Interpretation of "ordinary wear and tear" - input for the Host Advisory Board

[Trude0]

Hi!

The below is intended as input for the Host Advisory Board, a topic that I would like to ask them to bring up.

I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right way/right place - but please move it/advise if not! 🙂

I am a host in Stockholm, Sweden since late May 2019, a Superhost since October 2019, and am LOVING hosting on Airbnb!

It is a bit of a side business (I work full time), but mostly it is a hobby that I really enjoy. Much more so than I ever thought I would, when I started - mostly for fun/as a test. My husband has noted that I seem to enjoy it much more than my regular job, and jokingly suggested we get some more property we can list, so I can quit my regular job...;-)

It has gone very well for me these 2 years, I've had guests that were from good to great, and no serious issues. 

But I just had the first really negative experience; damage to my listing, and my claim for compensation was declined first by the guest, and then by an Airbnb case manager. The rationale given by Airbnb for not accepting my claim, was that the damage is the result of "ordinary wear and tear".

As I know from CC that so many hosts before me have had similar experiences, and have found the conclusions from Airbnb to be unfair/incorrect, I think this might be an interesting topic for the Host Advisory Board to lift:

How to fairly interpret the term "ordinary wear and tear" in the Host Guarantee Terms and Conditions.

Airbnb themselves define it as follows:

But it appears to me that when hosts make claims regarding damage to their properties, the interpretation from some case managers is much wider than this, and that just about anything can be called "ordinary wear and tear". While I'm not suggesting that my own particular case should be lifted, let me use it to illustrate my point:

Here are a couple of pictures of how the mopboards/skirting boards/baseboards under all windows looked, when my latest guest checked out:

 

 

And here a couple of pictures of how they looked before this guest (who stayed one week):

 

What I would like to be discussed, is:

Should such serious damages as this, be considered the result of "ordinary wear and tear"?

I would consider minor scratches to floors and furniture, minor stains to sofas or cushions, the occasional damaged towel due to make-up/skincare, a couple of broken glasses, as being the result of "ordinary wear and tear". But not this.

Comments?

Best regards, 

Trude

[Till-and-Jutta0]

👀

[Colleen253]

@Trude0  “Should such serious damages as this, be considered the result of "ordinary wear and tear"?

Of course not. Especially given how this damage happened, as explained in your other post on the matter,

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/And-then-it-was-my-turn-guest-caused-damage-to-my-house-no-...