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We recently had a host on here report that they’d been given a very short period of time to accept a decision made by Airbnb after which their case was closed (can’t remember the name of the thread).
Anyway here’s a blow by blow account in the observer of Airbnb’s failure to protect a London host who suffered 6k of damages. It makes for uncomfortable reading (particularly the back and forth emails between the host and Airbnb, shared in entirety and full of Airbnb clichés. Thanks for reaching out!!)
Yes, someone else (was it @Helsi?) posted about this story but it hadn’t been resolved yet. Good to see the fellow finally got his money. I guess if you have the means, the time and the connections (to get media attention) the host guarantee has some value.
Snaky Airbnb…yet again. All this talk of community and acceptance blah blah blah is a bunch of BS - I’d love to be in a training session where these reps. have to be told to try to tire out the host until they give up.
What I found interesting is the booking loss income. I asked Air about this recently and they said it was not included in their host guarantee. It should be and it’s interesting it’s mentioned in the article.
Nasty business, indeed. I wonder if this was an Instant Booking, and whether the host did anything to check on the identity of the guests. They sound like real hoodlums.
The article also does not say whether any arrests were made. This kind of vandalism certainly counts as criminal activity.
Sadly I doubt anyone would prosecute. I had a £4000 motorbike stolen and the case was closed immediately. 6k damage while a lot to an individual is not a lot to the state. Which is why Airbnb’s failure is even more shameful as they profess to protect hosts in these situations.
The communication between Airbnb and the host is atrocious isn’t it… and mirrors my experience exactly. I always said of they were so obtuse over a small claim I hated to think how they’d handle a larger claim …
I’m not sure if you are responding to me. But it’s about the behavior, not the damages per se. Can’t people still be arrested for being drunk and disorderly, for example? And this was far worse.
And yes, I think we can treat Airbnb’s guarantees as moonshine. But I already said that here, a long time ago (relatively speaking).
You did @faheem. I’d like to think this is still a rare occurrence but I’m not so sure. And by the way arresting someone for being drunk and disorderly is a slightly different issue since they’re putting themselves and others and risk. For some reason protecting human life (oh and drug crime) is much higher up the list than pursuing damages for loss of personal items.
That sounds a bit like sarcasm. But I still think vandalism is a bad thing, and should be prosecuted. I agree there are far worse crimes, and it’s not going be public law enforcement’s top priority. Oh, and it does sound like they were a danger to the people around them based on that article. E.g.:
During the party, the unwelcome guests overflowed out of his unit into the entire apartment complex, where they partied to blaring music (they came with a professional sound system), urinated all over, fought (with each other and the neighbors) and took drugs to the point of passing out in the stairways, hallways, courtyard and other public areas. Neighbors called the police five times and some partiers left, but most remained and locked themselves inside to continue partying.
Yes … and I imagine people got arrested for the night and then sent home. I really hope I’m wrong mind you.
Slight sarcasm. I remember being agog when the police turned up, took my statement regarding my stolen new motorbike and then told me the case was going to be immediately closed due to lack of resources and larger priorities.
