My Place was Trashed and Airbnb won’t Pay

A guest booked my place for three nights. She agreed to my house rules: no parties, no noise, be respectful of neighbors, and have a maximum of four occupants. She hosted a prom party with a large group until 4:00 AM and trashed my place: they jumped on the bed, ripped kitchen back splash tiles off the walls, left spilled booze pooling on my countertop (it seeped into the seam, inflated and warped the countertop so much I had to replace it). All of the linens, comforters, blankets and towels were covered in food, makeup, and booze. The inside of the oven was black with food scraps and a big pile of stinking, rotten forgotten food. The floors and furniture were covered in scattered garbage, half eaten food, drink bottles, and personal items that had been left behind. My dishes and decorations were found tossed around in different rooms. What normally takes four hours to clean took twelve hours. The cleaning and countertop repairs cost me over $700. Airbnb took eleven days to get back to me, despite many calls I made asking for an update. They responded via email, refusing to pay for anything and described it as normal wear and tear. I emailed them back twice asking for someone to contact me, but they have not. I have hosted for almost two years and have had hundreds of guests. I have never put a claim in. I have zero trust and don’t feel safe using Airbnb after their refusal to honor the host guarantee. If it doesn’t cover partiers trashing your home, what does it cover? It appears that the host guarantee is a scam that gives you a false sense of security. If your place gets trashed you have no recourse.

Posted in Airbnb Host Stories and tagged , , , , , , .

2 Comments

  1. I never had an issue with collecting money as long as i had proper documentation and also attempted to ask the Guest about compensation, i always use the messenger built into airbnbs website to talk to my guests and always take photos of damage and report it within the next day. My best advice is that no one plans to fail, they only fail to plan.

  2. Did you take photos of your apartment? You should file a complaint within 24 hours of check-out with detailed photos of the damage and a preliminary quote of expenses. That’s no guarantee you’ll get any money from Airbnb but at least a well-documented case has a lot more chance for some kind of reimbursement. Best of luck!

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