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You think you can hire a property management company and they will pay you for damages out of their own pocket if they can’t get the guest or Airbnb to pay up? That seems naive.
You vet guests by reading their past reviews, communicating with them, asking questions, being aware of red flags. If you get a bad feeling, you don’t accept their booking.
And unless you have a low end property where no one would pay much to stay, yes raise your prices enough that lowlifes won’t be attracted.
Property management companies claim they pay for damages out of pocket and then go after Airbnb to reimburse them. That’s the whole point of hiring them.
And if they dont succeed with getting a claim paid?
What is in the fine print…who ends up paying?"
I haven’t read the fine print just wondering if anyone else has had success with management companies. I am wondering muddy? Are you suggesting the guests behavior is my fault?
Of course guests breaking into locked cupboards isn’t your fault- good people don’t do things like that. You are getting bad guests.
But when hosts complain that guest after guest damages things, or throw parties, or have other people over who aren’t registered guests, or other unacceptable behaviors, there is usually something about the way the place is advertised, or the booking settings the host is using or how they vet or neglect to vet guests that is attracting these situations.
Hosts will often complain that their guests invite lots of other people over, for instance, but when you read the listing info, the host doesn’t mention anywhere that only registered guests are allowed on the property. And in fact they say that the place is great for entertaining.
And it really depends too on the nature and location of a listing. A cabin for 6 in the Maine woods could allow 1 night bookings, no problem, but a place advertised for 6, with a pool and a hot tub in LA might not want to be open for 1 nighters, as it might very well attract the party crowd.
Sometimes it’s useful to post the link to your listing, so other hosts can read through it and point out things you may not have thought about and wording you might change to ward off the bad guests.
Raise your prices
RR
I have run into this (and many hosts here warn of it). What I stated doing was increasing prices on the 10 night before and 10 nights after each booking - from $100 for the shoulder nights on listings of $25-75 (as well as for the current day and following 3 days - from $50-5 , so yes, I update prices daily). When I started getting bookings that were literally for $250 on what I had been charging $25 ($17-19 on initial AirBnB recommendation 5 years ago) i decided to start increasing my prices regularly.
It is amazing how much better the people are that pay big $$ in general. I incrementally have been doing this for a while and I recently actually had someone message me (my guess is maybe a local host) asking if I really was charging over $200 for a room. Since I was foe THAT same night I responded that each night is different, asked if she wanted to book for tonight and never heard from her again.
Funny thing is I actually do get people booking over $100 and $200 for a last minute booking of a room or even over $400 for what I currently have as a $77 minimum and they are SOO grateful! And very often it is in conjunction with a long term stay where they get a discount and those prices average out with my minimums and they still get what they think is a great deal. Those don’t see that one night was $250 and one was $50 they see the average for the aggregate and are happy with it.
Making so much more since COVID and really increasing my prices has been so satisfying.
I have only ever increased my prices. I have not decreased them. I just went up another $10 a night which brings my 600 SF cabin to $205 a night. When I opened it in 2019 it was 175.
I still have the last 3 weekends of July unbooked but I am not worried, I have not had an unbooked weekend in recent memory. I do tend to get bookings closer to, after the cheap ones are gone.
Helps that it is hot right now and most of the places in my area do not have AC (mine do)
RR
Same for me!!!
Probably works for 95% of the guests. The 5% who are going to get into them are probably the ones who would break the locks anyway.
When I had a Triumph Spitfire, rule number 1 was don’t lock it when using the soft-top. If anyone wanted it, they would just cut the op (expensive to fix)
If you think your rates are too low then YES raise them.
Higher rates do not necessarily equal honest guests.
Friends have 3 BR 3BA oceanfront condo. Sleeps up to 10. $4,000/week (US dollars) rent, fees& taxes.
Owner’s closet contained liquor, wines, personal high quality bedding & towels, tools, jackets, beach furniture, expensive knives, Electric grill, & more. During their first season of renting someone took the door off the hinges & stole everything then reinstalled the door.
The rental company didn’t catch it. They couldn’t check a locked owner’s closet. There was no way to know who did it.
$4,000/week…smh
now the owner’s closet has a dead bolt on both the latch & hinge sides. Looks odd but if hinges removed, can’t open the door.
