Airbnb Host guarantee is a joke

1

I’ve been a host for about 8 years now. Had many guest damages but never claimed through Airbnb
Just had a guest leave who damaged every single comforter. The dog chewed up the carpet valued over $1000. They broke a Disney style tv
Sent all pictures and invoices to Airbnb
They asked for videos and wanted original receipts that I no longer had
Then Lily offered me $30 total !!!
Just a warning. The host guarantee is very hard to get your damages covered and the resumption person called Lily is very anti hosts , obviously

Has anyone else had good experiences
with the host guarantee ? This was my first claim

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2

Sorry about your experience, I have heard similar horror stories.

Do you allow dogs? That would be one thing to change.

3

They allow dogs, looked on their web site.

Also saw they charge a property protection fee but could not see what it covered.

4

We don’t charge property protection fees on Airbnb because I thought that Airbnb would cover damages. I will be looking into adding security deposits now

5

Security Deposit is also worthless, as ABB determines how much you can keep if guest does not willingly pay.

6

I didn’t know that. Well the guest always denies so that’s useless too

7

Agree AirBnB do not do SD’s and the Host Guarantee is pretty worthless.

8

Is there somewhere else we can post our disappointment with the way they deal with their highly advertised host guarantee ?

9

On their FaceBook page? Plenty of disappointment on there.

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10

Had very similar experiences. Sorry to tell you I got $0 from Airbnb. In my case I DID provide invoices and they said it wasn’t legit. Both businesses were licensed and certified too.

I’ve found that the best you can do is write a review to the guest that tells about your experience and warns other hosts of that guest!

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12

I thought the host guarantee was for liability claims, not damaged personal property.

13

Sorry for what happened to you. I, too, got a run around with my case. I followed all the steps. I’ve been a host for almost 5 years and also a superhost. AirBnb Host Guarantee is a joke. Hosts beware. I’ve lost all trust.

14

Hello, new member here about to go live with my first vacation rental. I have created profiles on both AirBnb and VRBO. From many of the posts and horror stories I’ve read about AirBnb for hosts, I’m seriously considering not using it at all.

Any tips on how to lessen the chances of bad guests, who might destroy things? Do you think allowing only guests, who have great reviews is sufficient? Obviously, this could prevent me from getting as many bookings.

Thoughts?

15

Why do you think that AirBNB is a greater risk than VRBO?

16

I haven’t heard or read of hosts complaining about VRBO, but I am new to all this, so I don’t know. It seems easy to add both the security deposit and their Damage Protection program. I haven’t yet even been able to put a security deposit option on my AirBnb profile-guessing there is an option to do that after I publish?

Have you or have you heard of similar horror stories from VRBO concerning claims?

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17

It is strange- it looks like all the horror guests use AirBnB. For 5 years we only used VRBO and the worst thing that ever happened was a lost key and a broken shower curtain for $5,-

Then we started to offer our studio on Airbnb as well and one guest after the other turned out weird. One obese lady climbed through the windows after sending us a message that she could not open the door (we live next door and could have opened the door within a minute). Then there was a homeless party in a vehicle which was literally falling apart, replacement body parts on the roof. They stayed only 3 nights but after they checked out we had to replace the mattress because it was stained all over. Not sure if they were cooking or eating on the mattress or both. Sunday evening the wife left with the family vehicle, leaving her husband with the baby in the studio. She returned in the morning, we were wondering what kind of job she was doing. Her husband seemed to do drugs, he used the BBQ once and broke it. The trash was all over after they checked out, they would not even try to use the trash bags under the sink (there was an entire roll). This was not the only homeless party, a week prior there was another guest who allegedly lived in Seattle but booked one Airbnb after the other in Seattle.

Airbnb doesn’t seem to care about what kind of people use their services, we are considering to drop them and stick with VRBO, even if we get less bookings.