Resolution Center Fail - Heading to small claims

[Pat101]

Well ... that was a big waste of time. On our 4th AirBnb reservation a guest threw a weekend long party and trashed our house. A broken teak lounger, towel rack(s) ripped off the bathroom walls, smashed glass at the pool, dented drier, doors knocked off hinges, clogged toilets, missing blender tops - which would explain the margarita mix up the kitchen walls. They also had twice as many people on the property as are allowed according to a city ordinance and which we state in our house rules as grounds for eviction and security deposit lose. Our cleaners said it was the "worst they'd ever seen"!

After many, many emails back and forth, Airbnb decided we were owed $13 for a cutting board the guests destroyed on the grill and wrote the rest off as cosmetic damage and "wear and tear". Intersting choice since we only finished renovationing and furnishing our house 2 months before the incident. We were vandalized and Airbnb completely turned their back on us. They've basically set the precedence that guests can trash your house and there no ramifications. Great news for guest! Terrible news for hosts. 

We're in the process of taking the guest to small claims court. Has anyone said screw the  "Resolution Center" and taking their issues to court? Any luck if so? 

[Sheila276]

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@Helen3 wrote:

Sorry @Sheila276 that is absolutely not true. You can leave guests whatever ratings and reviews you like as long as you leave the review in line with their T&Cs.

I have proof you're lying and the refund wasn't issued by myself.  I did rate him one star but that rating wasn't published and they now claim I was never allowed to review him because I issued a refund.  I will be posting this on Ripoffreport because there is clearly no room for truth or logic here.

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[Tony134]

It most certainly IS true! Any time a guest complains about a bad review they got, it gets removed! I had a supposed "doctor" show up at my house. Ordered "medical supplies" to my address without permission. Left whole room disgusting open container of rotting milk, at least the other exposed goof stuffs, and the best part, a box with needles and a loaded needle in it. Took pictures of everything and reported to Airbnb.. They removed review because he threatened to sue. Dirty. Loaded. Needle.

[Pamela452]

I arrived at accommodation which was far from suitable because a previous guest had been smoking and the smell was terrible. It had been listed as no smoking.  We were forced to find our own accommodation in a foreign country at midnight with no help whatsoever from the host.  Airbnb were also very slow to respond.  The accommodation we got cost us an additional £250 and no-one will take responsibility with Airbnb only offering around £70.  This host would also not take responsibility.  Heading to small claims. 

[Salman18]

 Do you know what the legal Airbnb entity is to take to court though? THey are deliberately not telling me and you cannot file a claim in the Small Claims Court without putting in counterparty details..

[Sheila276]

I'm not sure but I'll protest the abuse by boycotting Airbnb and exposing the scammers they're protecting with the information I have.  AirBnb could be getting over 30% commission on each home we would be listing if not for their partnership with scammers.  I'm going to invest homes, funds, time and energy on Airbnb competitors which don't encourage and reward lying and scamming.

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[John2199]

We had people smoking illegal drugs that made it smell so bad you wanted to throw up when you entered the house.  My house keeper let me know "it smelled like drugs" after the guest checked out.  I went there to remediate the problem before the next guest arrived.  Everything was scrubbed down,  the furniture slip covers were washed and carpet steam cleaned.  When I submitted the claim, Airbnb acted like that was normal cleaning and completely ignored that people were smoking illegal drugs.  They not only denied getting reimbursed but they deactivated my account because I submitted a photo showing they checked out an hour after check out and I didn't update the listing letting people know there was a security camera at the front door.  It's disturbing to know that Airbnb penalizes the host for having a security camera at the front door instead of the people doing illegal drugs at our property! But I would never let the next person suffer for the outrageous behavior of the previous guest.  Just know how un suportive Airbnb is with the host when you take them to small claims because Airbnb should ber held accountable for reimbursment of damages and they constantly deny them to a point where you just want to give up!

[Sheila276]

I'm giving up on Airbnb because they're protecting scammers and vandals from accurate reviews so other hosts can't be warned.  Joey trashed my home for some pictures he could use to demand a refund.  I was forced to refund him even though it counts as a decline and he ruined my perfect average with his review.  

My review doesn't show up on his profile so he can continue to scam hosts with the same stragey.

His profile proves the rating system is designed to deceive people.  Only 5 star ratings show up on his profile as he trashes homes, lies and gets rewarded for scamming people.

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I was planning on listing all my homes and referring others until Joey proved visitor ratings are completely fake.  Ironically the unrated and new users have all been great but the system is clearly set-up to protect liers and prevent hosts from warning eachother.

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[Tony134]

Everyone experiencing these kind of issues should stay active and loud in one place. Please leave feedback on the forum post before if you are experiencing stuff like this.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-to-Start-Fixing-Airbnb-CS-and-Many-Common-Issues/m-p...

[Mark116]

I have to ask...is there some new drug that causes  people to s*** themselves?

Back in the day, I don't recall this ever happening to anyone, no matter how hard they partied or with what items they were using, and yet there are multiple people on this thread who say that freaks showed up at their house and left s*** stains on couches, beds and walls?  How is that even possible?

