Please Airbnb, don't ghost me...

Silvia470
Level 8
London, United Kingdom

Please Airbnb, don't ghost me...

So this guy one night decided to leave a hot iron face down on the carpet, leaving a very defined burned mark on it. A cream carpet, to be exact.

The next morning I am already on it, going around carpet shops asking for quotes.

I get a like per like quote of £678 for replacing the carpet of the room (it is a large room, 20 square meters.)

I get back to my guest, aking him £500 as the carpet wasn't new (but still in good conditions and I wasn't looking to replace it anytime soon).

He refuses to pay and I escalate the matter to Airbnb which still hasn't got in touch with me.

Problem also is that this guest left a very long review, saying that everything was fine with the room but that I asked him too much money for the damage he caused, adducing reasons like "I didn't burn the whole carpet, I don't want to pay to replace all of it", which to me is just pure madness; what am I supposed to do? patch it up??? But I am digressing.

Now, when tried to call Airbnb earlier, I have been kept holding on the phone for 66 minutes (why do they offer a call back service that puts you on hold anyway?) and then the line dropped. Great.

I am feeling stressed out and frustrated.

 

My question to all of you, hosts out there, is: do you think it is fair that this service which is making billions on our houses, private spaces and hard work, just leaves us, hostage of nasty guests that come in, damage our properties, feel entitled to not having to make it good and (cherry on top) also have the power to leave reviews that add long-term damage to our businesses?

Every time I get a review notification, I start shaking. Because I know that even if everything seemed fine, that guest might just be having a bad day and leave you 3 stars because "the bathroom mirror wasn't big enough" or "The host didn't provide courtesy sleepers, you know, like in spas" (this was a real feedbacks I had from my one and only 3 stars review so far and my rooms go for 23/28 per night...so not really spa/hotel prices). 

 

I think the bar is being set too high: guests have hotel expectations because they don't get what Airbnb is. The user base is now so wide and differentiated that seems impossible to educate every single one of them and having them understand the core Airbnb's concept.

I am talking about the "belonging anywhere", the Belo...This stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMITXMrrVQU

I worked for the studio that rebranded Airbnb, so I know very well what the manifesto of this company is, the principles it's built on. And are these amazing values that made me decide to become a host with no hesitation in the beginning.

But now I feel It just became a cheap hotel service that doesn't care about keeping its genuine hosts happy; It keeps us in fear, with no power over our own guest's tantrums and unable to demand respect for rules or payment for damages without suffering the consequences of the very much feared "bad reviews".

What made this company successful in the first place is being put aside and real hosts are slowly being replaced by faceless agencies, key boxes and cleaning companies that don't mind a bad review or a damaged carpet because it's not their home in the first place.

 

Distorted music in my ears, playing in a loop, for hours...please Airbnb, call me back, talk to me.

 

49 Replies 49
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Silvia470 Here is the first thing that got my attention: your place 35 (pounds) and the damage is 500 (pounds); thank God the guest is willing to work with you. People that stay in places for 35 pounds, I would think will have a hard time coming up with 500. Btw, I don't think he 'decided' to leave a burning iron. 

   There must be a way to have worked this out before it went public.

 

(How you folks do the pound sign, I have no clue)

Silvia470
Level 8
London, United Kingdom

I don't see how the price of the room is related to the cost of repairing the damage. We are talking replacing the carpet in a 20sqm room. I had quotes from shop, I didn't make the price up myself. He offered To buy me a rug to put on the hole...

Of course it wasn't voluntary. Does it matter?

Ben205
Level 10
Crewkerne, United Kingdom

@Silvia470For what it's worth, I'm with you. The guest damaged your home and they should pay for that damage. It would be ridiculous to patch in a carpet (I've tried and it just doesn't not work!). Anybody who doesn't see it as their fault and their responsibility to put it right is not a guest I'd want. Leaving a hot iron on a carpet long enough to burn it is not an accident - it's stupidity!

 

The lesson here, though, is rely on ABB for nothing when it comes to money. Get your own insurance to cover major issues, and write off smaller problems by paying for them out of your earnings.

In the words of the Dude, and y'all know who I mean, "that rug really tied the room together".

 

but seriously folks, guests damaging property, then Air BnB saying sort it out with them, is not what I would call support.

 

 

Airbnb or the guest should cover the cost of replacing the carpet, not you. I think offering a rug to cover the burn is disgusting, lazy and careless. It shows that this person has no respect for other people's property and will probably do it again or do something similar to damage someone else's property.


@Silvia470 wrote:

I don't see how the price of the room is related to the cost of repairing the damage. We are talking replacing the carpet in a 20sqm room. I had quotes from shop, I didn't make the price up myself. He offered To buy me a rug to put on the hole...

Of course it wasn't voluntary. Does it matter?


