Thank you! I feel more welcome here than I do with Airbnb. lol
I doubt they can put a Lien against my property or send me to collections. I never agreed to pay anything and the judgement is not court ordered. The worst I believe they can do at this point is garnish any income I make on the site.
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I doubt it, as it is not her who made the judgement, or took the money. I would probably have to take Airbnb to small claims court.
I agree that they probably wonât be able to put a lien on your property. However, I do believe that when you agree to the Terms of Service you agree to any payments Airbnb decides against you. I think that they can send you to collections and for an amount that large they probably will. If you live in the U.S. this is not a matter to be taken lightly as a collections account seriously mars your credit.
I really hope that is not the case. The financial loss already incurred is already bad enough. Let alone sending me to collections over a decision that had nothing to do with me was never given the option to present my side of the story.
file against both her and airbnb. You have nothing to lose.
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I donât know how they can send someone to collections over a fee that was never mutually agreed upon. I understand that I agreed to certain things in their terms and conditions, but not to pay a level of compensation that exceeds the maximum that is allowed to be awarded in small claims court by a judge.
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We are still utterly confounded as to how they came up with such an insanely high amount of compensation to award our ex-tenant. We have repeatedly questioned them as to how they came to that figure and we have received zero explanation thus far.
Thatâs actually a very good point. If anything it will show Airbnb that weâre not just going to let it go. Hopefully that will get them to open up the lines of communication again, so that we can finally discuss the issue.
If I am reading the Terms and Conditions correctly; you are entitled to take this dispute to arbitration. Here is the pertinent section of the terms and conditions.
Dispute Resolution
You and Airbnb agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation or validity thereof, or to the use of the Services or use of the Site or Application (collectively, âDisputesâ) will be settled by binding arbitration, except that each party retains the right to seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation or violation of a partyâs copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents, or other intellectual property rights. You acknowledge and agree that you and Airbnb are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action or representative proceeding. Further, unless both you and Airbnb otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one personâs claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If this specific paragraph is held unenforceable, then the entirety of this âDispute Resolutionâ section will be deemed void. Except as provided in the preceding sentence, this âDispute Resolutionâ section will survive any termination of these Terms.
Arbitration Rules and Governing Law. The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (âAAAâ) in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules and the Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes (the âAAA Rulesâ) then in effect, except as modified by this âDispute Resolutionâ section. (The AAA Rules are available at www.adr.org/arb_med or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879.) The Federal Arbitration Act will govern the interpretation and enforcement of this section.
Arbitration Process. A party who desires to initiate arbitration must provide the other party with a written Demand for Arbitration as specified in the AAA Rules. (The AAA provides a form Demand for Arbitration and a separate form for California residents) The arbitrator will be either a retired judge or an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of California and will be selected by the parties from the AAAâs roster of consumer dispute arbitrators. If the parties are unable to agree upon an arbitrator within seven (7) days of delivery of the Demand for Arbitration, then the AAA will appoint the arbitrator in accordance with the AAA Rules.
Arbitration Location and Procedure. Unless you and Airbnb otherwise agree, the arbitration will be conducted in the county where you reside. If your claim does not exceed $10,000, then the arbitration will be conducted solely on the basis of documents you and Airbnb submit to the arbitrator, unless you request a hearing or the arbitrator determines that a hearing is necessary. If your claim exceeds $10,000, your right to a hearing will be determined by the AAA Rules. Subject to the AAA Rules, the arbitrator will have the discretion to direct a reasonable exchange of information by the parties, consistent with the expedited nature of the arbitration.
Arbitratorâs Decision. The arbitrator will render an award within the time frame specified in the AAA Rules. The arbitratorâs decision will include the essential findings and conclusions upon which the arbitrator based the award. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The arbitratorâs award damages must be consistent with the terms of the âLimitation of Liabilityâ section above as to the types and the amounts of damages for which a party may be held liable. The arbitrator may award declaratory or injunctive relief only in favor of the claimant and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by the claimantâs individual claim. If you prevail in arbitration you will be entitled to an award of attorneysâ fees and expenses, to the extent provided under applicable law. Airbnb will not seek, and hereby waives all rights it may have under applicable law to recover, attorneysâ fees and expenses if it prevails in arbitration.
