Ridiculous Deadlines for Guest Deposit/Host Guarantee Claims

Daniel2365
Level 2
Denver, CO

Ridiculous Deadlines for Guest Deposit/Host Guarantee Claims

Does anyone else find the deadlines for filing host guarantee claims for damaged items (or recovering costs from a guest's deposit) ridiculous?

 

My place is at 90% occupancy, and I usually have back-to-back-bookings with one guest checking out at 11 AM and another at 4 PM.  I work a 9-5 job so I'm not usually available during the day, and I have cleaners who flip the rooms....   A frequent problem I've had is people who stain the sheets or towels, and often this is not apparent until after the cleaners have done laundry.  By this time the next guest is already usually settled in.  Airbnb informed me that they have a strict policy that I have to file a claim before the next guest checks in - which is often impossible to do for this reason.  Even if the cleaners discover an issue before the next guest checks in, this is often a time when it is impossible for me to do so, because I am work, and don't have the ability to get online and go through the whole process in the Resolution Center until I'm at home after work.  Again, by this time the next guest has usually already checked in.

 

I've had some fairly large expenses, because one guest stained a $200 comforter/pillow sham set with hair dye.  Again, it was not clear that this would not wash out until after the fact.  The guest refused to pay the whole cost, and not only did Airbnb deny the claim, but they also refuse to release the guest's information, so I can seek reimbursement from the guest on my own.  I am having serious reservations about letting strangers into my home via this platform, because apparently the deposit is meaningless, and I basically have no protection for damages that are less than the deductible for my homeowner's insurance policy ($5,000).  That means a guest could do $4,999 in damages, and if I do not discover this quickly enough, I have no way to get reimbursed.  They can walk away, and I can't even get $100 from their deposit.  If this were a hotel, I would have the guest's government ID on file (do I have to start instituting a policy requiring all guests to send me an image of this?)

 

I have also had cases where I was not aware of damage until the next guest who checked in discovered it.  Apparently that's too late for Airbnb as well....  I'd say as host, I'm seriously dissatisfied with this platform.

7 Replies 7
Claudia843
Level 2
Cesena, Italy

I can only sympathise, the deadline and the whole system are ridiculous from this point of view. I demonstrated fraud related to the platform, as denounced by the genuine guest too, and Airbnb did not even refund a lousy radio that was the only thing the fraudsters managed to get. They just shrugged and never even gave me a proper answer.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Sorry I can't agree @Daniel2365 

 

You have decided on a business model of having tight turnarounds to maximise profits, while having a job that means you can't be available if there is a problem with your accommodation post check out.

 

And it's not up to Airbnb to tell you how their guarantee works. You are an experienced host and should have familiarised yourself on how it works. Information about basics like this is on their Airbnb Help website. 

 

If you are not going to be available for situations when their maybe a problem with your accommodation post check out then pay your cleaners extra to photo/video damage and send you details. You can then easily initiate the claim before the next guests check in.

 

Quotes etc you can get later .

 

In terms of your example of course you can see stains on towel/sheets before they are washed - and the vast, vast majority will come out if treated correctly before being washed. 

 

My problem with the guarantee is not the process for submitting a claim but that they seem to be arbitrary in terms of what they pay out.

 

If you want to sue guests directly for $200 dollars (personally I wouldn't as my time is worth more than that) then make it a condition of your booking that you see evidence of a guests address. 

@Helen3 - Since writing that initial post, I have had situations that were much larger than $200.  I had one set of guests do around $2,000 in damage, both to the structure and furniture (and they also stole a number of items outright).  I do have my cleaners take photos now, and I do have a trusted co-host who has access to file claims via my account, when I am unavailable, but I will say that was not enough in that sitaution.  I had no choice but to cancel the next guest's reservation, even though the room was totally habitable.  (If it were my choice, I would have offered them the option of a partial refund or penalty free cancellation, etc. and not left them with nowhere to go the day of check-in).  Basically, if you estimate the damages too low, Airbnb won't pay any more than your initial estimate (I have experience with that), and in this situation my initial "ballpark figure" was in fact far too low.  In order to file a claim, I basically had to track down receipts for decorative items that were damaged and get estimates from contractors for repairs like fixing dents in the walls.  Initially I thought this would be less than $1,000, but it was a lot more....  Also, though the cleaners did their best to snap photos, there were things I only saw myself, after an in-person walkthrough.  That can happen.  Had I let the next guests check in, those damages would not have been covered.

