Host Insurance Eligibility for the items (property) damaged by guests

[Dan597]

Hello dear Airbnb hosts

I have a very unpleasant case when the guests damaged the bed and it was only discovered by the following guests when they lie down on the bed. The bed just simply crashed under them as the previous guests were heavily using it (you can imagine for what type of activities :-)).

Anyway, next morning after it was discovered I got in touch with AirBnB in order to understand how to deal with the situation. After the hours of chatting with AirBnB Support (very timely responses) I was adviced to create the case in the resolution center, which I did. The guests responsible for damage rejected the case and I involved the AirBnB case manager 72 hours after the case was created. The case manager appeared ~2 days after and requested the receipts for the new bed etc. After I have provided the receipts he informed me that my case is not eligible as "host must notify us of the incident within 14 days of checkout or within 24 hours of your next guest’s check-in" which I did as I got in touch with AirBnB the next day after the next guest's check-in.

So for me the flow and the logic looks a bit weird. Why would they request the receipts and after recieving them, say the case is not eligible because it wasn't submitted on time? The one would check the eligibility first and only then would request the proofs, right? 

I just wonder if it's a "human factor" of particular case manager and the situation can be reconsidered by someone else? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Helen3]

Hello @Dan597

Airbnb makes in clear that to be considered for a claim under it's guarantee you must notify them before your next set of guests stay. (Did you look at the information they provide about making a claim in the Airbnb Help Centre to make sure you were eligible to make a claim?)

This makes perfect sense or else your old guests could claim the new guests caused the damage and visa versa.

I am sorry Airbnb told you they would consider your claim as under the terms of their policy it is clear that they won't and it has wasted your time.

I am sorrow you bed got broken but it really shouldn't fall apart even under vigorous sexual activity 🙂 Hopefully your new bed is rather more robust 🙂

Have you tried making a claim under your own home insurance for STR?