It was a 3-night booking and I do have homeowners insurance policy but I do not believe it includes short-term rentals. My thought generally is that a Landlord in most rental transaction holds the deposit as a means to enforce that the tenant does right by the unit. In this case, Airbnb does not help enforce this agreement. I had to post on twitter to the CEO - Brian Chesky, and on Airbnb twitter handler since this was like my small way of getting media attraction. They eventually sent me a private message on twitter and responded much quicker than through their customer service line. I am learning very quickly how to interact with Airbnb, but the truth is its Host around the globe like myself are the ones that end up getting stuck with the liability part of the rental operations. For small household renters like myself, the court system (including small court) seems quite daunting but I will look into it but I doubt majority of Home renters can afford the extra time obligation for the courthouse.
Also, Airbnb obviously is intentional about just capturing the tenant acquisition part of the tental operations and every other part of the operations does not mean much to them as it is not a liability for them as long as they do not have to pay for it. They have been successful in cornering the short-term rental market but hopefully Host like myself can band together and negotiate the terms of this agreement because it is unfair. They charge almost a 20% premium for just the tenant acquisition (this is huge compared to the 6% realtors charge). Every other service Airbnb claims to render is just superficial. It is unfortunate that realtors do not have a good track record in acquiring short term tenants.
I have learned quite a bit since the incident, and I still use Airbnb but have since changed the requirement to 1 week minimum stays. Still there is only so much we can do as Host. I since added cameras, and all kind of surveillance systems to minimize this risk exposure but the truth is without Airbnb cooperation on securing the deposit, tenants will be undeterred from damaging ones property. I recently just had another incident, which I have reported. The tenant was a gentleman whom this time did not host any parties, infact was just a handful of times he stayed over. He was obviously very wealthy, in fact somewhat regionally famous so he just used the place as a secondary accommodation. He had all the marks to check off as a potential reasonable tenant, but still had damages at checkout. But I suspect since he knows Airbnb does not enforce this security depost collection, he refused to pay for his damages. It is an open secret such that everyone that uses Airbnb knows this, which means we as Host just need a doze of luck if things continue this way. I wish I could do without Airbnb but the fact of the matter is that they have majority of the short term renters. Wish they just would improve their processes such that Host like myself around the globe do not have to continue to lose revenue from costly repairs. Claims continue to be a huge uphill battle for an Airbnb Host. I suggest many Host amplify their complaints using https://twitter.com/ShieldVoC and then be part of the community and maybe it can be part of the conversation to drive a change or attention to the fundamental matter of security deposit.
