Airbnb damage deposits/host guarantee

[Nina1093]

Have ever you noticed how the entire Airbnb system is rigged to prevent hosts from being able to recover damages caused by guests?

I recently had a guest who completely trashed my place and caused damage to property (ripped a custom made blackout roller shade and damaged multiple new linens and towels - we are talking bodily fluids, feces and blood - they were tossed).

She checked out at 11 am and I sent her all the photos and the message that I’ll be looking to get quotes to replace or repair the window blind and towels/sheets and that also there will be additional cleaning charges. This was all documented in message history. The guest immediately blocked me without saying anything.

My check in time is 4 pm and I had another guest staying the night. I checked him in later at 8 pm. The next day I submitted the claim once I had the invoices from my cleaner and also once I had the quote from the blinds installer who installed the blinds in the condo. The guest paid me 1.23 cents (nice trolling) for a 700+ claim.

It got escalated to Airbnb through the resolution center. Airbnb say I’m not eligible for host guarantee because “there’s confusion as to which guest caused the damage as you didn’t submit the claim before your next guest checked in”

Real genuine Question - what was I supposed to do? Should I have made up random numbers and submitted made up quotes? It’s impossible to get a quote and invoices instantaneously when you have another check in and your priority is to clean up to your 5 star standards (we had to call in another cleaner and next guests check in was moved to 8 pm). Should I have canceled my next guest’s booking so that I did NOT  have anyone staying so that I can actually in practice submit a request once I have all the quotes and invoices? I feel like I have no choice here but next time to cancel my next guests booking - but then I’ll have an automatic negative review for cancelation.

Regarding reviews - ever had a guest who stayed at a killer price but then trashed your place and then refused to pay and then left you 1 star feedback? How many of you feel scared to ask for your costs because you know you’ll be punished with a 1 star review and also you’ll be refused compensation and then Airbnb will decline to apply your damage deposit (why do we even set these damage deposits???) so you feel like it’s a lose-lose? They are supposed to be our partners but they aren’t. I really expected better standards especially now that they are publicly traded but I feel like we take all the risks, lately get barely any profit while they rake it in. 

[Gina1477]

@Robin4  What fantastic ideas and advice you have shared!! Thank you, thank you!  A few of these ideas, I have installed into our way of hosting and presenting our home. There are also a few that I plan on adding. We just recently had a terrible experience with a guest. AirBnB has been terrible to deal with. I believe it has been a lesson learned, but my Husband plans to continue to fight with them as we did everything they asked and did it all in a timely fashion. They claim that they can't pay as the place we used for repair and cleaning services does not have an "online website". I call horse crap!  Anyway, I thank you for your wise advice. 

[Jeff761]

Always review honestly - ALWAYS.  Reviews are for FUTURE HOSTS. 

[Wolfgang112]

I totally agree. We often get groups of 12 guests in our sleeps 16 house. Those young aussie males of 30-40 are worse than children and caused a lot of damage and dont' read the house rules. When we decline the booking we get  penalized. If we leave a honest revue to alert other hosts we also get penalized.

The bond is a joke as it is only asking for it. If the guest says no then it goes to lengthy  mediation with zero outcome and a one star revue for us. Then we get a warning that our rating is dropping and we may get a 2 weeks suspension. 

The whole setup is very smart and bias and works best for the guests as they are paying the fees. We as Hosts do not get a fair deal here.

Just trying to find out what a guest paid in deposit and when? No chance here as it is all so secret. As host we should have full transparency of money paid into our system for a 3-6 month ahead booking.