This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Has anyone had any luck negotiating a higher resolution payout from Airbnb? I had a guest punch a hole in my wall, steal my chromebook, set multiple things on fire, and paint my floor, bathtub, and coffee table. Airbnb’s refusing to cover the extensive cleaning and paint removal that was required, and is offering me less than 1/4 of the replacement cost of the destroyed items due to depreciation. They claim my solid wood coffee table depreciated to $0 which is ludicrous…
Are there any means to escalate this, or does Airbnb really just help people who complain loudly on social media?
You can try getting real estimates for the value of the damaged items. Airbnb is being complete a** holes lately with that. They don’t care WHAT was done to your home - If it’s falling under the “cleaning” category you’re on your own. Very sad!
Also, remember you have only 48 or 72 hours to reply to each one of their emails otherwise it’s case closed. So get the estimates and get on it.
Make sure to leave an appropriate review so other hosts can be alert.
This is a dreadful experience to go through. But stealing your chromebook is a criminal offence, as is setting fires in the UK; it’s arson, classed as a Capital Offence. Have you reported this to the Police? Here, you would, at the very least, need a crime reference number in order to claim on your house insurance.
@Como I haven’t attempted using my own insurance yet- my deductible is $1k and the guests did $1500 damage so that’s not a huge help. I’d pursue this in small claims court, but Airbnb refuses to give me the name and address of my guest, so I can’t even start that process.
@Oded oh wow, I didn’t know they’d just close the case if I didn’t reply fast enough. It’s a shame it doesn’t work the other way- I typically go days waiting for email responses from them.
Joan I haven’t yet- I naively was trying to work through everything with Airbnb first, but now I’m wishing I had immediately involved the police. Sadly since I don’t know the guest’s name, I’ll just have to file a report and hope the police subpoena her name.
@KKC- oh wow, thanks. I just saw her last initial on all the contact pages, but on reservations it shows her full name. No address, but that should be enough for a police report. Thanks!
@Como, sadly my guests destroyed the log book I had for leaving tips and comments for other guests, so I suspect they would have destroyed any sort of sign in book as well.
I have a long term rental, I have a security deposit references etc, I could not let somebody I do not know, all you have from ABB is a name, no address no security deposit, in a stand alone rental.
Update of the final resolution:
Airbnb decided to pay me $1000 of the $1100 expenses. This is solely because that’s what the guest was willing to pay. Otherwise they would have stuck with their $700 offer that depreciated my items and called my solid wood coffee table $0.
Somehow on the side, they also paid me the full $400 that it cost to clean my house. They said this was unusual and they typically don’t pay for labor or cleaning.
The whole situation worries me- I only lost a couple hundred dollars and a TON of time in the end for this situation- I was lucky. But if someone destroys things that are older, I’ll get hit with a brutal depreciating estimate.
I know it helped me.