Fees. Your responsibility to pay any AAA filing, administrative and arbitrator fees will be solely as set forth in the AAA Rules. However, if your claim for damages does not exceed $75,000, Airbnb will pay all such fees unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought in your Demand for Arbitration was frivolous or was brought for an improper purpose (as measured by the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)).
Changes. Notwithstanding the provisions of the âModificationâ section above, if Airbnb changes this âDispute Resolutionâ section after the date you first accepted these Terms (or accepted any subsequent changes to these Terms), you may reject any such change by sending us written notice (including by email) within 30 days of the date such change became effective, as indicated in the âLast Updated Dateâ above or in the date of Airbnbâs email to you notifying you of such change. By rejecting any change, you are agreeing that you will arbitrate any Dispute between you and Airbnb in accordance with the provisions of this âDispute Resolutionâ section as of the date you first accepted these Terms (or accepted any subsequent changes to these Terms).
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I just canât my head around the fact that they Airbnb make a judgement of 6000 and you are expected to fork out for their judgement. I would definitely be going down the route of small claims court for her and airbnb, am sure its not what you expected especially as a new host. In what world does slow wifi during a 6 month period equate to getting your money back. She must know someone working in airbnb, no sane logical person could think this was acceptable.
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Well, just to be devilâs advocate for a momentâŚ
We donât really know the whole story here. I too find it beyond belief that Airbnb would give the guest a refund of 50% of their overall stay simply because the internet wasnât too brilliant.Many of us here have vented about some facet of Airbnb at some time but are they really that daft?
There are so many disgruntled guests posting all over the internet about not getting refunds and their stories always involve something more serious than iffy internet.
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I did think the exact same but was chicken to say so
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The only issues the tenant made us aware of during her stay was occasionally slow internet, some ants in the house and a loss of a four outlets and a light when a breaker went bad in our electrical panel. All of the issues were taken care of in a timely manner and we have all the documentation in regards to service calls to the house by the internet company, an exterminator and an electrician to resolve all the issues she ever had.
At the end of the day if these were such big issues to her then why did she keep renewing her lease month after month for 6 months? Also why would you not contact Airbnb when these issues were occurring to complain while they were happening?
Itâs very fishy to us and we canât believe not to Airbnb that she never made a complaint to them until she had less than a week left of her stay after being here for 6 months. Like I said in another post itâs like going to a restaurant for dinner, eating every last morsel of your food and then complaining to the manager that something was wrong with it and you want your money back.
We do believe that she must know someone who works at Airbnb and/or she fabricated much of her story and they took it at face value. There doesnât seem to be any other logical explanation at this point.
And surely, those were the first questions she was asked by Airbnb.
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You would think that would definitely be the case before awarding her any kind of compensation. We still donât have any idea of what was said, or what kind of evidence she provided. We have asked to see the evidence time and time again to no avail.
You are a new host so I wonder if it could possibly be that guests have sent negative feedback to Airbnb in the past? If so, and if the complaints mirrored hers, that could be held against you.
I had couple guests before ( not long term ones ), who one way or another tried to blackmail/ threaten me with their made up stories how bad was my place to get full or partial refund. Luckily in those cases I contacted airbnb first before guest was able to escalate it and informed airbnb about dishonest guests. Also itâs very important that you communicate with the guest only through the air app throughout their stay. In this case if they ask anything you have prove of your response and whatever they say is documented too. It might be key evidence in resolving dispute with the guest in your favor. Also from my experience if guest is acting suspicious donât wait, always contact airbnb first and let them know about your concerns.
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Reverse your images so that they are not immediately obvious as the same place. Change the bed covers etc to different colours, move furniture. Leave the street number out when doing the location in the system.
I donât care how underhand it is, this is survival weâre talking about and trying to recoup THEFT from AirBnB, so all power to you.
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We only had one previous booking before this person stayed, so Iâm I would doubt that there could be much in their system about us one way or the other.