Resolution Center

[Mary282]

Has anyone ever had any luck with damages being resolved?

I have a guy who was purposely vague about leaving his luggage at my house.  I was on vacation when he said he was dropping it off. I assumed he was doing what many other guests do: drop it off for a few hours until check in time. When I returned home a week later, the luggage was still there. I messaged him and said the market rate in Chicago for luggage was $6 per day and I'll only charge about $45.  He never replied. 

Today he claims "we negotiated the terms." No, he never said 2 WEEKS. I went to add the photo of the luggage and the only way was to cancel yesterday's claim.  I'm afraid it will start a new 72 hours all over again. 

The first time in the Resolution Center, a woman dyed her hair blue in my WHITE bathroom. There was blue dye all over the white tile and the shower curitain and the bottle was in the bathroom trash.  I was too new to take a photo of the bottle. But no one followed up. And it took months to get a handyman to help on such a small job. She audaciously denied dying her hair, even though it was blue when she left my house!! I was out the money for the damages.

The 2nd time, the guy smoked in my guest room. It was so obvious. He tried to blame it on the previous guest. Only problem is that I was the previous person in that room and I don't smoke! I had to get y cleaning lady some special cleaning solution and clean all the walls and ceiling. Again, no payment! No follow up. 

I keep hearing about other hosts getting compensated for damages.  Sometimes, I don't even bother anymore. I've had furniture damaged and winow sills cracked. I'm going to try one last time. Let's see what kind of support this 3rd time. 

[Denice7]

Hi, Mery in Chicago,

I am very new to this, but I read all of their reviews to see if they are responsible or not. and run an if they even have one bad thing I do not take them.  also, I am home when they are here.  so I can keep an eye on things.  

I did have some people leave the place in a mess but I was not with airbnb then

[Mary282]

In the future, I will be more thorough in reading the reviews. And I won't take those who are new to AirBnB, either.  Thanks!

[David126]

You will see a few posts on here where people have been paid, usually it is where the Guest has agreed.

[Anonymous]

@Mary282 I have successfully used the Resolutions tool when I was able to secure an agreement from the guest. It's a different situation when the guest disputes the claim, as the case managers might give equal or even greater weight to the guest's position in absence of a very strong paper trail.

One thing that should benefit your case in any of these situations is a record of the issue inside of Airbnb's messaging system. Before mentioning anything about compensation, you should communicate clearly how you found the property in a message to the guest, that whoever processes your claim can read through. Hard evidence of all costs incurred must be produced unreasonably soon (try getting a quote for elaborate repairs within 48 hours on a long holiday weekend). 

Unfortunately, stories abound of cases being closed without compensation with no reasonable explanation to the host. If guests are going to be unattended in your property, it's probably a good investment to obtain insurance that covers for this situation, as there's no guarantee that Airbnb will have your back. 

As for matters such as luggage "storage," I wouldn't expect that to be resolved as a damage claim. If a guest leaves their personal property in your home outside of the time they have rented it, the property simply becomes yours. You can offer to return it upon receipt of a sensible fee, or you can leave it on the street, or sell or donate its contents; nothing in Airbnb's terms obliges you to hold a guest's belongings before or after their reserved dates. 

[Cormac0]

@Mary

You’re part of the 80% of Host that are Airbnb cannon-fodder, I usually check to see how much per night a Host charges, who a has written a glowing report about their success with the resolution centre,

guess what,

their nighty price is usually well over a Hundred Dollars. 

Hosts need to wise up and start demanding more from Airbnb considering their outrageous fees. The notion that the Host pays only three percent is an Airbnb construct in reality the Guest pays all the fees and our nightly price is perceived as circa twenty percent more than we actually receive.

In conversation with a new host of my acquaintance, he had no idea that Airbnb took a fee from the Guest as well so convoluted and obtuse is Airbnb documentation