Airbnb Scam

[Mary364]

I have been hosting on Airbnb for over a year now, so far my experience with Airbnb has been pretty decent, that is until a recent Scam coming from two airbnb agents... Here is the story:

On Jan 13th 2017, my housekeeper texted me that my guest who checked out that day had ripped off my door handle with brutal force. She then send me some photos of the damage right away. I immediately called Airbnb hotline to report this issue and seek for help as I have never dealt this kind of problem before. The Airbnb agent who picked up told me that I have 60 days to report this issue on resolution center and request for money for the repair, but I should first obtain the invoice to figure out the amount before submitting the claim. He also told me that since I have 60 days, there is no rush to it. I was a bit skeptical about his words, so I asked him to send me an email as confirmation on our conversation. He didn't.... I waited a day, and called in again the next day and got the same answer from another agent Anne L, who did in the end email me about the 60 days claim deadline. (image attached) 

So I did not submit the claim right away, but went on getting the invoice for the report so I am not over requesting money for this repair. I submitted the claim after I got the invoice, and guess what... The guest rejected my claim and worse yet the Airbnb agent Sharon refuse to step in to help me and declined any responsibility on Airbnb's side. Apparently I am not covered by the Airbnb Host Guarantee or Insurance because I did NOT submit the claim right away upon guest checkout.. 

I explain to her that I was misinformed by another Airbnb agent, and she cannot hold me accountable for her fellow colleagues's mistake, but she insisted that she doesn't care and that I listened to Anne and waited is my own fault, now Airbnb doesn't need to help me to get the money anymore... HAHA...

In conclusion, I was basically scammed by Airbnb to delay my claim process just so that neither the guest nor Airbnb has to pay anything. What a great way to fool your royal hosts Airbnb...

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

This sucks, I'm sorry.  Even when you were relaying the story, I knew there was a mistake.  It's pretty clear in the rules and procedures that a claim must be filed within 14 days of check out or before the next guest arrives.  I've never even heard this 60-day timeframe before.  The way they communicated this in the written portion is unclear, in my opinion.  Airbnb needs to start using terms that they've created with a capital letter to indicate that it is not just words but a term indicating that there is something to be done, understood, or realized.  So it's the difference between a "resolution case" and a "Resolution Case in the Resolution Center".  The first is completely ambiguous and you could, by all rights, believe that you've already done started a case just by talking to the person on the phone.  There's technical terminology for this difference, but the name is escaping me ..... 

That being said, I'm reading your reviews.  There are complaints about the "malfunctioning door" going back more than 3 months.  Is this the same door that this guest broke?  If so, you have a problem with claiming it was this last guest who broke it.  Is that part of the issue here?  

[Mary364]

No it is not the same guest since that guest did not leave any review at all. The door is a bit tricky to lock and unlock because you are supposed to push the handle down first, then turn the nod, if you leave the handle bar up, then turning the nod won't do anything. Same with locking and unlocking it from the outside, you must push the handle down first then insert the key to lock it, and to unlock it the handle must stay all the way down or the key won't turn all the way to unlock the door. 

I had emailed all my guests the house guide on using the door. I tried to condense it by putting all the door instructions on just 1 page, and I have guests who told me that the guide really helped, but this guest apparently did not bother to read the guide and simply try to use force to open the locked door and yank the handle off...

[Scott80]

@Mary364 "The door is a bit tricky to lock and unlock."

Well look on the bright side! The door lock was overly difficult to use, so now you can replace it with a typical lock that is easier to use and more familiar to most people. 

As for relying on bad advice from employees over the phone. What you ran into is common--even the IRS is not responsible for bad advice given by agents over the phone (source: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-09/news/mn-397_1_taxpayer-assistance ) . Your only defence is to research issues directly using documented, authoriative sources (eg: airbnb.com) and preserve those sources in case there is a dispute later on.  

[David126]

The Supreme Court determined that you can not rely on anything the Government tells you, I do not think they have made a similar determination as far as AirBnb is concerned.

The reality is that it is simply not worth your while to take it further for the cost of a lock.

[David126]

https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee

60 days, now I may have missed it but I can find no mention of 60 days. 30 days yes.

Process, well it is on that link. Seems to me that at best you have been misled, others may choose a less complimentary phrase.

The thing that annoyed me was the comment that everything is totally at their discretion and you have no redress if they tell you to go away.

General. You and Airbnb agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Airbnb Host Guarantee Terms or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation or validity thereof, or to the use of the Services or use of the Site or Application (collectively, “Disputes”) will be settled by binding arbitration. You acknowledge and agree that you and Airbnb are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, private attorney-general action, or any other representative proceeding. Further, unless both you and Airbnb otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If this specific paragraph is held unenforceable, then the entirety of this “Dispute Resolution” section will be deemed void. Except as provided in the preceding sentence, this “Dispute Resolution” section will survive any termination of these Airbnb Host Guarantee Terms.

Now I am going to assume the 60 days etc may have come from new staff who simply did not know, however I simply do not believe Sharon can be on the Trust and Safety Team and not know the conditions of the Host Guarantee, beggers belief that somebody at that level would be so ignorant.

It has been mentioned before many many times, there seems to be the wording of the Host Guarantee as published and a totally different as carried out in practice wording.

[Zacharias0]

On the bright side you can now install an easier door lock and you wont have to send that page of instructions anymore. You can buy a remote lock now or even a coded one and elimate the need for a key.