Ironically, if all that stuff had been left out and it was stolen they would have known who did it. So it probably wouldn’t have been stolen. It like what you said about leaving your Triumph unlocked with the soft top.
When I had a rag top Miata I left it unlocked too.
Yes that! and I wondered many times if the property management cleaning crew did it.
Annet you have a Triumph? 1960 TR3A owner here.
TR3A -snazzy. For some reason I’ve always thought of those as a car Paul Newman would drive.
I was drawn to the TR6 & TR7(shape of things to come)
I was never too keen on a MGB or Midget. I don’t know why.
Triump Spitfire 1980. My cousin totaled it. 
At least I asked if he was ok before having a carloss meltdown. This isn’t it but looks exactly like it.
Beautiful - in spite of the chunky bumpers. My dad had a Triumph Stag
After nearly 6 weeks of Airbnb runaround they responded with the text below. I provided them with before and after videos and pictures, invoices from .maintenance companies, original receipts and replacement receipts, and an inventory and cleaning service statements. the guests left 40 bags of trash inside the house and never said anything which is against house rules and Airbnb’s own policy. Had to hire 3 trash removal services to clean it up and apparently none of this is good enough for Airbnb. They also removed outdoor surveillance cameras and threw a party another violation of Airbnb’s own policy that is apparently just not enforced.
Hi,
My name is Shamaya with Airbnb’s Claims team. Thank you for contacting us. I’m sorry to hear about what happened during your reservation
We’ve carefully reviewed your Host Guarantee request and, unfortunately, we’re unable to process your request.
For damages to be eligible for Host Guarantee payment, you must provide documentation that we reasonably request and require to process your payment request within 30 days of incurring a covered loss. The foloowing are the requested items and reason why it is not eligible under host guarantee:
Toilet -no enough document, invoice authenticity can not be validated
-ceiling - invoice not valid, no proof that G was responsible for the hole,
-cabinet, Broke lock off doors and took supplies - not enough document. No physical damage, mysterious disappearance, loss, or shortage disclosed on taking inventory, or any unexplained loss of inventory.
-Hot tub light -no enough document. Non physical damage, mysterious disappearance, loss, or shortage disclosed on taking inventory, or any unexplained loss of inventory.
-Excessive trash- non physical damage
-Skeeball arcade game -not enough document, invoice not valid
-Carpets and rugs $200 -Inon physical damage
-ac unit. ceiling- no proof of physical damage.
-basketballgame damage -no enough doc, invoice not valid.
-doors - no enough document, invoice not valid.
-batterycharger - no enough doc. so no physical damage, mysterious disappearance, loss, or shortage disclosed on taking inventory, or any unexplained loss of inventory.
Filed claim: 31 May, 2021 at 03:00 PM EDT
Check out of the guest: May 30, 21 11:00AM EDT
Submission deadline: 29 June, 2021
30 days from the incurred covered loss is over
You are free to pursue reimbursement from your guest directly. However, per this limitation, these damages are not eligible for reimbursement under the Host Guarantee. That said, we will follow up appropriately with Dylan with regard to guest responsibilities.
You may review the Host Guarantee Terms and Conditions
If you have questions about the decision we’ve made on your Host Guarantee request for reimbursement please feel free to reach out by responding to this email.
Best,
Shamaya
If you missed the damage submission date, you missed it. But Airbnb would be in stronger position if they had just said that instead of also rebutting your evidence. You might reply documenting that you reported the damage as soon as you were aware of it and had collected evidence, and that was less than 30 days (if true).
So you might try tweeting and facebook posting:
Airbnb says “unable to process” claim for party damage & my pics of broken items are “non-physical damage.” Sent them before & after videos, invoices & receipts ASAP. Guests removed outdoor cameras; 40 bags of trash, filthy carpet & furnishings, hole in ceiling; broke locks & equipment.
Why in the world did you not go over and kick them out when they tampered with the cameras? I have not read everything maybe I missed it but jeez, what did you expect when they removed the cameras?
RR
I didn’t notice the cameras right away. Unfortunately every guest for the past 3 months has broken house rules and either trashed the place damaged something or stolen something and Airbnb has not processed a single claim. I’m not really sure what to do. I would have had to kick out every single guest which airbnb charges hosts a 100 fee for doing and apparently refunds the guests. And it takes over a week to even get airbnb to send a generic response with no solution. any advice?