 

Anais.Bijoux.Art
Accommodation: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/24001381?s=51
https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/23886575?s=51

Thanks for understanding my point @Anais-Bijoux0, when I first posted my story and the first few

comments were like: "It's your problem darling, you did it all wrong, you should have sucked it up and settled it with the guest offering to patch carpet...what did you expect!?" I thought this community was just a bunch of trolls. But I've changed my mind now, had a lot of support and incredibly useful tips from its members. I get it when people talk about private insurance and settings money aside for damages, but in London competition is fierce and £2 more per night makes a whole lot of a difference in bookings, not to mention asking for a deposit...I barely make as much as I would make renting the property out long term (some months it's more some months less) but I do it because I prefer this kind of lifestyle. 

I wish there was a better way to warn hosts about bad guests...

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

   Sure it matters, since it is a matter of pragmatism versus absolutes.  No, the entire rug may not have to be replaced. Perhaps it is in a place that a compromise can be fashioned. Maybe he is ~unable~ to pay for the entire carpet even if he wanted to. Maybe you will be unable to get a cent out of him anyway, considering Airbnb doesn't collect a 'true' deposit up front.  And last, but not least - maybe there is another way to resolve the matter.

 

Willow3
Level 10
Coupeville, WA

I don't know what the laws are in the UK, but here in the US, things like carpet have a "life expectancy" and any damage payment will be prorated based on the remaining life of the item.  

Often, a carpet CAN be patched and you'll never know the patch was done.  

Think of it like this... my car has lots of little scratches and dings on the front.  Someone hits the back and causes damage.  They only have to pay for repainting the back where the damaged they caused, occurred.  If I want to paint the entire car, the remainder is on me.  

Silvia470
Level 8
London, United Kingdom

Dear @Fred13, maybe you were right, maybe you were not. Maybe the guest was just being cheap, we will never know 🙂 At the end of the day, he was the one traveling for leisure, not me.

But bottom line is, my guest's personal finances are not my business, and they won't make him less liable for making up for the damage he caused.

As per the patching it up @Willow3 I see your point and in theory, it makes sense, but I don't think your comparison with the car paint is the most fitting in this case.

If someone poked a hole in your jumper and offered you to put a patch on it instead of replacing it with a new jumper, would you agree? It would still keep its functionality, yes, but it would be losing most of its value and you might feel a bit embarrassed going out in the world with a patched jumper.

I don't want my future guests to walk into a room with a patch or a hole burned through the carpet because it looks shabby, and I want them to feel comfortable in my home.

To conclude, in this occasion Airbnb agreed on sending me the sum I requested and they took off the review because in breach of Airbnb Content Policy.

I had other community members to whom I sent private messages asking for advice being very supportive and helpful.

in conclusion I can say that I am very happy with how things turned out, both on the Airbnb and the community side.

 

I'm thrilled things turned out the way they ought to have, Silvia. There's a reason travellers are asked for a deposit. I would expect that if I did damage in a home, that I would be liable. 

I doubt very much this came out of the guest's pocket, not even close. Perhaps in part, a small part of it.  

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Silvia470

Silvia, what exactly are you expecting of Airbnb? 

Airbnb is a booking site....it puts A (the guest) in touch with B (the host) nothing more than that....and for that, it charges a fee!

It is up to you to make sure you have the appropriate insurances in place to cover your property against liability and damage.

Airbnb will make lots of 'airy, fairy' statements because it attracts users to the platform, but the one thing Airbnb are not is, a general insurer. They do not charge you an insurance premium to cover damage that guests may do, so you cannot rely on automatic replacement cover. Any decision will be an adjudicated one and (at best) will certainly be subject to 'wear and tear'! Because Airbnb are not charging you, they need to minimise the risk.

 

What you need to do Silvia is to protect yourself through a properly constructed liability insurance policy. And in addition to that do as I do and build enough into your nightly rental figure to cover incidental damage such as this....put that into a seperate fund and when damage occurs just fix it and get on with the business of hosting and making money instead of putting yourself through a protracted abitration process that will ultimately, in all probablity, see you in tears!

 

Cheers......Rob

Silvia470
Level 8
London, United Kingdom

Thanks @Robin4, I agree about the insurance and I am looking into getting one right now as a result of this. It was the first time for me suffering of a costly damage. I guess I've learned my lesson and I've been lucky it resolved in the best way possway  this time around. 

What I am expecting from Airbnb is to educate it's customers so they understand what Airbnb is and how they should approach the homes they go visiting. 

It isn't just a booking site...or actually it is on paper but not on the marketing front.

I'm just saying that the reason of the success of this service over other similar services is due to the added value it offers and the trust it has been able to build thanks to those values. Before airbnb made it ok to stay in a stranger's house or to host strangers in your own place, making it feel safe thanks to its brand values, nobody would have dream of doing so. But no matter how big a company gets, if it loses its roots, it will inevitably collapse (see people like @Caroline443 taking their business away).

 

Rob you are the bearer of reality (and wisdom) this morning. Well said. My point also, things happen, best to find an amicable solution, especially with a willing guest, since never know which way Airbnb will go.