Problem with Airbnb Host Guarantee: hosts beware!!

[Valentina32]

Dear Hosts,

I have been a host for many years and recently found myself in a situation where a group of guests caused considerable damage to my property.

I submitted my request to Airbnb on time and according to guidelines and after two weeks of back and forth where Airbnb asked me to provide a sizeable amount of documents to prove the damage, I was told that my Host Guarantee payment request had been declined as it was not possible to determine the guest's liability for the damages.

This is more than disappointing  as it means that unless you can prove your guest was directly responsible for the damage (by taking a picture of the damage while it is happening? by installing CCTVs in your property?) Airbnb will not cover you. When I raised this point I was told that they are sorry but Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with regard to these disputes.

What this tells me is that the Airbnb Host Guarantee is not exactly what they lead us to believe and the deposit they hold for you (which should be held on your behalf exactly for situations like this one) is little more than a joke.

I do not feel as safe leaving my house in the hands of strangers which could damage it without consequences.

Please be careful and assume that Airbnb will not cover for your damages and take extra precautions to protect your property.

If anyone else had similar experiences please share!

Valentina

[Sherban-and-Barbara0]

This is a follow up regarding our claim of under $ 3000.00. It is only fair to report that Airbnb reimbursed us in full for the loss under the Host Guarantee.

[Ana24963]

A copy of a similar case where AirBnb refused to cover host guarantee, because of the bullocks "it's not timely reported". 

Many damages (except hygiene related, which are the cheapest ones) cannot and will not be discovered until another guest arrives.  

So they've perfectly designed a way to avoid paying up anything in 90% of cases since: 

- The damage must be reported in the short window before someone else checks-in (while you're busy supervising cleaning, communicating with guests, departing guests and other logistics... which they expect you to do perfectly **** by the way) 

- Many of the damage, especially technical, won't be noticed until the next guest  tries to use the appliance and uncovers it's not actually working.  

It's basically a gridlock, a scheme and a scam. 

Enjoy reading.  


" Oh, so we basically have 3 hours to report the damage in the case another guest checks-in the same day?  

How stupid is that? 

I've sent you a photo with a time stamp showing clearly the date and time when the damage happened, as a report I received from the cleaning service. 

Perhaps you can have a second look. 

So you cannot say it wasn't time-stamped and it's contentious as to which guest caused the damage. 

It's very clear which guest caused the damage. 

I have written to the guest and received no response. 

I waited for his answer for several days and only then wrote to you, as prescribed. 

I see this as a way for AirBnb to avoid all responsibility. 

(Link to this topic) 

There is plenty of that in the forums. 

There are many sorts of damages (electrical, to installations, equipment, TV...) that won't be noticed straight away or not until several days or weeks, unless the new guest uses those appliances. 

So basically the precondition for much of the damage to be uncovered is that another guest checks in and reports it to us, unless you want us to bring a technician to check absolutely everything each time when cleaning is done what'll obviously raise the costs of accomodation. 

That's not the job of the cleaning lady who, nevertheless, timely reported the damage in this instance. 

We trust our guests and first and foremost we expect them to report it to us straight away to find an amicable solution. 

That didn't happen in this case. 

The main thing is, as my calendar was filled with AirBnb guests 100%, we can only assume that it's one of the AirBnb guests who caused the damage, no matter which one and when someone checked-in checked-out. 

That's totally irrelevant. It's one of the guests from whom you pocketed a hefty service fee, both from me and from them. 
But if it's a way to avoid responsibility and make us foot the bill, yes, the T&C are absolutely perfectly designed {applause}.  

Kudos for that. " 

[Sarah977]

@Ana24963  There's one thing you left out- the amount of time you have to submit all the required paperwork is 14 days- funnily enough, the exact same time frame as the review window, ensuring that if a guest is asked to pay for damages, they will leave you a bad review. Another blatant deterrent to a host filing for damages.

[Ana24963]

Exactly. 

Then there's the fact that even the guest who is found 'guilty' or responsible for the damage, that he refuses to pay, can still leave you a 1* review. 

[Jill914]

Airbnb guests damaged and flooded my house on Aug 7.. My claim has been through the adjuster , and has sat for months Communication stopped t y house will never be the same and my credit rating is being destroyed with having my cards maxed out f rpr o many months cards I have to take money out of my retirement and am being sued by two contrators who rendered emergency remediation services

[Thierry729]

Hi all,

I experienced recently a bad joke from Airbnb. The traveller let the key inside the door, so it was impossible to open it from outside. By the way the traveller broke a door, let the lights opened,  etc.

