I am new to AIRBnB and on my second rental, the guest did some damage.

[Michael8777]

Should I file a claim?  Not trying to be petty, its probably around $500 in damage but they left a mess in the house which I felt was pretty disrespectful. I have one 5-star.  The whole house was just renovated inside and out so it is disappointing.  Looking for some guidance here before my "Jersey Shore" comes to the surface...

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Michael8777 An Aircover claim will only succeed if you have receipts for all the damaged items and they are not too old. Excess cleaning appears to be rarely covered.

If you do decide to pursue a claim then review the guest honestly ASAP and hope they review you quickly. Only then should you create a claim. Generally a poor review due to a claim means small claims are not worthwhile. Not knowing your nightly rate I have no idea if $500 is a big amount or not.

[Rebecca]

Hi @Michael8777 👋

Sorry to hear about your recent guest experience. What did you decide to do in the end in regards to the damages to the property? 

Looking forward to hearing from you 😊

[Michael8777]

I ate the damage and gave the renter a good review.  I kept asking for them to review the property and I got crickets…

I took the high road and said nice things (untrue basically) to just get it off the table.  Once the guest saw the positive review he then reciprocated and left a good review.  Grace gets Grace - always.

bottom line tho….i will never rent to that person again.  

[Joelle43]

Hello @Michael8777 

Really glad for you that you got a good review from this problem guest but a guest cannot see the review a host leaves them beforehand.  Unless you showed him your review via a message?

Both parties have 14 days to leave a review and they remain unseen until both parties have written their review and they are then both published at the same time and if only one party leaves a review then the host or guest has to wait until the end of those 14 days to see that review.

Leaving a glowing review for a bad guest means that other hosts will now go through the same thing as you.  Not ideal.