Guests has visitors (against house rules)

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As an FYI for everyone, I learned something today. ABB apparently has separate departments, one whose team tries to get the guest to agree to pay the damages, but if they guest says no and/or doesn’t respond that particular team can’t do anything else. There’s then the “claims” team, who further looks into the matter and determines whether or not to charge for damages.

Why this is the case, I will never know. Seems terribly inefficient, as I can’t imagine many guests “agreeing” to pay damages… :expressionless:

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I’ve been wondering why Airbnb doesn’t hand over control to hosts for the security deposit. All other platforms do that, right?
It must take a HUGE amount of time to deal with claims, complaints, counter-arguments etc etc,

On the other hand, one glance at the Airbnb community forum tells you that a lot of hosts have such a precious place they will claim for crumbs on the floor.

Ah, Chesky and co built a monster!

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Ya but you’d think those hosts would get weeded out pretty quickly with reviews? I dunno – I personally wish we had more control. It seems ridiculous that we have to spend hours and hours putting together documentation, getting someone to write stuff up as “proof” because everything needs to be on letterhead (heaven forbid you fix something yourself). Sighh…

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It’s basically insurance and works in the same way. If we didn’t have to provide documentation I have no doubt that many hosts would make spurious claims. I would be nice if they had a way to comp us for do it yourself situations.

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Ya I get it, except that it isn’t insurance, it’s a security deposit. I shouldn’t have to write up documentation that says “I fixed XYZ for 1 hour” - photos should suffice. But I do understand why they do it - there is unfortunately a lot of room for erroneous claims :frowning:

I agree, some kind of automated system would be much better. Then they review and approve or deny. There’s just got to be a more efficient way!

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So how does it work on other booking platforms?

I manage a property nearby for a friend and 99% of business comes through booking.com. In the UK you bill the guest directly for the security deposit. So far I have never had to claim on it. What happens if a guest disputes a claim, anyone know?

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@Debthecat sorry I don’t see which message you were responding to, what is it that could get you removed from the platform?

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Taking a cash security deposit