 

In the end, despite my best efforts to document everything, I have to say my experience with Airbnb's insurance team was not the best.  They only covered around $400 of damages, and claimed the rest was "wear and tear" (despite the fact that many items had been stolen outright.)  They knew these guests were probably on drugs - I had communicated with the safety team, who had cancelled the rest of their reservation, due to repeatedly breaking the rules, but apparently the people on the insurance side didn't care about that.  It was obviously not "wear and tear" - I have never experienced "wear and tear" like that before (the guests actually actively destroyed things like furniture).  The way I got in that situation with the tight bookings is someone else booked a date almost instantly, as soon as these guests' reservation was cancelled.  (The fact that that can happen so quickly I can't update my calendar to make sure the room is turned over and ready - dates become available almost instantly - is another gripe.)  Lucikly these guests did leave voluntarily and quickly but I wasn't able to host the next party.

As far as suing guests go, this often isn't feasible.  It only really is somethig you could do easily with locals, but I do not take local guests (only out-of-the area travellers) with limited exceptions....  You have to go to the guests' jurisdiction to sue them, and that can be difficult/expensive.  Some of my guests are even international, and I'm not about to fly to France to sue someone there.  That is the reason for insurance like this.

Although I am still a fan of the Airbnb platform in general, I would say this is not one of the high points.  I'm not about to stop taking reservations on Airbnb, but this has made me start looking at branching out into other plaforms.  The host protection insurance was one of Airbnb's main advantages over some fo the other platforms that did not offer anything simlar, but at this point, I assume I will not get full coverage and will probably just have some unreimbursed damages, and (even ones beyond trivial stuff like pillowcases.)

You might also be asking why I don't just put in an estimate that is more than high enough (like double or triple the damages)....  It has to do with the process you have to go through to make a claim.  First you have to make a money request to the guest.  I have acutally gotten bad reviews from doing this in the past when I didn't know the exact figure and "high balled" it just to make sure I had enough wiggle room.  I even stated in the money request something like "You don't need to pay this right now....  I'm still trying to figure out how much the damages will cost, and this is a high-end estimate" - or "I'm not sure if it is going to cost this much money to replace this, or whether the cleaners will be able to get the paint/ink off, but I put in the request just in case.  I'll let you know within a few days."  I will often add something like "I am sure you didn't intend to damage this."  But this sometimes doesn't get through to guests and they have actually complained in reviews that I asked them for money, thinking it was too much or taking this as some sort of personal insult to their character, etc. (there are cultural issues here - some of the guests who interpreted things this way came from non-Western countries).


In some cases they've left their reviews before the situation could be resolved, often with much less money due that I originally requested (or in some case, no charge, becuase I am good at finding inexpensive ways to fix things.)

 

But basically, I cannot win....  Put in a high-end estimate of the damages, and some guests will take it as a personal insult and leave a bad review.  Ask for too little, and Airbnb will not cover any more, even if it does end up costing more to repair/replace the item.  This situation is basically because Airbnb forces me to make the claim too quickly, before I even know whether the guest owes me money for something or how much.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I have hosted and co hosted for over six years and have never had to submit a damage claim.

 

it sounds like you and your co-host need to have a better system for vetting your guests if you are regularly having problem guests leading to damage claims.  @Daniel2365 

 

I agree you can't rely on  Airbnb's guarantee that's why experienced hosts like you and I know you need your own home insurance for STRs . 

I will also say that I do now collect contact information from all guests  - I have started doing that since the state required it for COVID-19 contract tracing, but in many situations, that would not help.  I decided not to pursue it legally with the guests who did around $2,000 of damages, even though they were local to Colorado, because I determined I probably would not be able to collect it from them (even if I had a court judgment.)

 

These guests did not have any previous reviews, but there were no initial red flags, and Airbnb does require that you take a certain percentage of the people who do not meet the instant booking criteria.  (I think you have to take around 90% of them, as of last time I looked....)  So not taking guests who do not have a history of good reviews is not an option - you cannot stay on the Airbnb platform, if you refuse all booking requests besides instant book.  Mostly my screening questions do a pretty good job of screening out bad guest who will cause damages, but this time it didn't work - it was just bad luck. 

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Daniel2365 

 

It’s unfair and unfortunate, but because we are denied an actual security deposit, we just have to calculate the historical losses we incur and raise our prices.

 

Like so many other things, the decent majority end up paying for the few thieves and vandals that sneak in.