TL;DR – Guest damaged carpet and got upset when we asked for reimbursement. Airbnb approved her refund and won’t provide us a valid Travel Issue. Waiting for supervisor review and out ~$1,000.
Hi all! We are newish hosts with a five star rating and achieved Superhost status at first review. This is our first major issue. Our guest booked with us from the end of March through June. All substantive communication occurred through the Airbnb app and polite/professional on our part. Last week, the guest informed us of a bleach stain on the carpet in our suite. She did not disclose what caused the stain, but rather than letting us know about the spill as required by our house rules, she purchased some kind of cleaner and tried to clean it herself. The result is an irregular sized bleach stain in a high traffic area about the size of a salad plate; very noticeable. We thanked her for letting us know and informed her we would have it repaired and request reimbursement through the Resolution Center. We said up front in our first communication about the issue that we intended to use the Resolution Center. We obtained a quote of $250 for the repair, but she protested the cost and asked for more estimates. We obtained three other estimates and got the cost down to $200; she agreed to pay and we scheduled the repair for May 17. We informed her we would submit the receipt along with the Resolution Center request following the repair.
Our guest then informed us that she spoke with Airbnb and said she would not pay for the repair and Airbnb said we must use the Resolution Center (???). It is clear from our message thread that was our intention the entire time. Airbnb then sent us a message (May 14 @ 1:00 a.m.) stating the guest asked for their assistance to inform us to use the Resolution Center. At 9:00 a.m. (same day), an Airbnb case manager called us to tell us our guest had requested an alteration to their reservation to check out on May 16, abruptly cutting her reservation short by 14 days. I asked for the reason for the alteration request. This is the response from the case manager the following day:
“From what I have gathered, the guest no longer feels comfortable staying at the listing once the issues started with the carpet. There might've been some misinformation regarding how the resolution center works and this miscommunication would be the starting point as far as the reason why she would like Airbnb to mediate in this case. She has advised me that this has been a pretty stressful situation, and she would just feel more comfortable leaving at this point.”
We did not agree to the alteration because we had made several concessions to this guest already (30% discount for long stay, among several others) and did not believe this was a valid reason for an alteration. We also immediately submitted the Resolution Center request for the carpet repair (with written quotes), because it appeared the guest was trying to skip out before the repair. A short while later, the case manager told us Airbnb will approve the alteration request. I asked the case manager to articulate the valid Travel Issue, referring back to the Guest Refund Policy. The case manager then said the travel issue is a “direct conflict,” but did not define what that meant and it is not defined in the policy or the Terms. The alteration occurred and the guest checked out May 16, resulting in about $1,000 loss for us.
We called Airbnb on May 15 and the support person (Jane – not her name) said we could request supervisor review, which we did. Our message thread with Airbnb support then noted a supervisor would review the case within 24-48 hours. Jane said I could call back and request to speak with her, just ask for her by name. I continued to ask questions on the thread, particularly how I should interact with the guest going forward. The guest asked that we direct all communication toward Airbnb and there are some outstanding issues, including returning personal items the guest left in our suite. Since I asked for supervisor review I have received no response from Airbnb about any question and my repeated calls to try to speak with Jane have gone unreturned.
This is all a long way of asking, can I expect a fair review by a supervisor? I understand that refund decisions are final, but I want Airbnb to specify the Travel Issue used as a basis for the refund. Per the policy, a refund can only be given if there is a valid Travel Issue. If you are willing, please share your experience with Airbnb refunds to guests. Do they usually cite the Travel Issue and is supervisor review ever successful? We are going on 48 hours now with zero communication from Airbnb.
Thank you for sharing!