[Wendy606]

I have also just been told this evening - having made a claim in August, that they will not pay for extensive water damage in the house even though the guest admitted it in airbnb messages. The guest's kids must have used the bathroom as a water park and our solid oak flooring has become mouldy and crunchy. 

She admitted that she thought water pouring through the ceiling was rain - in the middle of the house, in the middle of a heatwave. She left the house early, told us how happy she was there and never once complained about the indoor rain. I wonder why??
She ruined carpets downstairs the hall ceiling is collapsing and mouldy and soaking wet and she ruined the oak flooring. 
The reason Airbnb have given is that the damage has to be caused by the guest or someone invited by the guest. I am sure the guests before, the cleaners and can my family, of course, can vouch that there was no damage before these guests arrived. I have responded to Airbnb in an email and they tell me they have made their final decisions and they will no longer discuss the case. 

I need to take them to a small claims court but who do I address it to? 
The guest - impossible and she is no longer contactable. It must be Airbnb because their host guarantee isn't fit for purpose, but which department? Host guarantee is a great big scam. In my case it's quite obvious that their reason for declining payment is completely and provably false. 
Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

[Ladan4]

A guest stayed at my house who claimed there were only 11 adults for period of 104 nights. After few weeks they had a problem with the water heater, when I went to the home to fix the water heater,  I realized they are a lot more people are staying there. They set up bunkbeds in each room, this is a five bedroom five bath home. Mattresses on the floor, even a tent with mattresses in the garage. When I informed Airbnb, they did not belive me and offered me $134.

After these guest left, they left my home like a disaster, every where full of garbade, broken items, including dinning table. They messed up the walls, the floors, the carpet, they clogged the toilet, left it full of crab, brok the entry door lock, in short they damaged beyond anybodys imagination.

I provided all the pictures, proofs and invoices to airbnb, still they did not belived me and they offered me $250 after going back and forth with them for 6 months.

I like to take them to samll claim court, any body knows how?

Thank you

[Donna80]

I would like to know too. please provide an update

[Donna80]

We are going thru a similar situation. Over $7,000 worth of damage with pictures and documents and even texts from the guests saying "sorry" we did this with a photo and still AIRBNB does not respond appropriately. usually its a 3am response from them stating they didn't hear from me and they are closing the case.   ZERO service for the home owner.

AIRBNB needs to fix their homeowner care!  without our homes they wouldn't have a business. 

What I have learned over 3 years of running 2 properties and being a world wide user of vacation rentals:

1. you can set an age

2. you don't have to accept instant booking - or accept those without reviews

3. you can call them in advance

4. I use docusign as a follow up to all my on line house rules and clarify in it I can refuse entry if they are intoxicated /under the influence upon arrival.

5. It is legal to have exterior cameras (just put notices house rules /on property EXTERIOR ONLY)

6. Same day bookings are suspect - like they are urgent 2-4 hours

7.  They don't show a photo of themselves in the profile or its hard to see 

8. low ball prices usually mean low ball people

9. use the same professional cleaning staff -they are also witnesses to incidents

10. have fun! this is a profession to bring joy to people's lives and there are a few rotton apples...hopefully AIRBNB will not be one of the rotten apples

[Bobbi0]

This is really upsetting to me, that the resolution center is a misnomer, as they seem to not resolve anything but to tag everything "wear and tear".  A friend of mine just had $8K damage and she has receipts for the repairs of the damage caused by her guest,  and photos of the damage caused byher guest,  but rhe RC said it was all normal wear and tear.

We had a long discussion and you have 2 options if you have given up on help from airbnb.

1.  Make a claim with your own insurance company, assuming you are coverd from short term rentals.  Back at the beginning of short term rentals, 10 years or so ago,  all the insurance compaines excluded coverage of short term rentals, but now it is possible to get coverage.  2.  Small claims court.  You will most likely win in s.c.c. but it is difficult to serve someone as they have away of not being home or not answering.  Work is the best place to serve them if you know where they work. 2.  Unless they have a salaried job it is not easy to collect from them. You will get a judgement against them but if they work for themselves or if they are students, it will be hard to collect any money from them.  I'm sorry you had this experience and it is very disappointing to me that airbnb will not step up to the plate.  It seems the only time they actually do anything about damage to host property is when it's bad enough that the host gets the story in the newspaper.  Then all of a sudden it gets kicked higher up and the damage is covered.

[Michele967]

I am not a host but a guest who was denied compensation from the host who had a cottage with mold in the window ac unit and I suspect painted over on the walls that contaminated some of my clothing and personal items. Everything we brought out of this cottage smelled like mold! The owner who lives on the property brought a new smaller window unit and covered the old one with plastic but refused to move us to another unit or give us our money back so we could get out of there. We were hot the entire stay.  I was having severe reactions to mold and tried to sleep in my car the first night. Air B&B is saying they cannot force a host to pay for damages so they gave me a $200 coupon to use. That doesn’t replace my clothing and items that couldn’t be saved from the mold that had already saturated the cottage. I wanted you all to know that as guests we also deal with nightmares and would like to ask if anyone was forced to pay if a guest complained and if so, how did they make you pay? I don’t know why some property owners feel it’s okay to have mold in their property. Mold spores produce mycotoxins that make people sick. I had to be extremely cautious not to contaminate my home after leaving this cottage. This just happened and I’m extremely upset.