Hi, has anyone observed an increase in guests exploiting hosts by leveraging Airbnb's unverifiable policies to obtain refunds or partial reimbursements? I've been hosting for a year and a half, and in the last low season, I faced this issue two or three times. The worst part is that Airbnb seems to be allowing guests to do so. I had one guest who, after a week, requested an early check-out due to a war situation in their country. After 20 days, they started contacting Airbnb, inventing issues like "inaccuracy" or other minor problems, and demanding a full refund.
It's becoming a trend that if a guest fabricates an issue and denies the host the chance to resolve it, they can secure a refund. Bad guests are exploiting this more frequently. Some hosts, fearing negative reviews, opt to refund money. In other cases, cunning guests exploit policies like the unverifiable claim of a "smell" to automatically obtain a refund. When you respond with, "Okay, I'll send housekeeping to check," they decline, but Airbnb often grants them the refund based on these magic words.
This is crazy, and I'm seriously considering leaving and exploring independent marketing or other platforms.
