Thanks @Anonymous you make some good points. First, though, an update from me, barely an hour after receiving this from Airbnb:
"Hi Frank,
After careful review of all photos, documentation, and related communication provided by both parties, we determined your Host should be reimbursed for the damage caused during your stay."
I received this:
"Hi Frank, I am following up on your host’s damage reimbursement request.
After careful review related communication provided by both parties, we’ve decided not to charge you for the damage caused during your stay."
So my head is spinning, we went from $118 to $450 to $0. Nice for me, but it does nothing for my understanding of course.
About the resolution via email, that hadn't been the case for me until now, and Airbnb is insistent on all communications being via its platform, so it did make me suspicious.
And about the "racist" tag, sure, I went for the direct shot... but if you found the discussion of tables and laptops tedious, adding background in the review would have been more so. I try to keep these things brief. But I'll put these data points out there so you can make your own decision:
1. We're a mixed-race couple, I included my wife in the travel plan and in our introductory message to the hose, so she would have been aware of that.
2. The host's parting shot to me (after some weird messages about how my wife had taken over my mobile phone and computer) was "I hope you will be better accompanied in future stays".
Like I said, make your own decision, maybe I over-reacted, but the host is at the very least extremely insulting.
@Sarah977 yes, I will pay much more attention to the reviews and responses next time around, pretty much every criticism of the property was met by defensive comments, mostly of the type, "well, we have 77 positive reviews so yours doesn't matter".
@Brian2036 , well the original claim $118 so one would need very fat fingers to type $450 by mistake 🙂
Thanks you all for your replies and pointers.