Requesting a refund

[Ekaterini4]

Hi Breanna and fellow hosts.

I am happy to be part of the Airbnb community and share my thoughts and observations with people who might have had similar experiences.

There have been times when guests have damaged something in my house. I have hosted for 2 years now and that has happened rarely. However, the people who have done that were always very decent people and had payed Airbnb and me a considerable amount of money (of the order of 500-1000$).

The damages they made were more than 100$ but they were ordinary in nature, and were the results of simple accidents. For example, staining wooden furniture, scratching paint of cabinets that would require repainting of the whole surface, their dog creating little holes on new sheets, breaking a shower head by dropping it.  

When I signed up with Airbnb I thought that I could document the damage well and Airbnb would cover it. I later realized that first I would have to ask the guest to pay it. I have always found this very awkward to do. In all cases the people who made the damage had taken very good care of the house and were very decent. Some of the damages I let go and didn’t repair. In two cases though, when i requested money from the guests they were not happy at all, they refused to pay and they didn’t leave a review. Fortunately, Airbnb ended up reimbursing me for the damage.

I would like to ask the community how they feel about this Airbnb policy.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ekaterini4 I think Aircover should be scrapped or, as a minimum, it should have an excess (deductible) of $300+ so that it is only used in extreme cases.

[Ekaterini4]

Hi Mike and Jane. Thanks for your answer. I am not sure I understand it though. Do you suggest that in case some guests have made a damage worth $200 I have to repair it out for pocket eventhough my earnings from these guests could have been for example $300?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ekaterini4 In simple terms yes. There are very few proper insurance policies that do not have an excess/deductible. I am amazed that some hosts claim for every last thing such as a towel/sheet which really are just costs of doing business. By all means let the host claim from the guest but why should the rest of us guests/hosts (because that is where the money comes from) pay for other peoples damage.

If you are worried about damage then get an insurance policy and build the cost into your rates.

[Ekaterini4]

Dear Mike and Jane

I believe that one of the main reasons that Airbnb is a popular and successful platform is their damage coverage insurance. I agree about having a deductible but that deductible in my country should be set close to $100 because that is about the average per night rate.