Guest brought bedbugs to my apartment during his stay - cost me 1500 to inspect/exterminate and Airbnb won't help

[Michael9197]

Hi, 

So I normally do long term rentals for my apartment in NYC. Guests normally stay a month or longer. I had one guest stay over this summer for 2 months and began complaining about bed bugs 6 weeks later. I have never had a bedbug problem during my entire time in NYC so I was taken aback to learn about this considering the apartment is clean and renovated. Upon bringing an inspector, the exterminator informed me that this was a fresh infestation *10-20 days* and I was out $1500 to cover the extermination fees. The guest gets reimbursed for the unused days and I'm shut down.

This is a highly asymmetric outcome that clearly favors guests. Not only do I lose the fees for the remaining days he had rented the unit but I am forced to pay up 1500 to clean the place. On top of that, I am shut down (which is understandable given the apartment has bugs)

I have spent a week with Airbnb trying to resolve this matter. At first they said, they would reimburse 500 because that was the normal cost for extermination fees. They then came back and said that they would be unable to reimburse me because the amount was too high? 
Does this make sense to anyone? I am at the point where I will no longer use Airbnb as a guest or a host given their lack of care and consideration. It seems they have a support team in India working in a noisy call center, and are simply instructed to not give money back to anyone.

[Lorina14]

@Michael9197 

Bed bugs are horrible for everyone involved. I would call and message again asking to escalate to the manager so you can talk to someone in charge (and not the basic customer service reps you get when you call in). I would provide the inspectors report that details this was a “fresh” infestation and it fell within the time span of the offending recent guest. You did submit a claim through the resolution center? Aircover should cover issues like this as this was not your fault (you’ve never had a bed bug issue, it was a fresh infestation that was during the time of the guest’s reservation). I would be persistent with your documentation (on the platform) the timeline of the guest and the infestation period as the inspector listed and make sure Airbnb has the full report and invoice. Regardless of what they consider usual and customary, this was a problem for your listing that was not caused by you and this is what the Aircover (that they advertise to hosts and guests) should cover.

Please keep us posted as to what happens.