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AirCover by Airbnb

airbnb.com

51–60 of 129 posts

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#51
post #37

Theoretical insurance doesn't help you when Airbnb will simply ignore you or close your claim without explanation. They have become completely predatory and incompetent towards hosts in the past few years. As soon as something goes wrong they will find a reason to deny your claim. Their support that handles these cases is clearly incentivized to close cases without payouts. The only way anyone sees any coverage from…

> They have become completely predatory and incompetent towards hosts in the past few years.

I'm discovering that, having just become an Airbnb host in the last year for my beach pad.

My new worst experience is Airbnb doing nothing and saying "too bad" when a guest with a new profile stayed for 3 days, then wrote a scathing review warning people off and demanding a refund.

The guest posted in her review that the place is full of broken furniture, rock hard beds worse than in communist countries, black mould, animal smells, urine smells, and is a health hazard. She used a lot of capital letters and accused me of punishing her for "sins not yet committed."

And yet she didn't contact me or Airbnb to complain until after the end of her stay of 3 nights.

My property averaged 4.8 stars (out of max 5) prior to that with zero negative reviews. I thought Airbnb might consider she is trying to scam a refund. But they say she hasn't done anything against their policies so too bad. The review stays. When I tried to complain the support ambassador warned me that if I insist on an investigation it could result in penalties for me as a host.

I asked Airbnb to send someone out to check my property so they can see the guest is being unreasonable, but of course, Airbnb doesn't have anyone who can come out because it isn't a real company. It's just a listed entity on the stock exchange that made a few people $100 billion renting properties owned by... people like me.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rent an Airbnb in Miami but fly back to uk after a hangover style party. Good luck sueing me, even if you did most people don't have a 10,000usd never mind a 1m, then enforcement and collection.how does that open and shut?

You're making a good argument for the reinstitution of debtors prisons.

I'm making the point it's hardly open and shut

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#53
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a weird ad-post for You.com earlier, which I mistakenly thought was organic... And now this. HN needs a bit more transparency or it’s going to lose a few of us.

That thread was moderated. You can tell because the founder’s opening introduction was pinned above dang pinning his own comment about a related thread. Those are conscious moderator actions which are about as transparent as it gets and illuminate the thinking on the other side (hint: you’re not aligned, but it sounds like you already expected that)

Also dang did that to the other big Show HN story yesterday: "Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer" so it seems to be a new thing he does independently of if the post is by a YC company or not.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be sued for a million dollars in damages by the owner, and it would be an open and shut case.

I rent an Airbnb in Miami but fly back to uk after a hangover style party. Good luck sueing me, even if you did most people don't have a 10,000usd never mind a 1m, then enforcement and collection.how does that open and shut?

It's true, you can commit crimes and flee the country consequence-free. You found the loophole. Close it up boys, we're done here.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#55

> These Host Damage Protection Terms contain an arbitration clause and class action waiver So this insurance policy isn't even worth the pixels it's rendered on. It's not a good sign when a company purporting to be entering into contract is already trying to wriggle out of it, and this goes doubly for insurance.

It’s not just Airbnb - every insurance policy written today is loaded with exceptions you could fit a Mack truck through. The textbook business model of insurance is to collect premiums and try as hard as possible not to pay claims.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s basically the gig economy. Shifting all the hidden and one off costs to unsophisticated gig workers who are unable to factor those costs in.

AirBnB is interesting in that it's like the gig economy, but actors that have unlimited capital can participate. If you have a few million bucks, you can park it in real estate in a touristy place and rent it out for $150 a night (compared to This is different than the gig economy where workers are just pouring hours of their lives into a dead-end job. You never get more efficient at being an Uber driver or a Doordas…

Uber drivers get progressively more economically inefficient the more they drive as the maintenance costs or driving a vehicle increase the more you drive it, up until it needs replacing either due to wear and tear or regulatory / contractual requirements.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#57

Wow, the astroturfing in this thread already is happening. 0. This is nothing new, airbnb always had a free "guarantee" they just rebranded it basically from what I see to a trademarkable name. 1. Umbrella policy is better than airbnb. Umbrella policy will go after all parties including airbnb on your behalf. 2. Airbnb has a history of ignoring or mitigating damages unless you get famous on social media - this includ…

> Wow, the astroturfing in this thread already is happening.

The site guidelines specifically ask you not to post like that without evidence. Why? Because internet users routinely make these accusations up based on nothing more than seeing a few things (or just one thing) they happen not to like. There's nearly never anything more to it than that, therefore (a) it's off-topic here unless there's something objective to go on; and (b) if there is something objective to go on, you should let us know at hn@ycombinator.com so we can specifically look into it.

Please review the rules and stick to them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

There's years worth of explanation about this at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... if anyone wants more.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#58

"While AirCover protects you while you’re hosting an Airbnb stay or Experience, it is not a substitute for personal insurance" This is a key point. As a host here in NZ, its basically useless as I still have to have commercial insurance. Aircover only covers you for the period of time that you have someone staying in your property. As soon as they have gone, you have no insurance. So if you have a house listed on Air…

I mean the risk you mention seems unrelated to your business relationship with AirBnB. Personally I wouldn't expect their insurance to e.g. cover natural disasters either.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#59

"While AirCover protects you while you’re hosting an Airbnb stay or Experience, it is not a substitute for personal insurance" This is a key point. As a host here in NZ, its basically useless as I still have to have commercial insurance. Aircover only covers you for the period of time that you have someone staying in your property. As soon as they have gone, you have no insurance. So if you have a house listed on Air…

Those are two different things. Normal insurances for your house cover fire damage or burglary, but not the damage done by your guests. The Airbnb insurance does exactly that.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBnB is interesting in that it's like the gig economy, but actors that have unlimited capital can participate. If you have a few million bucks, you can park it in real estate in a touristy place and rent it out for $150 a night (compared to This is different than the gig economy where workers are just pouring hours of their lives into a dead-end job. You never get more efficient at being an Uber driver or a Doordas…

Uber drivers get progressively more economically inefficient the more they drive as the maintenance costs or driving a vehicle increase the more you drive it, up until it needs replacing either due to wear and tear or regulatory / contractual requirements.

The monthly decrease in value of the car gets less over time though. It loses the most value in the first month/year, less the next year, etc.
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