Fake damage claims from the host

[Sandra4965]

Hello airbnb community,

I was wondering if anyone had false damage accusations against them after their stay?

I have booked a flat in Bergen to celebrate my dad’s 55th birthday with the family. We have cleaned the dishes, took out the rubbish, gathered used towels and cleaned the surfaces for the flat to look presentable. 

After our departure from the property landlord opened a case for severe damages i.e. deep damage to the counter, paint on the walls, missing glasses and the key fob missing from the key ring, floors being sticky from spilled alcohol and so on. He is claiming over £4,000 in damages that we didn’t do!

every other day last week and this week he comes back with yet additional damages and this sets me to have panic attacks, as this is just absurd! It was a quiet weekend away with the family and NOT a house party for 20 teenagers! And my reviews during the time I have signed up for Airbnb is spotless: all precious hosts have mentioned me being clean and respectful guest.
I can see some pictures being fake and I have already reported it to Airbnb.

Did anyone have similar experience and how you dealt with it?

I am considering even reporting it to the police.

Any recommendations or advise would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[Molly482]

I am going through something similar for a stay in Paris back in July. Host is claiming $1,000 of damage for all these crazy little things in the house....broken oven (lose pieces $350 to repair), extra cleaning with no proof ($200+),and a small dent in the wall (wanting $300 to fix it). Its quite stressful but I am going through to the whole appeal process and researching how to best appeal. It unfortunately seems as though this is happening more based on my internet research and especially in Europe.

[Gajender0]

Facing the same and that too in the same city Paris, the Host is falsely accusing me of sofa mechanism failure that I never used. and the amount he is seeking is the same as 1000 euros.

I think the whole Paris guys are just fooling people around the world.

Please update your resolution results here too so that others can take the help in my case I have decided to fight and take the escalations to the court if the host will again accuse me.

[Fernando1561]

I am a host with 5 properties that allow pets. Regrettably, pets tend to cause more damage than humans, and even though my primary focus is on providing a welcoming experience rather than raising complaints, the sad reality is that around 90% of guests + ptes  leave behind damages. It's truly disheartening. That's why I always create a video on the check-in day with a timestamp. It serves as irrefutable evidence to support any claims.

[Sandra4965]

Hi @Fernando1561, that is a great idea, but I think it is as important to have the timestamped check-out video as well, for both: landlord and the tenant. Now every time I use airbnb, before we leave the apartment, I take a video with that day's paper or some other proof of the date  and keep it just in case. 

[Darlene246]

@Sandra4965 

hi!  I am going through almost the same, but in reverse lol, as a guest had made a terrible review that was all fabricated. This was bc they did significant damage to our RV and we are asking to be accomodated for those damages. I reported the review and it was removed bc it didn’t meet Airbnb guide lines.  Currently we cannot rent out our RV until damage is repaired.  My guests have always enjoyed a clean RV that we have professionally cleaned after each check out.  Our reviews as hosts have always been sterling reviews. We take pride in our rental and we go above and beyond taking care of our guests. I’m simply sick about this damage done 

[Rita2810]

Yes the same thing happened to us in Sicily this summer. Myself my sister and our two adult sons were accused of huge damage! Broken cooker, broken sofa , broken lamps etc etc - all completely false.  Worse was to follow . When my son booked airbnbs in Japan a few months ago, the night before his travel  he discovered Airbnb had cancelled all his stays. I don’t think I will ever stay in one again . Ironically I was an AIrBNB host for several years.  It seems owners are believed and we are tried without any evidence.  I also know of a similar case in Spain this summer. All the family have been ‘barred’ because of fake damage. 

[Pam2194]

Yes, this just happened to us. We have proof the owner presented Airbnb with altered invoices. Airbnb has not helped us with this issue. The host has committed financial fraud and we are considering suing her and reporting her to the police.

[Alex11522]

I can’t believe this is happening to me.

i checked out a BnB on 12/08 and got a claim from the host 2 weeks later saying there was blood stain on the bed sheet.

Without any photo or evidence, AirBnB agreed the claim and wants to charge me $100+ for it.

i checked the BnB’s review and found there are other guests staying at the BnB after I checked out and before they issued the claim.

AirBnB did not accept my rebuttal and asked me to pay.

what should i do?

[Can0]

did you pay? or what will happen if you dont?

[Tasha879]

That’s unreal! Sorry that happened to you. I was prompted to leave a 5-star review. After I left a great review the host sent a request to pay for damaging a pillow case. We did not damage the pillow case. He is asking 58. Unreal. I cannot revise my review since he left me a review. He said I was a great guest then sent that BS. I didn’t have my lawyer send him a letter for slipping and falling on the ice in the driveway…grow up and replace your own pillowcase that your cleaning person likely ruined. Don’t charge guests for things they didn’t damage. 

[Devyn18]

Unfortunately dealing with this myself, our stay started off weird, we arrived to a not thoroughly cleaned airbnb, and then 2 weeks into what should have been a month long stay the unit had a major leak and we reported it to them and moved out. Now they’re claiming that we CAUSED the damage and trying to make us pay $10,000. It’s ridiculous, we did everything airbnb told us we should do documenting and taking pictures of what happened, tried getting ahold of the owners who didn’t respond until Airbnb got involved, and even called their local water company to have the water turned off. I’m in complete shock that a host can falsely accuse guests for things and Airbnb seemingly does nothing about it. 
We tried to appeal the claim and were told that we “didn’t have enough documentation” to prove that we didn’t cause the leak?!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Devyn18 My only advice is to let them sue you and allow the court to decide. To prove a negative is extremely hard but in court airbnb would have to prove you did do the damage.

The sad thing here is that hosts are sold on the Airbnb Aircover $3m cover. What they are not told is it only kicks in if the guest caused the issue. As such  many hosts are uninsured and so feel they have no choice but to claim the guest caused the damage. Indeed this is the first step in any Aircover claim.

[Devyn18]

Thank you for the reply, it is so frustrating that there is a quite obvious reason for fraudulent claims against guests based on their set up. I’m also shocked at the amount of people who have Airbnb units and are uninsured. When owning a home that I WASNT renting I always had homeowners insurance. Just makes it even more shocking to me that hosts can accuse guests and Airbnb doesn’t protect guests in any way, especially when we provided everything Airbnb specifically asked for in an emergency situation. 

[Can0]

what happened since you didnt pay? how did it end?

[Riliwan0]

I am stunned by the email I got from Airbnb that there was a damage at a place I stayed , after cleaning the trash emptying all the bin in the rest room moving then trash up front of the yard for the host . Then I got a message that a table was damaged  and can’t not be fixed ! How lucky I have a picture ,I am going to decline because I am 100% sure I cleaned every dime nothing was damage ,we even left a day before the checkout . Wasted a day money ! This my first experience is bad. I would have jst booked hotel !