Damage dispute with guest/ airbnb resolution- no justice! Advice please!

[Sarah1754]

Good evening!

I have been a host with Airbnb for over 5 years now. Over the 5 years I have hosted over 500 stays, and had many amazing guests. And a few pretty rough guest situations. But this recent one is extra tough and I was hoping to get some advice from other hosts on it.

A guest stayed recently and our neighbor called and said there was 2 younger (10ish) boys standing on our deck throwing rocks at their house. She heard it while sitting inside. One of the rocks hit her window and broke it. She went out side and asked the boys if she could please speak to the adult at the house, but no adult ever came out. So she called us and asked us to please get ahold of our guest and ask them to ask their kids to stop throwing rocks at her house. We immediately did. The guest apologized and said she spoke to the boys. She left the next day.

Our neighbor wants her broken window replaced. It is a custom frosted glass privacy window, and the quotes to replace it are very expensive. $800. I reached out to Airbnb support about it and they told me to put in a resolution request with the guest, and if she didn't agree to pay it then click to involve airbnb and airbnb would help with the claim. I did so, and she denied the claim, and then Airbnb claims said they are not responsible because the damage is at the neighbors house. Which is upsetting on a different level. So it's ok for their guests to destroy our neighbors property? Anyway, it's also upsetting because now they have closed the claim and I believe told the guest that they don't have to pay? I'm not sure how the claim looks from the guest side.

Anyway, I am not sure what to do now. Should I start a new claim with the guest? This is an expensive repair. And she agreed to pay for it in our messaging thread. But now she is entirely ignoring me. Our neighbor said she has a ring camera outside her house that catches our deck, and it has audio that not only picks up the sound of the window being hit and breaking, her talking to the boys asking to speak with an adult, and then the guest coming out to tell the boys to stop throwing rocks. It is 100% her fault and she knows it. There is even proof.

Any advice on how I should handle this now? Thank you in advance!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sarah1754 It may be too late but I  would start by messaging the guest and saying that sadly you will now have to involve the police as this is criminal damage. Then I would report the crime to the police and ask that they use the contact details provided by Airbnb for law enforcement to get the name and address of the guest from Airbnb. I suspect the guest will pay for the damage fairly quickly if they know the police are involved. If she doesn't pay then the police report should help you make a claim on Aircover and/or your own insurance.

[Sarah1754]

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if I could make a police claim since it happened to my neighbors house and not mine. I will look further into that! I will also write the guest again and let them know I have evidence of the event on camera. My husband doesn’t think it would be worth the insurance deductible for our personal insurance- or the rise in annual cost in following years that always seems to happen after a claim is filed. I was really hopeful Airbnb resolutions/claims would help with this. Instead they closed the claim and now the guest is ignoring me entirely. I am thinking about opening a new resolution request for the same issue with her and not involving Airbnb claims this time, so it pings her again. 
Thank you for the advice.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah1754 

It seems from other threads here that it takes persistence with customer service to reach someone with the type of experience to assist with non routine issues.

Sure! why not open another resolution item with the guest. If I were her, I'd be embarrassed, and eager to settle up for something that happened when she was not supervising her children.

I do not know the rules of insurance in Oregon, however here it is necessary to have business insurance for STR hosting. Our personal homeowners insurance will not cover any claim resulting from business activity. 

The police should be able to advise you on whether or not you or your neighbor should file the report. I'd ask. 

Best of luck to you...

[Shirley26]

This has to be very frustrating for you.  I'm assuming these boys were  part of the reservation?  In addition to filing a police report, I would pursue it once again with Airbnb.  Just  because the damage was not directly to your house,  it was "caused" by registered guests, from and while in your home.  If you have insurance on your property, you might also check with your agent.  In my situation, whereby city ordinances require my place to be "owner occupied", when renting,  I have an addendum to my insurance policy, called  "home sharing".  In the end, check with your insurance agent if everything else fails.   Wish you well.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Shirley26 

Whew!

We are also required by ordinance to be present at all times when guests are here. That has eliminated potential problems before they start, I'm certain. Potential troublemakers would avoid us completely! We are also required to have business insurance for STR/home sharing which has hefty liability coverage. Also wise. 

[Fred13]

Unfortunate event, it does make me wonder what kind of parents (aka guests) find it acceptable to have their children throw rocks for sport at a neighbor and then try to dodge any responsibility.

[Kitty-and-Creek0 · Accepted solution]

@Sarah1754 

@Mike-And-Jane0 @Shirley26 @Fred13 

This is dreadful, and you've great advice already. 

Documentation is necessary, for any type of claim. Please don't put off taking actions that you are able to do:

A police report

Contacting your business insurance agent

Keep pushing customer service to take action on your behalf. 

You and your neighbor are in this together, please stick together!

Best of luck, let us know what happens!