@Nur7 @Maegen2 I too had a guest break a window to get inside, their friend was sleeping and they were knocking on the window to wake that person up and broke it. They totally admitted it on the dashboard. They also spilled a milkshake on a sisal rug. They said they could not afford to pay anything yet. I had already paid a repair company to come and Airbnb said they would not pay me because they thought the invoice was from a company related to my own company. It was actually not related to me, it was a real separate handyman business. I almost lost my mind going in circles with that service agent who never did pay. The reason they assumed the repair company was related to me was apparently the name of my city was in the name of both my company and the handyman's company.... seriously. I argued and explained that the company is NOT connected to me other than being a vendor I use in the same city where I live... The agent wanted to only pay the cost of the glass pane itself because the installer referenced where that was from (Rick's which did not have our city name in it) but they wanted to see that separate glass pane invoice which I did not have, and not pay the labor for the installer who bought the glass.... the invoice I paid was to the installer for BOTH material and labor....because he bought the glass and installed it... but the Agent declined to pay since the installer's company name shared the name of OUR CITY in its title.
Now I have another one, where they say the person I paid is the problem again. Everything is in the dashboard as proof and there is not an argument about what happened or who is to blame. The person booked for her daughter and that daughter did not checkout on time her items were left an extra day and then I was told she was not coming back to pack up she had abandoned all her belongings and I should put it all in the trash. Besides that she left a huge mess of food, juice and even blood from "sorry she has frequent nose bleeds". We are in the midst of Coronavirus. The maids have almost no work from cessation in tourism and they need money so I told the couple who cleans there that if they wanted to tackle this job they would have to write a special invoice for clearing out this entire apartment full of abandoned stuff AND cleaning the blood and food staines. They did create, print and sign this special invoice and did a spectacular job of making it like it never happened. Of course I happily paid them, glad I could give them some work and feeling sure I was getting paid by the guest or Airbnb.
The guest acted confused about how to pay, and after waiting a week I thought she was ignoring me on purpose so I clicked escalate. I had asked for $65 for the extra night (half my standard rate), $39 for a ruined designer pillow (sent receipt) and my maid's cleaning invoice for $123 and the Airbnb service agent immediately says he cannot pay me because cleaning invoice has to be from a "verifiable company". I said wait, the person I paid is a verifiable independent contractor, they wrote an invoice and I have a w9 from them as a vendor and a cleared check from where I paid their invoice...and again he said no. I have written back twice and he has told me no, and is saying he cannot help unless I send a different invoice. I guess he wants me to produce a fake invoice. They know I already paid the individual cleaner and they have proof of what had to be done....and in the stone walling emails the agent makes no mention of paying me for the extra night or the pillow! Just stone walling me completely because of the cleaner invoice.
And meanwhile Airbnb's media act as if they know the importance of providing work for individual cleaners, like where they ask hosts to check a box saying the cleaner is paid a living wage. At that time do they say by the way you cannot pay a regular person only a verifiable company to clean? The maid who is familiar with the condo had to sift through the mess and know which items were OURS vs. the guest's abandoned things. Serv Pro might have tossed out my throw blanket or other decor not knowing if it was ours or the guests, and surely would not have soaked the blood stained comforter in their own bathtub overnight to save it....
Insurance is great for big things but nobody claims on their insurance for these smaller amounts! We all know small things have to be absorbed frequently, I have hosted over 10,000 Airbnb guests so trust me I let little things go ALL THE TIME but when the guest admits completely what happened and when it is not mysterious, not normal wear and tear and it is a concrete special hard cost... that is exactly when this should be working for us. And what we get is the runaround
