We had a guest Dec 19-23 who left the house a complete mess, it was obvious that they had gone against the rule of no parties. Aside from the general mess someone had spilled liquid on an antique table and left it, the cleaner found it when he showed up after check out, the liquid caused over a $1000 of damage to the piece of furniture.
We had another guest checking in just a few hours later and between the extra cleaning from the party and the extra COVID cleaning it was not possible for the cleaner to complete his work and us get the claim submitted prior to the next guest. It is required that you try to seek a resolution with the guest, we did, we still have not heard back. After a few days of no response from the guest we started a claim. The claim was declined, we came back again and tried to seek resolution with the Resolution Center. Again, declined. We escalated the matter to a supervisor who replied....
"For damages to be eligible under our Host Guarantee, Hosts must notify Airbnb and the responsible guest, and attempt to resolve the loss and/or physical damages within 14 days of checkout or before your next guest checks in, whichever is earlier. Please know that a Resolution Center claim submitted after the next guest checks in can create confusion on which guest was responsible for damage. Submission deadlines are critical to ensure the guest responsible for damage is clearly illustrated by the submission time frame of your claim for damages.
Based on the information we have to date, this notice requirement was not met."
Within the claim information we provided to the Resolution Center there were photos the cleaner took that were time, location and date stamped. There is no confusion as to who caused the damage. We use the same cleaner every time so we can guarantee the damage was not there prior to the guest in question arriving.
It is not reasonable to expect a host to submit a claim within 4 hours and it is is not reasonable for Airbnb to decline this claim when we did everything in good faith and are simply seeking damages caused by one of their guests.
We are not seeking the additional cost for cleaning and we are willing to pass on the $50 pet fee ,which the tenant also never paid, but the damage to our property needs to be paid for.
At this time we are planning to proceed with the arbitration process unless someone has a better idea. We appreciate any and all help.
Thank you!!!
