Post by fredvig on Mar 17, 2016 15:06:48 GMT
We've been hosting (entire home) for just over six months now and have reached Superhost status. We've had very good luck with guests so far . . until now.
We rented last weekend to a couple who made a last minute request (Wednesday request for a Thursday-Saturday stay). They live in the same town as us, but their house was being renovated and they just needed a place to stay for a weekend. They have 2 small girls (2 and 5) and, as we tell all our guests with kids, our place is not particularly "child-friendly", there are stairs, no child-proof locks, etc. We rent mostly to adults or families with older children. My wife is pretty fastidious with the decorating and the placement of items, and it's probably one of the reasons we get so many complements on our place. We charge no cleaning fee, we just ask that our guests leave the place like they found it, and that's worked out just fine for the most part.
When we left the house on Thursday morning, my wife left a small black rectangular eyeglass case in the cupboard of our bedside table, along with some magazines, potions and knick-knacks. She has two different pairs of eyeglasses, and for this weekend, she decided to wear her less expensive pair and keep the really pricey ones($500) in the eyeglass case in the bedroom.
When the guests checked out on Saturday morning and we went back into the house, we could see that they had tidied up, but it was glaringly obvious that they did not leave it as they found it. Grease splattered all over the stove, all sorts of items in the living room had been moved around and there was also evidence that the kids had been going through our living room cabinets unsupervised (we found little things from the cabinets stuffed between the couch cushions). So, not the ideal guests, but we put everything back in its place, no real damage done. My wife also noticed that all of the items on her bedside table had been moved from one side of the table to the other side, also no big deal. She did not notice then that her glass case wasn't there. She did finally realize it on Tuesday as she was getting ready for work. We turned the place upside down, looking for them, and finally sent the guests a message, just saying we can't find them and asking if maybe they had picked them up and packed them accidentally.
We got no immediate response, so my wife called her. The guest said she didn't recall seeing them and that their place was in disarray due to the renovation, but that she would look when she got a chance. At this point, it's past 48 hours so, we can't put in a claim on the security deposit (which wouldn't even cover half the cost anyway), so we now assuming we have to put go to the next step, and hoping that Airbnb's $1,000,000 is going to work in this instance.
The guests got back to us and said that they were sorry but they didn't find them in their belongings.
We don't believe that the guests stole them (who would steal prescription glasses?), but it's much more likely that they just got taken by accident, just thrown in a bag by one of the adults or by the kids who were apparently unsupervised. Regardless, stolen or not, they are missing, and we didn't lose them. We explained to our guests that we weren't accusing them of stealing them, but in order to go through the proper channels we have to file a police report in order to get reimbursed by Airbnb. They said they understood and that they would cooperate in whatever capacity was needed
I guess my question is, are we gonna be wasting our time trying to get reimbursed from Airbnb for our loss? Does anyone have any experience in this area? Should we just chalk it up to experience? I have read some absolute horror stories about Airbnb customer service response to claims far more egregious than this, so I'm curious (and trying to stay optimistic) as to how this gets resolved. we've filed the police report and have the receipts for the glasses, so now we will begin the process with Airbnb. My wife is pretty upset, and how Airbnb handles this will decide whether we continue to use them. If we have to lock up every little personal item in our home every week, it's just not worth it. If it had been a $500 figurine or something like that, would it be the same thing?
We rented last weekend to a couple who made a last minute request (Wednesday request for a Thursday-Saturday stay). They live in the same town as us, but their house was being renovated and they just needed a place to stay for a weekend. They have 2 small girls (2 and 5) and, as we tell all our guests with kids, our place is not particularly "child-friendly", there are stairs, no child-proof locks, etc. We rent mostly to adults or families with older children. My wife is pretty fastidious with the decorating and the placement of items, and it's probably one of the reasons we get so many complements on our place. We charge no cleaning fee, we just ask that our guests leave the place like they found it, and that's worked out just fine for the most part.
When we left the house on Thursday morning, my wife left a small black rectangular eyeglass case in the cupboard of our bedside table, along with some magazines, potions and knick-knacks. She has two different pairs of eyeglasses, and for this weekend, she decided to wear her less expensive pair and keep the really pricey ones($500) in the eyeglass case in the bedroom.
When the guests checked out on Saturday morning and we went back into the house, we could see that they had tidied up, but it was glaringly obvious that they did not leave it as they found it. Grease splattered all over the stove, all sorts of items in the living room had been moved around and there was also evidence that the kids had been going through our living room cabinets unsupervised (we found little things from the cabinets stuffed between the couch cushions). So, not the ideal guests, but we put everything back in its place, no real damage done. My wife also noticed that all of the items on her bedside table had been moved from one side of the table to the other side, also no big deal. She did not notice then that her glass case wasn't there. She did finally realize it on Tuesday as she was getting ready for work. We turned the place upside down, looking for them, and finally sent the guests a message, just saying we can't find them and asking if maybe they had picked them up and packed them accidentally.
We got no immediate response, so my wife called her. The guest said she didn't recall seeing them and that their place was in disarray due to the renovation, but that she would look when she got a chance. At this point, it's past 48 hours so, we can't put in a claim on the security deposit (which wouldn't even cover half the cost anyway), so we now assuming we have to put go to the next step, and hoping that Airbnb's $1,000,000 is going to work in this instance.
The guests got back to us and said that they were sorry but they didn't find them in their belongings.
We don't believe that the guests stole them (who would steal prescription glasses?), but it's much more likely that they just got taken by accident, just thrown in a bag by one of the adults or by the kids who were apparently unsupervised. Regardless, stolen or not, they are missing, and we didn't lose them. We explained to our guests that we weren't accusing them of stealing them, but in order to go through the proper channels we have to file a police report in order to get reimbursed by Airbnb. They said they understood and that they would cooperate in whatever capacity was needed
I guess my question is, are we gonna be wasting our time trying to get reimbursed from Airbnb for our loss? Does anyone have any experience in this area? Should we just chalk it up to experience? I have read some absolute horror stories about Airbnb customer service response to claims far more egregious than this, so I'm curious (and trying to stay optimistic) as to how this gets resolved. we've filed the police report and have the receipts for the glasses, so now we will begin the process with Airbnb. My wife is pretty upset, and how Airbnb handles this will decide whether we continue to use them. If we have to lock up every little personal item in our home every week, it's just not worth it. If it had been a $500 figurine or something like that, would it be the same thing?
