Filing a claim with Airbnb

I’d like to know if anyone has filed a damage claim with Airbnb and how did they respond?

A guest smashed my bed last October (2015). I put in a claim for $350. Airbnb told me I had to have a police report to claim anything over $300. I told them that our police force has more important things to do than look at broken beds. I didn’t get my compensation from Airbnb and was then informed that the ‘resolution was closed’. After trying to repoen the dispute a couple of weeks ago, I was informed by Airbnb that it was NOT compulsory to get a police report and that it was too late to reopen the claim!! I still feel tricked and abandoned. Thanks Airbnb!!!

Doesn’t AirBnB offer the option of asking for a damage deposit? My guests have broken chairs, fishing rods, lost a $200 GPS, took off with snorkeling equipment (surely by mistake upon packing), etc etc. I chuck it up as hosting life, it never occurred to me that AirBnB was in anyway responsible for these understandable ‘accidents’.

Mearns - I agree. Stuff happens. I’ve ‘lost’ several towels, a really nice salad bowl, a plant pot of succulents and more. It’s just part of the cost of doing business. I would rather have happy guests who will return than niggle over the odd missing towel or broken wine glass.

I think too that it’s important to ‘guest-proof’ the rental as far as possible. For example, I know that our rental would look so much better with a great rug in the lounge. But I also know that I’d stress over its cleaning and maintenance.

I agree with Jaquo. It’s better to have happy guests. You can try to limit the amount of things left unattended at your rental.

All three of you are so right, and adheres to the principal I am really beginning to follow - meaning work backwards. Remove anything that one considers too personally valuable, then that eliminates worrying about it. Replace some things with usable and less costly versions that if they brake it will not break your heart or upset one too much. In my case, the fishing rods now are $19.95 ‘el cheapo’ fishing sets vs. the original $150 outfits. In other words, replace the ‘museum pieces’ with ‘rental’ versions :smiley:

How did a guest “smash” a bed ? That sounds like violence and a police action.
Did you have a damage deposit? Please tell more.

No, I didn’t have a damage deposit. The guest booked in for a long-term stay of a few months… renting a room in my home… Left after 10 days… he was a strange and odd character who drank far too much and didn’t really fit in to our household! I was at a funeral the day he left… my son caught him taking a photo of my washing-up left in my sink that I didn’t have time to do before I went to the funeral. He sent that pic to Airbnb to show how untidy my house is… My son and I went into the room that evening to clean it, and discovered that the headboard of the bed had been wrenched, with great force, off the base! The bolts had been bent and pulled out and the headboard had been bend over towards the mattress… I took lots of photos and sent them to Airbnb. Guest said ‘the bed was like that when I moved in’!!! Impossible to even MAKE the bed, let alone SLEEP in it the way he left it. It was, I presume, smashed to get back at me for whatever reason he chose to leave. He said he wanted to live closer to the university campus. I got some of his advance payments, but was given the ‘run around’ by Aribnb and treated VERY badly by them in their failure to pay the promised ‘host compensation payment’.

Wow, that’s bad what the guest did. Firstly, I hope you gave him a review and warn other hosts about this guy. Secondly, I have a check-in list highlighted what’s in the room and request that they report any malfunction items within 24 hours of check-in. That prevents the excuse, “it was like this when I came”. Thirdly, in my experience I find Airbnb is much more biased towards guests than hosts. So this is the risk we all take. Hope your next guests are more responsible.