Damage to our home

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Greetings Everyone

I am sharing my story because I feel all hosts need to know how important it is to protect your home from unruly guests. We recently had our first guest in our vacation home on the Columbia River by the Gorge Amphitheatre. Sadly our first experience did not go very well. We met the group coming in (a party of 😎 , we went over the house rules walked them around our home and felt like we connected with them. Our home is a special place in the world, and we really were hoping to attract people that would enjoy it! Unfortunately our guests decided to host a party there and had over 50 people in our home.Our floors subsuquently were damaged (over $14,000). We contacted airbnb , we were directed to message the guests to see if they would pay for the damages, after 3 days of no resolve we were allowed to escalate this to a case manager and seek coverage under the "Host Guarantee". Our case manager asked us to get a bid from a contractor as well as furnish them with the original cost of the flooring (not the easiest thing to find but we did), they had us send pictures of the damage to them as well as getting a professional statement from the contractor. We did all of this (keeping in mind we live over 2 hours away from our vacation home), Airbnb emails us with this; keep in mind the damage is over 800 square feet

Hi Bryan and Lisa,

Thank you for your patience throughout this process.

After careful review of all related documentation and communication, we have issued a $50 security deposit payout for the reported damage. You can view this payout in your Transaction History.

While the documentation you provided far exceeds this amount, Airbnb is only able to reimburse for fair market value of the damaged areas in question. The average laminate flooring costs from $2.40-$4 per square foot and since you have higher grade flooring, we've issued the payout based on $5 per square foot for the 10 feet of estimated damage.

It's been a pleasure to assist you. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this case.

Best regards,

Sydney
www.airbnb.com/help

$50 on damages over $14,000 (we have a $1500 security deposit on our rental who knows were that went) and no further explanation as to how they came up with $50. We have emailed, called and have gotten no support or help, I am shocked as a frequent airbnb traveler I have always had a good experience. But as a host this can't be the way business is conducted, we are devasted. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to where to take this issue?

Sincerely 

Bryan and Lisa

[Isabel203]

Oh my gosh @Bryan-And-Lisa0,  what happened? Did they flood the place somehow?

So sorry your first guests have left you in such a bad situation.

[Annette76]

edited to delete duplicate

[Annette76]

I'm so sorry to hear about your awful experience. I just don't get people.

From what I've gathered in other discussions, your best bet is to go to the Airbnb twitter and fb page to get the attention of those that can actually help.  

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Thats a very good idea, hopefully we can get somewhere putting some social media pressure out there.

[David126]

@Bryan-And-Lisa0

AirBnB have an arbitration process as part of the Host Guarantee for exactly this sort of thing.

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

I will message our case manager and ask more about it. She indicated she exhausted all her means, but I definitely dont believe her.

[Farah1]

@Bryan-And-Lisa0 I am sorry to hear about what happened and unfortunately, I cannot really comment on the "solution" you received as it is very upsetting. 

How did these guests get away with having 50 people and a party? For the future, I recommend to specify in the house rules that no party is allowed and only authorized guests are allowed on the property. You can always install a security camera outside to help monitor this and disclose the information if needed.

Based on my research reading posts on the forum, it seems like it is pretty common to get the house trashed for hosting a large group. It is wrong and it should not be that way, but I can see a pattern there. You can always consider hosting less people to avoid a similar issue moving forward. Of course there is no guarantee that having less people means less problem, but at least we do the best we can do to avoid the issue.

[David126]

@Bryan-And-Lisa0 say no parties on their listing

As of course does pretty much every other listing.

They have 5 bedrooms so are likely to attract larger groups, not that it matters in this case as one or ten pretty obvious the guests had no intention of respecting any limitations.

You do not suddenly have a party for 50, this was pre arranged.

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

Thank you for the advice David, I would agree on the pre-arrangement. I am more in shock that Airbnb won't do anything with their Host Guarantee.

[David126]

I have an Insurance background and have read the Guarantee.

