Fraud against Hosts and biased Case Manager

[Tristan-and-Angela0]

Since Nov 15th 2018, we have been going back and forth with 3 Case managers.

After 2 of a 7 nights booking, our guest claimed that they were bitten by beg bugs and demanded a full refund.  We immediately inspected and photographed the apartment and found no evidence of any bugs in the apartment. The guest submitted their photos allegedly supporting their claim and checked out. We disputed the guest photos drawing to the fact that the images were not of our property.  None of the photos proved the presence of any bed bugs. In January the Case manager Ironically called “Faith” told us to obtain a professional inspection confirming we had no Bed Bugs.  At first she accepted the certificate but arbitrarily decided we had “Vermin”. Faith stated that the claim was verified and we were deducted $956.60. We argued this as baseless and further illustrated the false images provided by the guest. In February she asked for a rescan of the certificate.  In March Faith wrote back ignoring the contested images and dismissed the certificate citing that too much time had passed.  Case Closed.

It’s a ridiculous situation, having to deal with one Case Managers ineptitude and blatant bias. The ABB policy of siding with guests and defrauding hosts is a common occurrence being reported throughout this Forum.

[Elena87]

@Tristan-and-Angela0 

How about considering intiating the arbitration procedure?

[Helen3]

I would also post your story on Airbnb's Twitter and FB and see if that helps.

[Tristan-and-Angela0]

I am curious if anyone has used Fairbnbclaim Ltd?

They are based in Dublin and deal with claims on a no win no fee basis.

[Tristan-and-Angela0]

Here are the Photos in question

[Paul154]

@Tristan-and-Angela0 

Terrible con and terrible collusion by Airbnb.

I am very surprised that they shared the guest photos with you....

[Rebecca181]

Since you have the certificate saying you have no bed bugs I would take it to arbitration, myself. It seems that the M.O. of Airbnb these days is to make the host jump through hoops to file a legitimate claim or to defend themselves from false accusations by guests - And then, after the host does every innane thing required of them, Airbnb closes the case and rewards the guest with a refund or a denial of the Host Protection Guarantee. Not right. Best of luck and I hope you win.

[Tristan-and-Angela0]

Update: 

After submitting a complaint with San Fransisco BBB office, ABB reopended and reviewed the claim.

ABB found that the case manager did not follow proper Guidelines and a full refund was made.. so good news after wasting 4 months of effort with a CM that was completly inadequate from the start.

[Mark1412]

Good News

For future problems like this, use fotoforensics website.

Get a copy for the photos from the guest and run them through fotofroensics. The froensisic will tell you when the photo was take, the type of camera, and the location. There is a good chance you can get the address of where the photo was taken and if that doesn't match your address, you will have proof the claim is false.

There is a lot of information in digital photos that we don't see, a free serivce like fotoforensics can save you a lot of problems when false claims are made.

[Mark116]

@Tristan-and-Angela0   That's good, but it seems so incredible that any person with even basic skills wouldn't have seen that those were two different locations.  I wonder if the CS rep who closed your case inappropriately was fired or even reprimanded?

[Kayọdè0]

I am recently a victim of this situation as well and currently looking to dispute, in my case a young man comes to my apartment of which I did a walk through with the guest specifically to make sure this issue is not something that comes up again given guests use this loop hole for refunds while Biased Case Managers side with the guest when the hosts are angry that their opinions are not being heard. The guest kept looking around the house for things to photogrpahy while I communicated to him that if there was any issues, he should bring it up to me, after the walk through I asked if there was any issues, he said the floors was not clean of which i had to sweep and mop it again. I called AirBNB to let them know that theres a possibility of the guest trying to scam their way in getting a refund of which I not only had a walk through with them, i made it clear that they needed to confirm if anything was wrong with me FIRST. I had a biased case manager call me of whom seemed to be pusshing the Fradulent narative on me while calling me his "buddy" and being condescending. He stated he would refund the guest while not letting me speak of which he then hung up the phone on me. As I immediately called AirBnb, the second case manager goes nothing has been changed on the account within her trying to look into the issue. During this time however the other case manager had taken it upon himself to refund the guest, when I HAVE A NO REFUND POLICY, while the confirmed guest that had booked afterwards now stayed in my apartment. The same apartment that someone had been refunded their money for saying the apartment was "inhabitable". I have a degree in Health Science and find it concerning that a guest can easily label a place of resident where other poeple are as inabitable and some case manager will take matters into his own hands, while the people who do inhabit the space are left feeling used. While I have been trying to get a resolve in a situation in which one case manager had told me they were loooking into, my funds from the incoming guest would now be applied to the refund that was made by the incompetent case manager, while the fradulent guest, not only gets to keep his money of whom wanted to go to a shared hotel with his friends within me telling him to speak to AirBnB, of which I now have guest in my apartment, the same apartment that was deemed inhospitable, of whom have paid AirBnB but, I now have people living in my house RENT FREE of which I am now loosing money on? I called AirBnB to let them know that the review system does not work for guests in situations of disputes like this because THERE'S NO WAY GUEST WHO A FRAUDULENT WILL RATE YOU A 5/5 while also having the rating system impact the earning potential of your business. I now have someone living in my house of whom has not paid me given I have not received funds, but now he has to suffer because of this issue. If a place is inhospitable, HOW HAS PEOPLE BEEN ABLE TO LIVE THERE! i am trying to resolve this issue with AirBnB and as i'm hearing this is actually a big issue, i'm also joining the conversation because it's not fair! While I do not want to kick this new guest out of my inhospitable apartment, I've called AirBNB because I do not have to move on their timeline when I have things to do amongst me having to continue being a gracious host, while the bad seeds are given all the power within the system. No enough is enough and this issue does need to be prioritized by this platform or it will turn into a litigation case as these case managers do aid the guests in this fradulent practice by not doing their due diligence.