Help! New host damaged property

Kimberly670
Level 2
Tres Rios, Costa Rica

Help! New host damaged property

Hi there, I'm a new host to Airbnb , my house was built in February and I started hosting in July, so far I've had over 10 guests, I have  5 star rating and 10 very positive reviews. Friday I had a family check in (allowed them to do early check in), they were staying 3 nights.

Weather in the area has been bad and Friday night there were 2 occurrences:  (1) House breaker went off because of the thunderstorm (2) water started filtering via 1 of the windows due to the heavy weather. Spoke to the guest and because it was not an important amount of water and given the time at  night, we both agreed to have someone early next morning come and fixing the issue which was basically adding silicone to the frame of the window. I also, decided that I would reimburse the guest for that one night given the inconvenience which I did early the following morning.

On night #2, I had a call from the host indicating that 1 of the glass sliding doors to the shower shattered into pieces when opening the shower door, he immediately indicated that they were not responsible and that the door just shattered into pieces when it was opened. I immediately asked if anyone was hurt, which there wasn't, and sent the cleaning lady to pick up all pieces and take pictures, she then proceeded to close with key the restroom and left only 1 restroom open for usage. I also asked the guest that given the circumstance I would need to get the bathroom repaired, and gave him the option to either stay the remaining night or leave the following day to which we both agreed it would be best that he left. 

I am not sure how much the repair will cost but I assume it would be somewhere around the lines of $300-$500, and given that this is not an overnight fix, I had to cancel the next 2 upcoming reservations as the home would not be ready for my next guests on time.

The guest already indicated he is not the one to blame and will off course decline the payment request for which I will have to go thru the  Resolution Center; I've  read a few blogs online and most indicates that when it comes to the Resolution Center odds are generally against the host as I would need to prove that they indeed did the damage and most likely because of the situation with the filtering water and the breaker the host could even state that the home is not properly maintained (keep in mind this is a brand new property)

I guess my question is, are odds really against me? is it worth the while to submit the claim and go thru the process? I honestly dont know what to do here

2 Replies 2
Deborah350
Level 7
Grafton, Australia

May not be the guest! I had a storm and my glass shower screen shattered…..no one in the room. Apparently the change in atmospheric pressure can do it. I suggest you google it.

Thanks for your input and quick reply, I will certainly look into it