1. I assume that somebody came up with this withoput considering how much it was likey to cost and it solved a political issue they were having.
2. They then found out it is costing a bunch so had two options, reduce the extent or instruct their staff to setlle for silly amounts.
3. The honest thing would be to choose the first option, they chose the second.
4. But as I said there is the Arbitration clause, now for most claims simply would not be worth the hassle and I am sure they know that.
5. But for ;arger claims, and obviously I do not know the details of yours, different situation.
6. An Arbitrator will review the claim on the basis of the Guarantee wording not its implementation.

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

David

I really appreciate your help here, based on the below email I have reached out to our contractor who gave us this bid and he is going to just bid the actual damage (unfortunate in flooring that means we would not have congruent floors and we would have to make up the undamaged part ( but it would still need to be replaced). This is so crazy!

Airbnbs latest message is as follows;

Hi Bryan and Lisa,

Thanks again for reaching back out regarding this claim. We understand this has been a difficult process and it was not the outcome you were expecting.

As mentioned earlier, as your Case Manager, there is not another party that is able to override the decision in this case. Additionally, we're not able to give you a call as my department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive financial issues and written documentation of our communication is required. I hope you can understand the need for this caution.

However, based on the documentation provided and as a third party not present during the reservation, a decision was made after a full investigation by myself and my management team. As Airbnb is unable to provide compensation for the entire re-flooring of your house and as we did not receive an invoice for the damaged areas as requested, we had to determine reimbursement based on the photos you provided of the affected area and fair market value for the material. The average laminate flooring costs between $2.40-$4 per square foot and as you have higher grade flooring, we've issued the payout based on $5 per square foot for the 10 feet of estimated damage.

We regret that this decision has negatively affected you, but we believe this to be a fair resolution, all things considered.

Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with regard to these disputes, which is outlined in our Terms of Service https://www.airbnb.com/terms.

Unless further documentation can be provided that may change the outcome of this case, we must respectfully disengage from further discussion.

All the best,

Sydney

[David126]

On balance I like AirBnB, some things like any system I do not and this is one.

As mentioned earlier, as your Case Manager, there is not another party that is able to override the decision in this case. Additionally, we're not able to give you a call as my department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive financial issues and written documentation of our communication is required. I hope you can understand the need for this caution

Really? Like I said I worked in Insurance and some days I spent what seemed the whole day on the phone.

No other party that is able to override? So they do not know their own wording. That I find very worrying.

https://www.airbnb.com/terms/host_guarantee

1. Overview of Dispute Resolution Process. Airbnb is committed to participating in a consumer-friendly dispute resolution process. To that end, these Host Guarantee Terms provide for a two-part process for individuals to Section X.1 applies: (1) an informal negotiation directly with Airbnb’s customer service team, and (2) a binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) using its specially designed Consumer Arbitration Rules (as modified by this Section X). Specifically, the process provides:
• Claims can be filed with AAA online (www.adr.org);
• Arbitrators must be neutral and no party may unilaterally select an arbitrator;
• Arbitrators must disclose any bias, interest in the result of the arbitration, or relationship with any party;
• Parties retain the right to seek relief in small claims court for certain claims, at their option;
• The initial filing fee for the consumer is capped at $200;
• The consumer gets to elect the hearing location and can elect to participate live, by phone, video conference, or, for claims under $25,000, by the submission of documents;
• The arbitrator can grant any remedy that the parties could have received in court to resolve the party’s individual claim.

I am not going to comment on the validity of your claim or the amount as I simply do not have the information. Obviously nothing gets fixed for $50.

[Bryan-And-Lisa0]

I have also had a half way decent experince with Airbnb, but as a renter not a host. This process seems like they are bullying you into submission. I did obtain another bid , but with just the actual damage and I submitted that. I also cut and paste the arbitration and pre abribitration process and let them know that I would like to take it thru that process if we can't work something out. I am still going to be out the the difference in replacement, I just don't see another way to go.

[David126]

Please let us know how things work out.