Host guarantee

[Sue705]

If your guest causes damages to your property you might be lead to believe that the Airbnb Host Guarantee is there for the host to cover costs, but it’s not that easy or fair due to the condition that requires hosts to provide documentation of the damaged or missing items and request reimbursement from the guest through the Resolution Centre within 14 days of checkout or before the next guest checks in (whichever is earlier).

Items and furniture in my rental home were damaged by a guest necessitating quite a lot of effort to remedy, replace, repair etc before the next guest checked in. I had barely enough time, one day, to achieve this before the next check in, but I put the guest first and made it happen. That done, I then commenced the time consuming task of documenting damages in the Resolution Centre, uploading photos of the damage and providing links to support the value of damaged items. Even though I specify a security deposit Airbnb would not release it because the next guest had checked in. The Host Guarantee disadvantages the best performing hosts who put the guest first.

[Charles224]

@Sue705 , I'm in that process myself at the moment; and I had to cancel a guest - a first for me.

The process is very detailed and the repair invoice obviously arrived after the repairs were done.

It was over a week before my painting was complete and the hole in the wall repaired.

I waited too long to review the guest, and his account disappeared. I was hoping he might pay (Ha Ha Ha). Next time - that bad review will be swift.

There are lovely guests staying now for a week, but I'm annoyed that I cannot preview guest's reviews before they book - what else are guest reviews for??

Good luck, Charles.

[Sarah977]

You can certainly preview guests' reviews if you don't use Instant Book. I always read a guest's past reviews, if they have any, before accepting their booking. Just click on the circle with the letter in it (or sometimes it has a grey sillouette) that gets replaced with a guest's actual profile photo once a booking is confirmed, which will take you to their profile page where their reviews are.

@Charles224

[Sarah977]

You are a bit confused on how the security deposit and the Host Guarantee work. They are two separate things. The security deposit you set on your listing isn't actually charged and held by Airbnb at all. It's quite bogus. So there is nothing for them to release. The security deposit is only like a threat that it could be charged to the guest if they cause damage. So you have to first ask the guest to pay, and if they refuse, then you have to submit all that documentation to Airbnb to try to get them to pay out of their own coffers, which is the Host Guarantee.

I've never had to make a damage claim, but my understanding is that you need to report the damage to Airbnb before the next guest checks in, but then you have 14 days to actually submit all the documentation if the guest refuses your request to pay for the damage themselves.

@Sue705