Soiled mattress.

[Ian611]

Hello,

 We have been hosting since September 2019 ,never had any major problems until a work man booked in by his boss  through his account soiled the king size mattress beyond usable condition,six days before other guests were due to arrive. I called the employees boss to let her know what happened, she said this was unacceptable and would get it sorted ,she asked if it was urine I said I have no idea ,she said I will call you back in a minute any she didn’t the worker called me and told me he didn’t wet the bed and what was I going to do about it, I told him someone will have to pay for a new mattress.He said he put a rubbish bag with a leaking bottle of cola in it???Never heard back from the woman. I followed Airbnb rules and submitted a claim to her for over £300.As you can gather she denied the claim.A few days later I get a message from Airbnb saying I was outside the 14 day claim time blah blah,Airbnb where looking at her previous booking two months previously. I messaged Airbnb telling them they looked at the wrong booking.Anyway I have been messaging Airbnb and they said submit another claim for the correct booking,for goodness sake they have made the mistake in the first place.This woman sent me a nasty message saying I should have had a waterproof protection cover on.Granted I have them on the bunk beds never thought some idiot would pee the bed or spill cola on it.I managed to talk to an agent of Airbnb instead of a chat box.

This has been a nightmare for me and have lost confidence in their insurance policy 

We are still waiting to hear back from Ana and Chimi who were dealing with this case.

 I feel nervous about future bookings now and will definitely not be taking any third part bookings. I also missed the deadline to giver a review to warn other hosts,so any one in the Scottish Borders area beware of workers needing accommodation near Galashiels. I hole some admin sees this and can assist me in this matter.

Thanks for reading this rant.

[Vivian860]

this totally sucks! I keep telling hosts that airbnb will NOT help hosts out. ever! just lick your wounds, get a cheap mattress and move on. if you can get the company to buy another mattress that would be amazing - but- in reality you just have to move on. airbnb truly sucks when hosts complain. here in the united states we can get our insurance company to collect from guests who damage property. what i do is write down the license plate, make and model of vehicle so that if any damages are done, I call up my insurance company with photos, police report and file a claim to collect on damages. hope you have something like that in your country. Good Luck!

[Ian611]

@Vivian860.Still waiting on payment from  Abb,numerous emails and promises of phone calls and no further forward.It’s a bad policy that hosts have to ask guests to pay for damages in the first place it should be taken from them as soon as Abb have proof from the host.The mattress cost me £305 , I had to get a new one ASAP as I had another two bookings coming up. I have had other small things damaged ,towels for instance,but just went and bought new ones.It’s now going to be a worry if I let out my flat again.If I do it won’t be through a third party,employers looking for accommodation for their workers again.

[Vivian860]

NEVER  do third party! i had a father book for his son and the son broke my house rules; he smoked marijuana and invited other people for a party. I knew that airbnb would do nothing so thankfully my husband works with state wardens (better than cops) and got rid of them. 

[Ian611]

@@Vivian 860,a lesson learnt,but she had other workers in 2 months before and were fine,different bunch of guys I suppose.

[Helen3]

I presume this was done at Airbnb at Work rather than you accepting a third party booking @Ian611 

If so, then hopefully they will pay out soon.

[Ian611]

@Helen3 Hi,Yes she booked my flat for her workers who soiled the mattress,it was claimed he put a rubbish bag with a bottle of coke in it which leaked out on the bed.

[Sarah977]

@Ian611 Sorry you are going through this, of course whether the guest urinated on the bed or put a leaking garbage bag on it (who does that? Puts a full garbage bag on the bed?), they are still responsible for the damage.

That said, I would never have a bed in a rental without mattress protection. That's just basic mitigating possible damage practices. Like not having some priceless antique vase in a str accommodation, and assuming it won't get broken at some point.

[Ian611]

@Sarah977 .Hi Sarah,Yes I know you mean I have mattress protectors on the beds but didn’t think I would have needed waterproof covers on the king bed.I have double protection on the bunks already and now both on the king bed too.Learned something there.

[Debra300]

@Ian611,

These are the steps I have taken to protect the mattresses in my spaces.  Put a waterproof, anti-bed bug encasement mattress protector zippered around the mattress, a waterproof elastic band mattress topper on top of that, and then a waterproof elastic band mattress protector over the mattress topper.  Three layers in all.  I recently had an inspection by the Ministry of Health, and the inspector thought that the 4 year old mattresses were brand new.

[Ian611]

@Debra300 .Hi Debra,Thanks for your advice,will give anti bug cover a go.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Ian611 

I'm totally with @Debra300 about the level of mattress protection needed. Waterproof+anti bedbug is a must with min 3-layers. 

[Nick]

Hi @Ian611 and sorry for the issue you are experiencing. I have sent the information you provided here to the team and with sent you any updates via DM.

Thanks

[Ian611]

Hi @Nick , I received a message from Ana this morning saying I would be getting my payout as a gesture of good will to the full amount.Thanks for your help anyway.

[Nick]

Great to see there is a resolution to this @Ian611