Hi @Linda108,
Yes, that's true. You have to open the claim before the next check-in time. But you can still request money for a claim 14 days after the fact. The reason we wait is that there have been times that we opened up a claim right away and the guests left a bad review in retribution. They said that their stay was perfect after they checked out. We found they broke the house rules so we asked for extra cleaning payments or to reimburse us for a broken item and they left us negative reviews.
This is what we do now:
-Guest checks out at 11:00 am
-At 3:00 pm we send an automated message thanking them for their stay and asking if there's anything we can do to improve and that we hope we earned five stars.
-The cleaning crew gives us a report: If everything was great we leave a 5-star review.
-If a house rule was broken and we need to open a claim we document the complaint (take pictures of broken items, tobacco residue, etc.) We then contact Airbnb and let them know what happened, we intend to open a claim after we get a review and submit proof.
-We leave an honest review with the guest. They will be notified by Airbnb that we left a review and ask them to do the same.
-We wait until they leave a review. They have 14 days to do so. If they leave a review before the 14 days are up we open the claim right away. Otherwise, we wait until the 14 days are up. To open the claim go to the reservation details page, scroll down and click on "Send or request money" Then select a reason "Damaged or missing items", "Extra services", "Other trip related issues" Then it will ask to upload photos. Once you upload the pictures it will ask you to add a note to the guest. Then submit. If you have a video to submit ask Airbnb when you open the claim to send you an email to which you can reply with the video.
-The guest has 72 hours to accept or reject the claim. After 72 hours you can involve Airbnbif the guests doesn't respond or rejects the claim. Airbnb will contact the guest. If they also have no luck then you can try to access Airbnb's coverage. Luckily we never had to go that far.
I hope the info helped. Let me know if you have any questions or tips. Everyone has different strategies and I would love to hear yours. We are always learning. 🙂