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When I got home after work, I saw the window on my camper broken on the ground. I contacted the guest and they say everything was fine 1½ hours earlier, and that they closed everything properly, when they checked out. It was a lot of wind this day.
From the pictures I took, I can see that the window wasn’t closed properly. It has 4 handles and only one of them is partly closed on the picture. So it seems the guest opened all 4 handles and when they closed the window, they only closed one of the handles a bit. This isn’t enough and the wind blew out the window.
I have requested a refund, but the guest declines to pay. I have contacted AirBNB and hope that their insurance covers this.
Should this be covered by the insurance? It seems like the insurance has a LOT of limits - to the point of being almost useless.
That seems like something that would be covered under your insurance, not AirBnB’s, unless you can prove that it was negligence on the guest’s part, which it doesn’t really sound like you’re sure of.
I absolutely think it was negligence on the guest’s part. There was a lot of wind, and the guests didn’t close the window properly (like it was closed when they opened it).
My regular insurance doesn’t cover this, as it was caused by a rental guest
But would a guest know that, that a window would blow right off if it wasn’t closed properly? That seems like there was something wrong with the window for that to happen. Windows shouldn’t blow off if they are left open. I honestly would be surprised if Air covered something like that.
I wrote a message to AirBNB 3 days ago and didn’t get a response.
Today I requested a refund from the guest, which they declined. I then involved AirBNB. This worked a lot better and I got a response. I just now got this e-mail:
"Thanks for reaching out, and I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances. Situations like these are rare, and I hope you’ll go on to have many more positive hosting experiences in the future.
Since this is a relatively low amount and you haven’t claimed other damages recently, I can expedite this request. I’ve processed a payout of 4000 kr for the damages that happened during reservation XXX with your guest X.
I’ve discussed the issue with X, so you shouldn’t need to communicate with them further about this issue. Thank you for being a great host. If you have any additional concerns, just reply to this email."
Thanks for the update. As you can see from the way this is worded, their coverage is very arbitrary. They didn’t cover it because they think the guest is at fault; they covered it because
So if you have another claim for a larger amount in the next few months, they might not reimburse you.
Wow. I’m pretty shocked, actually. Maybe I should get Air to cover the replacement of one of my windows that wasn’t installed right. (It actually will fall out if someone opens it, which is why I have a sign for guests to please not open that window until I can get it replaced.)
Isn’t your insurance short-term rental insurance? Or can’t you get it because your rental is a vehicle? What about the vehicle insurance? It’s a weird situation that probably requires something out of the ordinary. Hopefully your broker will know the solution
There are 4 handles for the window. When you open the window, you open these 4 handles. When you close the window, you close these 4 handles.
Like a regular window has one handle. When you close the window, you also close the handle - or else the window isn’t really closed.
If there was a storm, and you just closed a regular window without closing the handle, the window would fly up and down and something would break. It is common sense to close the handles when you are closing a window - especially when there is a lot of wind.
If you have some special windows they you need to go over it in detail with the guest. Windows should not blow out onto the ground in the wind, no reasonable person would expect to have to worry about that.
Nope. But that’s what the Air coverage is for, so hopefully that will keep all my bases covered.
I’m with RRR here. And your description of how to open and close a window is SUPER confusing, so I’m not surprised that a guest didn’t do it “right.” Maybe that is something that is specific to camper window? I don’t know. But I’ve never seen a window that had 4 handles.
I love it. A big discussion of a closed case. Regardless of our opinion about where the fault should lie, Airbnb paid out. And they made it clear that their likelihood of paying out is directly related to the cost and frequency of a host’s claims. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also related to how much Airbnb has made off you over time. For example in 4.5 years and 500 guests I have had zero claims and very few phone calls. If Airbnb didn’t pay me anything I wanted I’d be shocked and angry.
And as for private insurance, even if it was covered it would be foolish to make a claim for an amount this small. (Disclaimer: I don’t know the amount, I’m just going on Airbnb saying it’s a small amount.) Claims make rates increase, sometimes lead to cancellations and make it harder to switch companies should you want to.
Limbo posted that Air paid her 4000 kr, which is almost $450 USD if Google is giving me the correct conversion. That seems a pretty significant amount to me (maybe not for filing an insurance claim, but for Air to pay out.)
(It actually will fall out if someone opens it, which is why I have a sign for guests to please not open that window until I can get it replaced.)