What is the protection for GUESTS?

[Federico262]

I see everywhere the protection and insurance for Hosts but I cannot find anywhere the list of items of protection and/or insurance for guests?
WHERE is it?

I pay good money to AirBNB for the service as a guest.

Thanks

[Sarah977]

@Federico262  If you read through some posts on the subject here in the forum, you will soon realize that there is actually little protection or insurance for hosts, despite the claims of the platform. The process for a host to make a claim is onerous and extremely time-consuming and they are in no way assured of a successful outcome. Guests are actually far more protected than hosts, in many ways. If there is a dispute over $, damage claims, cancellations, guests writing untrue and malicious reviews, airbnb tends to side with the guest.

[Federico262]

I am a guest, I am not interested in hosts. Where is the detailed protection for guests? That is my question.

[Sarah977]

@Federico262  I understood your question perfectly well- what I was trying to say is that there is very little protection for hosts in spite of what you read to the contrary. The protections they claim to offer to hosts are just words on paper but is, in most cases, B.S., so even if there was a guest protection outlined, it would also be B.S. 

[David8330]

I was told by an Airbnb representative over the phone, a recorded conversation, that I would have a number

of options should the residence turn out to be not as described.  It has been 5 days now with no action from Airbnb.  I have contacted the American consulate here for advice.

•  

[Marit-Anne0]

@Federico262

airbnb is just another booking platform, you pay a service fee mostly for the safe on-line payment solution + there is a customer service line. airbnb has a slightly different approach to the commission side of things than other platforms.  Competing platforms charge the hosts only, airbnb has divided it and pushed some of the costs over to the guest on their way to make a profit and to battle their competitors.  

There is a system in place to punish hosts who cancel - you may see that as some sort of guest protection.

[David-and-Fiona0]

Protection for guests is called "travel insurance" Airbnb gives you a platform to connect with hosts where you can book if you are confident with their reviews. What elese are you expecting?

[Federico262]

I am clearly expecting to see the smal print on the contract as to what AirBNB offers in rerurn for the xharge they make me. A travel insurance cover has several items, I want to see what AirBNB's are.

[David126]

The one thing the UK has is lots of Travel Insurers, unless things have changed a lot you can hardy miss them. is that what you you are looking for. One of the biggest is NU now Aviva.

[Liga5]

Airbnb does not have guest or host protection. If you are a guest and the place you book is not the way it was described, you will have to stay there anyway if you don't want to lose your money (my experience!). If you are a host and a guest damages your property, Airbnb will not do anything (experience of many hosts). Booking Airbnb is a gamble! Airbnb company cares only about receiving money!

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Federico262

As not only a host but also guest user, I would assume that the protection for GUESTS from airbnb would be the same level of protection I expect to get from an online booking site such as booking.com or agoda when I book a hotel. 

[Ute42]

Dear @Federico262 , there is no written guestprotection on airbnb.

If You want guestprotection, You should book through HomeAway, they have a "Book-with-Confidance-Guarantee". These are the terms:

https://www.homeaway.com/info/about-us/legal/terms-conditions/bookwithconfidence

Pls read the terms an decide for Yourself, if You believe this ist a valid protection for guests. HomeAway runs its platform under several tradenames depending on in which country You live. In the UK: Owners Direct. Here You can find user-reviews on this company on trustpilot:

https://de.trustpilot.com/review/www.ownersdirect.co.uk

Also You can try to search google to find out, if You can find 1 (one) single guest who has ever received money through this guarantee. Good luck.

[Tim2470]

@Federico262  

Unfortunately, www.homeaway.com redirects to vrbo.com. Wierd. By the way VRBO offers guest cancellation insurance! AirBNB should compete and offer this.

I did learn that insuremytrip.com offers guest travel insurance. I strongly prefer an insurance option in case of family emergency, COVID restrictions - who knows what might come up?

[Trish139]

Having just arrived in a Portland Oregon AIRBNB where ‘lying by omission’ is taken to new heights, this is depressing reading. We have been AIrBNB members for over five years and have had terrific experiences, never a bad one until now. BUT, I look at the reviews for this property and they MUST have been edited, to leave only the positive ones.

We have just come from a wonderful experience with HomeAway in Washington DC, where the reviews gave us all the negatives as well as the positives and we went in Eyes open. 

THis experience and this bulletin board makes me look at AirBNB with new eyes

[Sarah977]

@Trish139   Sorry you arrived to a horrible, not-as-advertised place. But that all the bad reviews had been edited out is highly unlikely. It's like pulling teeth to get Airbnb to remove a review full of lies, reviews by guests who write terrible reviews simply because they got called out for sneaking in extra guests, or simply because the reviews were bad. 

One host, who also uses Airbnb as a guest wrote of a similar experience to yours- she cancelled right away and found out that what had happened was that the place was actually recently sold, the old host, who earned the good reviews foolishly turned over her whole account to the new owner, who was obviously clueless about keeping up the standards that the reviews reflected.

Sometimes a host might have new cleaners, or a new property manager who's totally slacking, unbeknowst to the host.

It would be unusual for a horrible, not-accurate place to have any good reviews at all, and certainly not all good reviews and no bad ones, so there is likely another explanation for that, rather than all the bad ones being edited out or all previous guests being dishonest.