Here’s my horror story; it’s nice to know I’m not alone. I had a person Instant Book my place with a stolen Airbnb account. The account holder was in Belgium and this guy was from Canada where my property is. I texted her to see how things were going only to find out she had no idea who I was and that she definitely had not booked my place. I called Airbnb and explained the situation to them. They put me on hold for 45 minutes at 3:00 AM in the winter in Montreal, so I called the police. They never came so I grabbed a baseball bat and entered my property. There was no one to hit with the baseball bat. No one was there, and most of my electronics were gone. That is not why I’m mad; it’s because of the way Airbnb handled the situation from there. I spoke to at least ten customer service representatives. They were all very nice, but my situation never got dealt with. After months of calling the only thing I could do was file a dispute with the person whose account got hacked, which they told me they would deny. They said they aren’t responsible for any stolen items, and that they would help resolve the situation if the guest had stolen anything. They would never pay my losses with their money. Obviously I can’t go after the guest who had her account stolen. Now it’s obvious that I can’t reason with Airbnb.
Hey,
Just read your story, and it really actually sucks. I was even looking at their clause which protects you against thefts from Responsible Guests. The section is III.5.vi. I’m looking into hosting and this worries me. So I was just wondering if there were any new developments to the case.
The reference is III.5.vi: “any dishonest act, including but not limited to theft, committed by you or any persons or entities retained by you to do anything in connection with Covered Property, unless such persons or entities are a Responsible Guest or Invitee and such act is done without your knowledge”
Here’s a link too just in case: https://www.airbnb.ca/terms/host_guarantee