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I have found the support to be very inconsistent depending on the person you get assigned to your case, and the rapport you create with that person. Maybe try calling instead of messaging to get another person? And call the specific Superhost support line.
I agree you can’t count on airbnb to enforce rules and apparently getting any kind of restitution for damage is very remote possibility.
I have also had a very hard time with independent insurance companies getting any kind of restitution for damage they look for any loophole as an excuse not to pay. So I’m wondering if other people have had success getting payment for damage left by guests from outside insurance? Is it really going to help?
I suppose you state in your listing no parties, no gatherings, no inviting people who are not paying guests included on the reservation?
Perhaps you need to re-think your space, close off some bedrooms and rent it as a smaller house? Will rent for less but also less problems?
Happy enough with them, our rates are higher than on Airbnb but the flip side (for a while) was more cancellations. Made changes to make non-ref rates more attractive and cancellation rate dropped. I’m actually happy that all our eggs aren’t in the one basket, once the summer is over Airbnb bookings will likely increase, as they did last year.
Guest profile is different, much less interaction and, at times, communication poor. Higher nightly rate makes up for it though.
I have also had a very hard time with independent insurance companies getting any kind of restitution for damage they look for any loophole as an excuse not to pay. So I’m wondering if other people have had success getting payment for damage left by guests from outside insurance? Is it really going to help? Answer: Yes I have had success in claims. They dont look for “loopholes” …they follow the policy exclusions and terms exactly. If the claim meets the terms, then they pay. It is probably better financially to "self - insure " ( I did until they slapped on the high service fees ), and also to collect and cash and hold a damage deposit in an escrow account.
I don really expect anything from Airbnb but at the same time then why they participate so much in resolving issues between host and guest.
I had crazy woman here once and she complained on me to them that I kicked her out. They immediately closed my account .
It took them 2 weeks to reopen it. Crazy woman has a police record with the same issue I had with her …and she is till renting .
It’s too much of their power here. Other things too…I had once another kuku bringing a 120lb “service” dog. When we didn’t let him in he said it’s not a dog it’s a human being .
Airbnb called me and was trying to make me to accept him saying we can’t refuse service dog . And guests doesn’t even have to have any proof it’s service dog. All he has to do is state it.
They suddenly all of a sudden closed my daughter’s account . She logged in with her device because I asked her to keep an eye on my account while I was traveling and they locked her account .
She called…they wouldn’t even talk to her .
She didn’t use Airbnb for at least a year at all and when she was trying to rent a cabin that’s when she saw her account was locked .
Anyway…they are too much involved .
I don’t rely on them at all. If they can lock accounts like this .
That crazy woman also told me that she knows how to complain so Airbnb cancells her stay and refunds her all the money .
They are very good for high season weekend bookings when rates are high. But also is booking. com.
I imagine that they are okay for people who are doing this on a temporary basis - such as those who are renting out their spare room for a year until their credit card bill is paid or are renting out their holiday home until they retire there next year - or similar.
But even those people still can’t expect Airbnb to hold their hands.
You say it only covers the guest, but what you quoted states the opposite.
As an owner you may suggest this plan to your guests to help protect them from paying out of pocket for accidental damages caused to your rental or belongings during their stay.
Unless the guest agreed and confirms under the terms then the owner gets zero. It is for the guest not the owner . It protects the guest from paying out of pocket - protects the guest! Guest. Not owner.
They agreed to the terms of the insurance by purchasing it and booking the space. What am I missing?
What specific claims have you submitted and had denied with the insurance? Minor damages that were determined to be ordinary wear and tear? Because I don’t expect the policies to cover that. Nor do I expect it to cover damage I can’t prove was caused by the guest.
Some of us believe that taking a towel ($8) or break something (What? $50 coffee pot?) and considering the depreciation just isn’t worth it. It’s the cost of doing business. If someone breaks a brand new coffee maker then yeah, I’m out the money. But if it’s a two year old coffee maker it has a value of $5. Also you’re deducting these business expenses on your taxes. So fretting about these relatively small costs is not a good use of your time.
Another strategy you might use is to raise your price a little. $5 extra a night x 100 nights annually booked should buy pile of towels, a professional carpet cleaning and a case of decent wine.
