been treated and non-existence of help and understanding from Airbnb.

Guest from March 6, 2019 – March 12, 2019 recently occupied my house.

From the very beginning, I knew this was going to be a tough guest. He wanted me to lower the cost of pool heat repeatedly. I was very accommodating by reducing the pool heat from $25.00 per a day to $20.00 per a day. I also let him check out an hour later even when I had more guests coming into the house that afternoon. In my house’s listing, there are multiple ways to contact my property manager or myself if they need anything, have any issues, questions, concerns, or damages. This contact information is in multiple locations.

In multiple locations on my Airbnb listing, we let the guests know not to touch the pool valves or anything with adjusting the pool/heater (see “Other things to note”, “Guest interaction” and “Additional rules”). In the “Additional rules”, it clearly states, “that tampering with the heating or pump equipment located outside the pool enclosure is prohibited and will incur additional costs”. We also keep a guest guidebook with all the same information. After guest left the house my property manager made his normal rounds and had his cleaners ready the house for the next guest.

Upon inspection, the hot tub was completely empty, the valves on the pool pump valves had been moved, and the circuit breakers had been tampered with. The result of this action caused my property manager to call in the pool caretaker on emergency to reset the valves to get water flowing through the pump again. The pump was running without water. This can cause permanent damage to the pump. My neighbor witnessed the tampering and told the guests they are not to touch the pool equipment. The result of this is that I will have to pay an additional $250.00 in my monthly invoice because I had to have the pool caretaker come out on an emergency.

I get a monthly invoice for all services I have to pay. I do not get charged right away. Invoice should be received between April 1 – April 10.
The Trust and Safety department has emailed me that this is not a case where I can get money from the guest. My case has been closed multiple times even after me asking to keep it open. I have asked to be contacted directly so that I may understand why.
I really need to understand why a guest’s action, that is clearly detailed in the listing multiple times, results in me having to have a service call to remedy what the guest had done is not something that I can have a guest pay for. If the guest never touched the valves or pool equipment, I would not have had to call out the pool caretaker on an emergency. Please explain this to me.

I am so very disappointed in Airbnb’s response to this and lack of care for their hosts. If you take the time to look at the history of this guest and the actions they committed you will see they are in fault. I feel that my home is very unsafe having it rented by Airbnb guests. I have no course of action when a guest clearly causes damages. If someone cannot explain “why” a guest’s actions that result in me paying out of pocket is not covered then I will be left with no other decision but to leave Airbnb because my home is not safe.

Please help me to understand why.  I just want to know why.

[Alexandra316 · Accepted solution]

@Jason843 That guest sounds truly awful... really sorry that you're going through that.

I'm going to to explain Airbnb's logic in these kinds of situations: I'm in no way saying it's right, just how it is. If the guest does something and nothing is actually broken - there's no smashed vase, broken table, cut up rug, etc. - Airbnb often won't pay the bill for it. Guest actions like smoking in the unit, making a huge mess that incurs extra cleaning charges, or doing something to the pool like what you describe aren't "damages", as they see it, and are often impossible to collect on. They are actions that cost you extra money, yes, but they aren't viewed as property damage. The terms and conditions are here: https://www.airbnb.ca/terms/host_guarantee if you haven't read them yet.

They very specifically use the words:

Airbnb agrees to pay you, as a Host, to repair or replace your Covered Property (as defined below) damaged or destroyed as a result of a Covered Loss (as defined below), subject to the limitations, exclusions and conditions in the Host Guarantee Terms.

Now even that is subject to all kinds of caveats. If your guest destroyed a $2000 pool pump due to runniung it dry and that pump has been in operation for 7 years, they're going to take depreciation into account. It doesn't matter that it's going to cost $2500 now to replace it, or that it may well have lasted another decade if the guest hadn't been negligent: you will only be awarded a small portion of the replacement cost because it's lessened in value.

In short: don't expect much from the Host Guarantee and you won't be disappointed. Always have your own insurance as well.

[Alexandra316]

@Jason843 I also realized that your place is in the same development as one of my cousins' places. Really funny. Your houses are almost identical, in fact.

[Jason843]

Alexandra, A lot of them are the same.  It is a great community.  We are so happy we purchased the home.

[Alexandra316]

@Jason843 Yes, it's very nice. He Airbnb's his as well.

[Rebecca181]

@Jason843 My listing has a hot tub, which I carefully maintain. Your experience is one of my worst nightmares. I am so very sorry this happened to you. Because of posts here from other disappointed / angry hosts who felt betrayed by Airbnb when it came to covering guest damages, I now carry commercial insurance on my rental (used to use Proper Insure but now use Slice and pay by the night). How you were treated by Airbnb is simply wrong and should not have happened. Airbnb's 'Trust and Safety' department really needs to change it's name to something that reflects how they actually operate - Feel free to reply in a comment here with your ideas, everyone. My mind is too numb at this point to come up with anything clever.

[Jason843]

Rebecca, I hear you. This has been a huge nightmare. Airbnb is missing the big picture here. By them allowing guest to tamper with pool equipment or smoke in a non-smoking home or leaving a huge mess is significantly reducing the quality of our homes.

More to the story
• I have had to pay out of pocket to fix what the guests have done.
• I have since learned they broken into the circuit breaker to override the timer and heater controls.
• This caused me to receive a noise compliant from the HOA.
• They got in a verbal altercation with my neighbor.
• The next guest arrived while the pool equipment was getting fixed.
Here is the impact of Airbnb’s decision.
• I have paid out of pocket to fix what the guests have done.
• I will build a fence or invest in more controls at the pool equipment.
• I will invest in video surveillance so I can see what has taken place.
• I will upgrade the controls so they are on Wi-Fi so I can see and monitor remotely.
• Raise my rates.
• Approve less guests to stay at the home.
• The next guest will not rent from Airbnb again.
Do any of these things sound like we are improving the guest experience?
Instead of investing in my property to improve the guest experience. With this money, I could have done the following.
• Replaced some wore carpets.
• Paint a room or two.
• Added some more fun stuff to the game room.
• Update the kitchen countertops.
• Refinish the cabinets.
• Replace a mattress.
When quality suffers so will Airbnb. If they do not improve their policy towards their hosts, they will lose their hosts or at least the quality of the hosts. If Airbnb want guests like the one I had, all the power to Airbnb. They will go the way of Sears soon.
I ask Airbnb to explain themselves one more time:
How do you let one guest’s actions affect the quality of all the other guests when it is clear the guests did not follow the rules and caused me to pay out of pocket to undo what the guest had done?

Department Names:
Airbnb’s Seek and Destroy your hosts department.
Airbnb’s Shock and Awe their own quality department.
Sorry that is all I got.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jason843 

we wouldn't read this post and many many similiar ones if Airbnb would actually collect a real security deposit.