When a corporation (Airbnb) promises you a protection (Aircover) to cover damages "top and bottom" and you(hosts) rely on that promise to open your homes to complete strangers and later Airbnb/Aircover renegades on that promise( which you acted on), that is a classic case of FRAUD.
I know this because I was accused of fraud and I fought it in SF Superior court and won. It took years but when you are talking about your reputation, the only thing you have, then you fight vigorously.
It really is sad for me to see these threads, messages and everyone seems to resign to the fact that Aircover promise is what it is, a mirage. Please get this through your consciousness. Without the Aircover coverage promise, many people like us should not be doing business with Airbnb.
It takes one bad apple guest to ruin your house, your income, even your safety. You can add additional dollars to your rate and when that one bad incident cannot even begin to cover your loss, then what? It would have been better off that you rent it to a long term tenant as a furnished apartment. At leases I can screen my tenants with a background check, you cannot with Airbnb guests. Aircover promise is why many of hosts, cross over to STR. I also carry commercial STR insurance too. However, they will not cover anything until Airbnb covers first. Then you get into even jeopardizing your last option, to go to, your own STR insurance scenario. Because after your claim, you still lose, because your insurance premium sky rockets! At that point it makes no economical sense to be in STR business, that is if there is no "real" Aircover. Additionally, calculate time spent on juggling cleaners, bad guests, infuriating Airbnb CS, the list goes on.
Compound that with an adverse governmental regulations and new taxation issues, Airbnb begins to look like now actually a high risk opportunity most hosts have no idea what they are dabbling into. I am seriously thinking about the alternatives. Just like in any business though you have to evolve to be competitive. Airbnb host model is no different.
My take on it is, if Aircover is a mirage, then Airbnb has been defrauding hosts. My sense is this is going to be bigger issue brewing which could be a huge headache for Airbnb, Hosts and even the government to iron out. There are millions of host out there who depend on the additional income. However dependent they are on that income, Airbnb (a multibillion dollar company) should not treat hosts this way. Let me give you an analogy. If you have a three legged stool, Airbnb, guests, hosts as respectively as being one of those legs, and one of those stool leg starts to rot out, the whole thing becomes unstable. Right now, Airbnb(Aircover) is wobbly on all three.
So sad they had a fantastic business model and they seemingly wants to jeopardize it. And it is not because they have no money. They need to fix how to deal with governmental regulation and Aircover and respect hosts that takes most risks to make Airbnb viable company.
MeehyunK