Serious incident - looking to connect with other hosts experiences

[Tracey269]

This is very traumatic to be writing this.  My guest died on Monday, in our basement.  Without going into too much detail, it was not suicide, but it was not a very nice death.  This resulted in our basement flooding also.

We have had communication issues since Monday with Airbnb, you would think that our situation would put us right at the top of the priority list, so why did it take 3 days for them to respond to our emails, sent on Monday.  Why have we not had a visit from Airbnb to view the total devastation in our basement.  Why won't they answer a direct question?  We want to find out if they will pay for the clean up crew.  The answer we got is that they will pay for anything damaged.  Are they expecting us to go into the CSI scene and clean this up???

On Monday when I tried to call to report the incident, I was hung up on twice.  I sent an email, on an exisiting thread about this guest but it still took around 40 minutes for someone to call me.  They offered me 250 US$ to help clean!!!!!  Since then, I have asked if we can be put up somewhere, instead of saying YES, we will pay for that, I get, send us the receipt and we will see if we can cover it.  I told them I was going for coucelling, again, send us the receipt and we will see if we can put it through.  These aren't the answers you would expect, when such an awful thing has happened in my house.

I'm feeling extremely frustrated with Airbnb, with their total lack of empathy and consideration.

If you have a similar story, please connect with me.  Thanks.

[Flavia202]

How awful @Tracey269 !  I've not had that experience but just to say how sorry I am about what happened to your guest and how traumatic it must be for you. Shoddy treatment by Airbnb - they should have treated you better instead of behaving so insensitive.

[Sarah977]

@Tracey269  Sorry to hear you've had this situation. As for Airbnb customer service, it's been pretty dismal lately. Pretty much everyone, even hosts with urgent issues get the same bad service.

As for someone coming to assess the damage- Airbnb is purely an online business- they don't have agents which come to your home, I'm not sure where you got the idea that they do.

[Lisa723]

@Tracey269 So sorry about this horrible experience. I hope you have family and community support to help you through it.

It's really egregious that Airbnb sells itself to hosts as some kind of partner. Many, many hosts can attest to the fact that this is not the case.

[M199]

@Liv, @Stephanie 

Can you help in any way?  I can't imagine what @Tracey269 is going through.

[Lorna170]

@Tracey269   Did you obtain a police report about the unattended death?  Did you contact your insurance company regarding the death and the flooding?  I assume that the flooding was a direct result of the guest's demise.  Your insurance company is more likely to reimburse you or pay for the cleanup crew.  They would probably try to obtain information about the guest's insurance, especially if the guest paid with a credit card that has insurance attached to it.  AirBnB is not (IMO) going to do anything.  I am sorry that you are experiencing this -- both the death and the uncaring OTA.

[Tracey269]

@Lorna170 We have done everything we were supposed to do.  It has been reported to our home insurance company, they were aware we had an air bnb, so we are fully covered by them.  Every item has been photographed and inventoried by the clean up crew.  Now the basement has been sanitized we can enter.  We are getting at least one quote today to restore the basement to its condition prior to this disaster, we will not be restoring it to the same layout, purely because we fear it will be too painful.  We did wonder whether the guests estate might be claimed upon, but I am thinking that will be for airbnb to look into?

[Lisa723]

@Tracey269, seconding @Lorna170, please don't depend on Airbnb to do anything. They may (or may not) compensate you to some extent but they are not going to act on your behalf in any regard. Your own insurance company is a much better bet.

[Helen3]

Hello @Tracey269 

As others have mentioned I'm so sorry this happened -  it must be devastating.

Definitely in terms of claims talk to your home insurance company who provides you with specialist home insurance for STRs, they are likely to send out a loss adjustor to assess the damage and if appropriate claim on your guests estate.

I definitely wouldn't rely on Airbnb to resolve this . Look to your specialist home insurance.

[Lorna170]

@Tracey269   Leave air out of the claim process.  They did nothing beyond send you the guest.  Talk to your insurance company or to an attorney as to whether or not you have a claim against the decedents estate.  

[Shonnie0]

Tracey,

   How traumatic.  This is terrible and I feel badly for all parties involved.  I would recommend contacting your current insurance company to make them aware of the loss.  The sooner the better.

[Liv]

Hi @Tracey269,

I'm really sorry to hear about what you went through. I hope you're ok.

I have reached out to CS and they have updated your case. They should be getting in touch with you shortly.

Hopefully you'll get a resolution soon, but please let me know if you need any more help.

Thanks,

Liv

[Tracey269]

Update: Airbnb are sending an insurance adjuster on Monday - this is 14 days after the incident. I'm not sure what they are expecting to see as we could hardly leave the basement in the condition it was in. We have had a bill for the clean up of $18,000! and a couple quotes of around $25-30,000 to restore the basement.