One of the big questions we get asked when speaking to Airbnb hosts is “But won’t the Airbnb Guarantee cover me for that?”
It’s a gray area and, unfortunately, the answer is often “no”.
The Airbnb Host Guarantee is not an insurance product, and to Airbnb’s credit, they do state that fairly clearly on the info page for the guarantee.
Despite this, when we asked 1,000 potential hosts and guests if Airbnb provides insurance for damage to people’s homes, a massive 47.5% of them said “Yes”.
For the most part, this is down to a simple misunderstanding of what it is that Airbnb host protection has on offer – the guarantee can be misinterpreted as an all-singing, all-dancing, free-of-charge solution to all your problems if you don’t take the time to understand it.
That being said, an argument can also be made that even those with a comprehensive understanding of the guarantee won’t always get what’s advertised if they have to make a claim.
This is because Airbnb isn’t legally obligated to cover claims just because the rules have been followed.
All claims are at Airbnb’s discretion and numerous loopholes could mean your claim won’t be paid.
So what ARE the rules with the Airbnb Host Guarantee? Learn the key points in our guide.
What does the Airbnb Host Guarantee cover?
In some cases, you, as an Airbnb host, may be lucky to get your money back. Here are the main categories of damages covered by host damage protection terms:
- Damage to a flat/home, furnishings, valuables, or belongings caused by guests (or people they invite).
- Damage to parked cars, boats, and other vehicles caused by guests (or people they invite).
- Extra cleaning costs caused by the need to remove stains left because of guests’ actions or pets, smoke odor removal, or resulting from additional unapproved guests.
- Income lost when you cancel confirmed Airbnb bookings because of damage caused by guests (or people they invite).
These are Airbnb host guarantee terms and conditions stated on the official website. Yet, some pitfalls and limitations are not so explicit.
In particular, for UK residents, the US $1,000,000 worth of protection sounds so impressive and actually converts to around GB £725,350.00.
That sounds A LOT less impressive, doesn’t it?
Especially when you consider (and this is the most important point) that the cover amount is actually the total protection limit for all guests, at any one time, worldwide.
This means that you’re sharing that US $1,000,000 with thousands of hosts all over the world.
The Airbnb guarantee is shared between all the hosts and guests in the world.
The likelihood is that there isn’t enough money in the pot to cover multiple large claims.
Even if just one large claim is dealt with, the remaining amount might be so small that a substantial amount of the smaller claims might not be able to be dealt with properly and if the limit is reached, then there’s not much you can do.
Also, read about the Airbnb ID verification process.
What doesn’t the Airbnb Host Guarantee Cover?
Before relying fully on Airbnb host damage protection, you need to ask yourself “Does Airbnb cover damages I expect them to cover?” You might be surprised to learn that many types of frequent damages are not included.
Here is what Airbnb guarantee does NOT cover:
- Normal wear and tear damage
- The theft of cash or other securities
- Intentional damage caused by guests, unexpected growth of fungi, disease, cash loss, loss of earnings to you due to damage, any damage or injury to pets, any damage to shared or communal areas
- Protection against being sued by the guest for bodily injury or abuse during their stay (even if the incident had nothing directly to do with you or your property)
- Loss caused because of acts of nature
- Cleaning associated with regular check-out
The limitations of Airbnb damage protection inspired us to create Know Your Guest by Superhog. By validating guests, Know Your Guest backs host members with our own GB £1,000,000 guarantee for every verified booking for booking. It covers guest accidental and malicious damage, guest damage due to theft, and guest damage to belongings, expanding the scope of the standard Airbnb host guarantee. Most importantly, you don’t have to worry about incident resolution with Know Your Guest. All you need is to report an incident with photo proof and receive money.
The Airbnb Host Guarantee doesn’t cover lost keys or damage to communal areas
Whilst Airbnb can offer some level of protection inside the walls of your home, as soon as you step out of those walls, you’re completely unprotected.
This might not seem like a big deal for those who let out their houses, but for those that let out flats, your protection level is going to be near non-existent.
For example, if your guest decides to have a party in your flat after you clearly stated that they were not allowed to and the landing outside your flat was trashed as well as the flat itself, you’ll have to cover the cost of the damages to the landing area yourself.
If it’s outside of your flat walls, according to the Airbnb Guarantee, it’s not Airbnb’s problem, even to the extent of not covering keys if they’re misplaced outside of the home.
The more guests you have in your home, the higher the likelihood of your keys going missing from time to time.
If this happens, because they’ve been taken outside the home in order for them to be ‘misplaced’ and because the lock that will need changing is technically on the outside of the flat, you’ll have to foot the bill for getting locks changed and new keys cut yourself.
There are ways around this, of course – you could get an automated locking system added to your door, which allows you to manage who can and cannot enter the property from anywhere in the world via an app on your smartphone, all without the need for a physical key.
This could be a potentially ideal solution for those worried about losing keys, but it’s worth bearing in mind the insurance implications of using this kind of kit.
Automated locking solutions require you NOT to deadlock your door, so if the system fails and your place is broken into, you would not be covered even if you did have actual insurance on top of the Airbnb Host Guarantee.
If you’re not sure where to begin your search for an automated lock company, why not check out our blog post about vacation rental technology.
Nuances of Airbnb Host guarantee to be aware of
If you take the time to properly read the small print of the Airbnb Host Guarantee (and you definitely should!), you’ll definitely find a few clauses in there that are designed for things to not work in your favor.
