End of the story (Guest causes maggot (pinworm) outbreak in guestroom

1

Dear Airhosts,

please forgive me, to reopen it again, but I think may be some readers wanted to know how this story went. So lovely administrators, you can attach that to the theme as a solution, if you want.

From my side, I can say it went fine cause Airbnb took over the cleaning cost. But I can also say it was a hard fight for over one month. In summary I can say that the problem was caused by the response team of Airbnb itself. Many of the workers did not read the “host_guarantee” rules complete and so I had to point out that again and again. And by the way, it may be also a problem of reading and understanding, especially in insurance law.

It is also a problem to understand, what are the “damage costs” and what are related (uncovered costs). In this case the damage cost are the costs that are necessary to bring the property back to the status that it is usable again. (Here the cleaning costs). Related costs
(uncovered) are the costs of the time the property is not usable for others.

And then one day I found a woman which in fact had read the rule complete and understand it.
Please remember, that most all of them had read only the first part up to the semicolon.

vi. damage caused by insects, animals or vermin (including pets);

provided, that any physical damage resulting from any of the conditions listed above will be covered by the Airbnb Host Guarantee if not otherwise excluded under the Airbnb Host Guarantee.

And then the people thought "Fine, damage refused, cause damage of insects is uncovered "

But the second part explains that the damage is covered. So it was only a problem to point out, that cleaning costs are also damage costs.

But as I told, it was a hard fight, especially if you as a foreigner are claiming cost for a guarantee from outside. So I can only say: “Don’t throw the towel”

In fact I had to open the case at least 3 times. And one of my last actions was to call in to the local Airbnb subsdiary in Berlin to escalate it.

3 Likes
2

I’m happy the issue was resolved. It’s a shame it took so long for Airbnb to help. Will they cover your financial loss since you were unable to rent out the space?

3

You’re kidding, right?

4

Hello Ritz,
no, unfortunately not. But that is also clear described in the Host_guarantee rules.
I am fine with that. But what I also found out is, that it seems that Airbnb
don’t claim the security deposit any more. In my situation it was, that the guest has booked for 2 month. The guest created the “damage” after 1 month. That means, that there was a balance
on the account of the guest. But Airbnb paid all that including the security deposit back on the next day although I did an veto.

Normally, if I guest did some damage, and the guest has a balance I would give the money only back, after the situation is clarified.

1 Like
5

No, I am not kidding.
ButI had to as I told it was a hard fight.
I had to complain again and again.
And it was not easy, cause as a german english is not my mother language.
The second problem was, how do you tell the people, that they hav to read
the sentences complete and not only the half.

6

This was in response to @Ritz3 question about Airbnb reimbursing you for lost income.

7

So their so called host guarantee insurance is really not that great : ( It’s like false advertisement to lure in new hosts.

8

Hello Ritz,

from the function Airbnb is an Information broker. They do the contact between2 Partners.
Therefore the are not liable. But they do some pressure to the hosts to give the best.
And there are less opportunities. The other companies which provide the same like booking-dot-com etc.
hav no insurance. And by the way, that you have to fight with People from Service desks which are not able to read and understand is an Situation that can happen often.

9

Sorry Ritz3,

Ihad unfortunately overseen, that Ihave not answered. No, AirBnB did not covered the loss.That was also not necessary, cause the guestroom was booked while they were creating the damage. So in fact I had no lost of booking, I had only the damage (-which was high enough)

1 Like