This is my recent story that proves that Airbnb insurance is a fraud. Although Airbnb states that they cover all costs for any damages caused by guests up to 800.000, when it comes to pay simply they don’t.
And here’s how it is. I have a house in Crete, Greece, and hosted a family this August. During their stay, they burnt the counterparts of my kitchen (the bench) by placing a hot pot on there. The guests accepted their responsibility, so I claimed a refund. Unfortunately, the bench had to be totally replaced, as there is no way to fix the marks.
This costed me 877 Euros and Airbnb replied that the cost was too high for such a damage and they refunded only 160 Euros!
Look their response:
"We’ve determined that that you should be compensated for your losses, however your guest has offered a higher amount than what we concluded would be the appropriate amount for the damages. As such, the total that we are able to provide for the damages through your guest’s offer will be of 160 EUR. I have gone ahead and processed this payout to your current preferred payout method."
This is totally unacceptable for Airbnb and its reputation.
The eventual result is that I paid for my guests’ damage for 877 euros and they refunded onl 160, just because they decided so. I’m really disappointed by them and their service.
Alex Roniotis
That is good to know because whey I called Airbnb to ask about some direction on where to get short term rental insurance the airbnb clerk told me about the extensive insurance they provide yet that I should also have my own but some people do just fine with the one solely provided by airbnb. So I’m still to date trying to make sense of that recommendation as it is very hard to get short term insurance in my city.
Thank you for sharing your experience and sorry they did you wrong.
Did you file the host guarantee or was this a claim against the security deposit? Did Airbnb say this was normal “wear and tear”? Obviously it isn’t. But just wondering if they gave any other justification since it sounds like your guest did admit to the damage?
I believe that most experienced hosts know that they need their own insurance and that relying on the Airbnb insurance is a bit like believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.
Yes, some hosts manage to claim but it’s one hell of a palaver and often not worth the time it takes.
But it’s also incumbent on hosts to make sure that their rentals are as ‘guest-proofed’ as possible. For example, it seems that the OP had guests who created burn marks on the kitchen counters. In the kitchen of our rental, the countertops are 98% covered by heatproof glass (which appears to also be shatterproof and very tough). It’s a bit like baby-proofing a home when you have toddlers.
I’m pretty pro-Airbnb but I agree that to add a third party insurance service is probably something they should do and indeed are hopefully working on.
Well, whether hosts should know better than to trust their insurance claims or not - doesn’t make it right for Airbnb to tell hosts they don’t have to worry about a thing because should a guest damage anything in your home their $1 million insurance policy will cover it.
Not only will it not cover it, but they won’t even think to cover it unless the guest ADMITS to being responsible for the damage! So in order to file a claim, you first have to try to talk to guest into admitting their fault. This happened to us one time and the guest simply decided not to admit it! So we filed the claim which you have to do in 48 hours after the guest leaves… meaning the guest will leave you a scathing review because they’ll be so furious with you for making the claim in the first place.
If the guest admits fault, then Airbnb expects the guest to pay. If they don’t admit fault - then nobody’s gonna pay!
The best solution we’ve found is just to have such cheap things in your home that you won’t really care if something breaks. But even that’s not full proof because you’re still going to have some things that are more expensive than you’d want to have to pay for again.
I would go back and appeal through host guarantee. Back up your claim with photos and similar benches for sale. This is not cool of airbnb. Make sure to include the cost to ship if you cannot find what you need on Crete.
Hello
I have attached photos, the thing is not that they did not accept the damage. Even the guest admitted that in our conversation that was attached. The problem though is that they think that this is extraordinary cost, however this is the cost and I paid that myself eventually.
I had the opposite… The guest denied and they covered the damage but it was small, under $300. Does anyone know if this damage charge is charged to the guest account?