Make sure you have a clear understanding of:
- Local tax: if you’re investigated by the taxman as a result of your hosting activity, Airbnb will not cover any of the legal fees.
- Conflict of interest: if you’re not happy with the outcome of your claim with Airbnb, you won’t be able to take legal action against them.
- Property changes: There is an exoneration clause that states Airbnb do not even have to have an active guarantee surrounding your property if you change it in any material way. We cannot work out exactly what this clause means – but it is certainly worrying.
How to claim the Airbnb Host Guarantee
If you detect that guests have caused the type of damage that falls under Airbnb host damage protection, you can file a claim for reimbursement. These are the steps Airbnb recommends to follow for successful claim submission:
- Take photos or videos, get repair or cleaning estimates, and keep receipts to document the damage.
- File a claim in the Resolution Center within 14 days of the guest’s checkout.
- The responsible guest will have 24 hours to respond to the claim. If they don’t respond, refuse to pay the whole sum, or decline payment, send a reimbursement request under the Host damage protection policy. The Airbnb Support team will review it and make the final decision on whether to satisfy your reimbursement claim.
The last stage is usually the most disappointing for hosts who have suffered from guest damage. They must face the reality that Airbnb’s support is not always responsive or makes fair decisions.
The actual process that Airbnb hosts have to go through to get reimbursement on the host guarantee is what we hear the most about from our customers.
Here are just a few snippets from a case study we put together recently from a customer’s experience with trying to make a claim through the Airbnb Host Guarantee:
“The whole process with Airbnb was so messy and appalling, but the long and short of it is there is no phone number to call for claims, the only communication is online.”
“I assumed because my claim was so big someone would call me and talk me through the process but I was never able to talk to anyone.”
“The people I dealt with online could not access any of the information I had originally submitted so they had nothing to refer to when talking to me.”
“It was a very stressful, time-consuming, frustrating and upsetting process. All that needed to happen was for someone from the Airbnb team to call me and explain the process. I was feeling around in the dark, I had no idea how it was going to work.”
“Airbnb handle lots of little claims, but they are not prepared for the bigger claims and they don’t have a system in place to handle them.”
“They allowed a 15-year-old to make a booking but were not prepared to compensate me for that.”
“I had a sofa worth £1,200 and it was drenched in beer and covered in cigarette stains, and because I only sent one photo, they only reimbursed me for one cushion cover, which was GBP£24.”
“At the end, my claims handler emailed me saying he was going on holiday for 2 weeks and that he would be back in touch when he returned. When he got back, he eventually emailed me with my settlement offer and said if I do not respond in 24 hours then the case would be closed. I was on holiday at the time and didn’t see the email, so the case was closed.”
How long does an Airbnb host have to file a claim?
For your claim to even be looked at in relation to the Airbnb Guarantee, you must submit it no later than 14 days after the stay it is related to has ended.
During this time, you also have to have fully exhausted all potential resolutions between yourself and the guest privately. Airbnb will only get involved with a claim once communication has broken down between the host and guest.
This may not seem like too much of an issue for some, but there are multiple scenarios that mean hosts miss the opportunity to make use of the guarantee.
If you do manage to get a claim submitted in time, you then have 30 days to settle it and send a payment request form to the Airbnb team.
If for any reason your claim cannot yet be settled, a written request must be sent to Airbnb to extend the settlement period, the decision of which will be left up to the discretion of Airbnb.
Miss this 30-day deadline, and your case will be closed and unfortunately, there isn’t really anything you can do about it.
If you do manage to get your claim settled and payment request sent off in time, you’ll then have to wait up to 3 months for payment to actually be processed and the time it takes is all dependant on how many claims are going through for that pot of money at the time.
Not ideal if something is in need of urgent repair and you can’t afford to go forward with it without the claims money.
For Know Your Guest users, our resolutions team is always on hand to help you if a guest damages your property or is injured. Members will always have a real human to speak to and no automated email responses or long wait times.
Are there alternatives to the Airbnb Host Guarantee?
If you rent property through Airbnb and want additional guarantees for cases when the platform fails to cover damage, consider adding an extra layer of protection. While rental platforms cannot fully protect hosts from financial losses resulting from guest damage, third-party add-ons like Know Your Guest do it.
You can choose one or several products out of the following options to minimize financial risks related to property rental:
- Guest Screening: Authenticate your guest using multiple databases before accepting their rental request.
- ID Verification. Check a guest’s identity to be sure they are who they claim to be.
- Damage Waiver. Accumulate money to cover small damages in exchange for waiving guests from any liability.
- Damage Deposit. Automatically ask people for a deposit during the booking process.
- Protection Services. Sign up for a custom rental protection plan with a broader coverage than Airbnb Host Guarantee offers.
Such services can considerably simplify hosts’ lives through a straightforward and transparent claim processing procedure. You know clear reimbursement rules for each kind of damage and can get money to fix everything in days.
Superhog: The best alternative to the Airbnb Host Guarantee
Know Your Guest is an affordable and trusted alternative to the Airbnb Host Guarantee that combines all core host protection features. You can use it for guest screening and ID Verification to filter out suspicious guests who are more likely to cause damage. Or you can sign up for Know Your Guest to offer damage waivers, deposits, and get a damage protection plan with up to $5 million in coverage.
Book a demo to get started now and check how the platform works.