Ugh, this is my worst fear. I’ve learned through a much smaller issue that ABB doesn’t stand behind your house rules (at all) and won’t even help with guests try to skirt extra guest fees by falsely booking for a less number of people. This makes no sense to me! ABB offers the option of having extra guest fees, but won’t enforce them. Their quote to me “it’s your responsibility to make sure the correct number of people check in”, which I think is completely fine, but what about when I catch more guests coming in the middle of the night via our security cameras? I don’t have 24/7 security team that can go over as soon as additional people arrive. I even put it in my house rules that extra guests not booked will incur a $100 fee per person per day, and they won’t let me enforce that. Since the guest isn’t answering calls from ABB they’re just like “welp…we can’t do anything”. So frustrating.
Our county actually wants us to be collecting name address and copy of ID from a responsible guest (which most hosts aren’t even doing in my area), but I wonder if something like that might help you? I’ve thought about doing this myself, but just worry that it will hurt my bookings since guests already feel like they’re giving their info to ABB.
Out of curiosity, what are you charging per night?
I also agree, you should take this story to news, social media, etc. This is ridiculous that ABB insists on handling our security deposits, and the $1M guarantee, but won’t approve your claim!! I’m mad for you.
I feel for you, OP. I do. But my opinion will likely not be the popular one. I feel that a price must sometimes be paid when the overall reward is massive from a relatively passive income. Especially when that passive income directly and negatively affects the greater community.
Firstly, if you choose to be a remote host, and are witness to the goings on at your listing via surveillance, you have some responsibility of mitigating your damages. If you were local, the amount of damage that can occur would be much less severe, one would assume. If you are witness to a situation developing and are not present in the community to either put an end to it or prevent it, that is on you. To me, that exhibits disrespect to the community. The immediate neighbors should not have to deal with the negative consequences of the transience that serves to benefit you.
It is a disservice or at the very least, an imposition, to the community in general to host at all, let alone remote host.
I feel in that circumstance that its your duty to apply ongoing damage control and practice good hosting etiquette at all times in order to mitigate the damage to the community firstly. Addthatto the fact that you may also be contributing to local housing problems/shortages.
Now, it isnt right that someone disrespected your property like that. There should be a penalty and compensation. But I agree with Airbnb. If there is sufficient enough time and access to be able to commit $6500 worth of damage whilst it could have been prevented, its your responsibility to pick up costs in excess of that minimal amount.
You are missing an understanding of the terms of the protection.
I have collected on:
Painting walls from kid drawing on them
Putting granite tops on all my furnture after same kid gouged the tops of the furniture with a pencil due to parents ignoring child
A new grill when guest burned up the grill with overstuffing and walking away
and maybe a few other items I dont remember.
After that I started to self insure and that worked great for many years…until VRBO implemented service fees and I didnt feel I could nickel and dime the renters with too many extra line charges.
AND I DID NOT COLLECT ON-
Redoing damage on my hardwood floors after guests had extra people visit and damaged floors ( I dont remember if it was high heels or baggage being dragged as it was 8 years ago ). They held a sophisticated dinner gathering. My contract said " no Parties" and therefore no collection on payment as it was considered to be a party. It is very important that any claim is correctly worded and guest agrees to the damage and the reason and it meets the terms of the policy. If the cause of the claim is a violation of a term of your rental agreement ( which must be submitted too ) then it will be denied.
How does a local host help with this (unless they live next door)? If you show up after check out and the house is trashed, why does it matter where the host lives? The host (or someone) would have had to have been constantly monitoring surveillance footage and gone to the house as soon as there was an issue. This is not a reasonable solution - we are not hotels and most of us are not charging hotel prices (nor could we get away with that). I totally disagree, the guest caused a lot of damage and the host shouldn’t have to pay for it. It doesn’t matter that a host or cohost could have happened to drive by or saw the security footage and stopped it. That’s what the $1M “guarantee” is supposed to be for - or at least that’s what they claim.
AirBNB should make up their minds - do they want to be just a listing site? Or do they want to be an intermediary? Because they seem to pick and choose based on what’s convenient for them.
Clearly I am not misunderstanding at all since all the instances you list that you were successful in claims are what I would expect the policy to cover. Thanks for clarifying.
Rentals are not day care facilities. Yes, if the host is aware of behavior that negatively impacts the community they should react, however, providing 24/7 monitoring / security is not realistic.
You could make the same arguments of apartment rentals.
A unit could easily get trashed with no indication from external monitoring.
