No compensation for damages, hosts be warned! Anti air bnb

[Chris Moore]

Excuse the rant:

This is the second time air bnb had screwed me on damages. First time my place was trashed by some festival goers (puke and urin on beds, beer everywhere) and my maid cleaned up and disposed of the trash before airbnb told me I needed to take photos.  That is probably something they should explain when you sign up. 

This time I took photos of them breaking all the house rules-leaving 1.5 hrs late, extra guests, spilled liquids on the floor and some unknown substance staining the sheets, photos of a cigarette box, cigarette butts, cigarette ashes. The next guest even complained about the smoke smell so I called the guy out for a second time with this machine to get rid of the smell. The POS guests doesn't reply to my request for about %50 of the damages so it went to resolution. After about a week the resolution guy told me I have 24 hours to provide invoices for the services. Well I pay my handy man and maid in cash and its someone I trust so we don't have invoices. I got a professional quote for smoke repair and it was 4 times as much as I am requesting. I explained this all to air bnb and they said too bad I need an invoice. I called my guy, got him to scan over an invoice and then air bnb said too bad we don't accept this invoice. They did not provide an explanation.  I have all this on my house rules and even have a $1000 deposit, but apparently that does not matter. 

Bottom line is air bnb is so completely anti host. I am currently signing up for every other travel site I can find. I hate air bnb resolutions. You think they would at least explain to a host what is needed to get compensated fairly in the first place. I am also writing everything I can think of in my house rules with very high fines attached so that hopefully I will get something next time. 

[Robert Heider]

@Chris Moore

You wrote: "Well I pay my handy man and maid in cash and it's someone I trust so we don't have invoices." Your tax person is going to love you at the end of the year.  If you pay in cash you don't even have documentation to allow you to prepare a 1099 for your contractors, which you're required to do if you pay them over $600/year.  Moreover, if you go to an audit, you don't even have the documentation to justify writing off those expenses, given you don't get any kind of invoice from either of them. And drop and pray that the maid doesn't claim before the IRS that she thought you were collecting the taxes and she was an employee.  That situation has cost more than one person I know of not only the income taxes they didn't collect, but both sides of the FICA and Medicare for the person along with interest, penalties and fines. While I realize you meant to rant about Air BnB's business practices, you may wish to evaluate some of your own before you find yourself in a difficult spot in the upcoming tax season. At the very least talk with your tax professional ASAP. Good Luck.