I asked Airbnb to retain (at least) the cost of the locksmith to the traveller. Airbnb argued they could not determine if the traveller had misused the property (even if the key was in the lock), hence the cost is for me...

I would suggest to organize a dead week on Airbnb: all the owners should not rent their property for an all week.

Airbnb assume the owners are dependent on them to rent their property: I would say Airbnb is nothing without the properties.

[Dimitry12]

I can confirm that AirBnB has worst host protection program, it doesn't work and they always demand the documents you can't easily get (letterhead invoice with such details as what products were used for detailed cleaning or show the invoice with the price for this knob included). Terrible,  they are just scammers

[Michael5689]

Guest got sick and threw up on carpet and bed...whatever it happens especially on vacation and I wouldn't typically ask for reimbursement.  In this case however guest tried to clean up with bleach so of course they ruined the carpet.  I have the before and after pictures to prove it and even was able to get rid of the remaining food stain to show if they hadn't done the bleach it would have been fine.  I only asked for reimbursement for the quote to replace the carpet in that room.  I didn't add the cost for the temporary carpet that I put down, the extra cleaning that I had to pay my cleaning crew to clean the carpet, the towels they ruined trying to clean up, the bed skirt they ruined, or the actual cost to replace the carpet in the entire house since otherwise I would have had an unmatched carpet in that room.

AirBNB depreciated the value of the carpet (it's not their asset to depreciate) since it was 10 years old and is giving me less than 25% of the replacement cost which is less than 1/3rd of my security deposit.

Another experience like this and I will block my calendar and focus on VRBO and Booking.com for future rentals.

[Michael5689]

Looking a bit more at the practicalities of how AirBNB works security deposits, I think part of the problem here is that I wasn't able to get the quote to replace the carpet until AFTER 14 days because getting contractors into the home for service calls and quotes is so difficult these days.  14 days is when AirBNB releases their hold on the AirBNB part of the security deposit and I didn't get them the final number until after 14 days.  At that point they had to put a new charge on the guests credit card to get the money.  I'm guessing they are much less likely to side fully with the hosts in these cases.  Something to keep in mind the next time this happens to make sure I have all the documentation within 14 days.

[Hans661]

You must be able to prove the renter did the damage with dated pictures and claims before the date of any other guest stayed there.  But keep in mind, also their so-called coverage payouts cut into their $2.5 billion Airbnb annual net profits, and your just a peasant. 

They gave me less than half on a $5600 carpet burn damage claim and the carpet was in new condition and 2 years old.   They make up their own rules and are masters at the runaround game.

But Without us peasant property owners though-- they cease to exist.  A new, better for hosts business could easily come along and takeover, just like Walmart did with Kmart.   Their day is coming.

[Elaine701]

@Hans661 

You got a payout? Count your blessings. 

[Sarah977]

@Hans661  I have to say I don't understand your listings at all. The second listing, the new one with no reviews, is listed as a private room, but has a max guest count of 16. 

And all your other private room listings for 2 guests do not describe at all what the living situation is- who guests are sharing the house with. Most private room listings are shared with the host, but you seem to be putting guests in several private rooms and they are sharing the home just with other unrelated guests? That is a situation you need to make clear. There is no way a lot of guests would be okay with sharing common spaces with up to 14 strangers at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.

And why do you have carpeting in a rental that is worth $5600?

Max guest counts of 14-16 people are inevitably going to incur damages.

[Hans661]

Sara977  I don't really know why it concerns you, but thanks.  If you actually understood the costs of things and the kind of place this is, and what I typically rent out, but this is way off topic anyways.  Go troll elsewhere, thanks Karen.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sarah977 don't feel bad about this  response. @Hans661 (or is it Karen or Warren) is equally rude to guests based on his response to their reviews.

[Sarah977]

@Mike-And-Jane0  I noticed that. And what "not understanding the cost of things" has to do with pointing out that it's not a great idea to have things in a rental that are hugely expensive to replace, is beyond me.

And you can tell from those bad reviews that having that high a guest count is causing the host problems and attracting partiers.