damage-claim

---
name: damage-claim
description: Turns a damaged property and a pile of phone photos into a dated, evidenced damage claim that a platform, a guest or an insurer can actually pay, and tells you which route to use before the deadline closes. Use when a guest has broken, stained, burned or taken something, or when you want the evidence in place before it ever happens.
---

# The evidence gathered before you need it, and the claim that gets paid

You give this the booking, the photos your cleaner took on the day, whatever the property looked like before, and any quotes or receipts you have. You get back one dated claim file: a numbered list of items with a cost against each, the before-and-after evidence paired up item by item, the right platform route with the right deadline on it, and the message to send. It will also tell you, in one line, which items you cannot evidence and should drop.

## What it does

1. **Fix the three dates before you look at a single photo, because every route you have is a countdown.** Write down the checkout date and time, the date the damage was found, and the date the next guest arrives. Those three dates decide everything that follows. Airbnb's own host page says: "Within 14 days of the responsible guest's checkout, file a reimbursement request in the Resolution Centre." The Host Damage Protection Terms then set the outer limit: "Within thirty (30) days of the Responsible Guest's checkout date you must: Complete and file a Host Damage Protection Payment Request Form". Booking.com's damage policy tells the guest that partners can request a damage fee "up to 14 days after the end of your stay". So the working deadline is fourteen days from checkout on either platform, and if the next guest arrives before you have photographed everything, the claim is finished before it starts. Put the earliest of the three deadlines at the top of the file in bold plain text and count the days remaining.

2. **Separate damage from wear, and say which is which on every line.** Airbnb's host damage protection page lists what it does not cover, and the first item is "Damage from normal wear and tear". It also excludes "Cleaning associated with normal checkout tasks (example: laundry, dishes or rubbish removal)" and "Loss due to acts of nature (example: earthquakes and hurricanes)". A four-year-old sofa with a flattened cushion is wear. A cigarette burn in that cushion is damage. Go through every item and put it in one of three piles: damage caused during this stay, wear that was already happening, and cleaning that would have happened anyway. Only the first pile goes in the claim. Mixing the other two in is the single most common reason a claim comes back rejected, because the reviewer finds one obviously unfair line and stops reading.

3. **Pair every damaged item with a dated before photo, or mark it unevidenced.** A claim is a comparison, not a complaint. For each item, find the photograph taken before this guest arrived, ideally by the cleaner at the end of the previous changeover, and put it side by side with the after photograph. Record the file name and the date-taken timestamp for both. Airbnb's terms require "Legitimate and Verifiable Evidence, in the format reasonably requested by us, supporting the existence, extent, and amount of the Eligible Loss". Items with no before photo are not automatically lost, but they are weak, and they must be labelled "no before photo held" so the owner can decide whether to include them. Do not describe a before photo that does not exist. One invented line discredits the whole file.

4. **Put a real number on every item, from a receipt, an invoice or a written quote.** Airbnb tells hosts to document "by taking photos or videos, getting repair or cleaning estimates and/or receipt". So each line needs one of: the original purchase receipt, a replacement price from a named retailer with the date you looked it up, a written repair quote from a named tradesperson, or a cleaning invoice. Record which one it is. Where the item is old, give both the replacement cost and the age of the item, because a reviewer who thinks you are claiming a new sofa for an eight-year-old one will discount the whole list. Never write "approximately", "around" or "circa" in a cost column. If you cannot get a figure by the deadline, put the item in a separate list headed "cost not yet evidenced" and claim the rest on time.

5. **Ask the guest first, in writing, before you ask the platform.** Airbnb's Host Damage Protection Terms are explicit that before it will consider a request you must demonstrate that you have "Pursued the rights and remedies you have against the Responsible Guest". On the guest's side, Airbnb's help page confirms the guest "will have 24 hours to respond" to a reimbursement request. So the sequence is fixed: message the guest through the platform, in the platform's own messaging, with the itemised list and the photographs attached, in neutral wording. Keep it inside the platform. A polite message sent by WhatsApp is not evidence the platform can see, and moving the conversation off the platform costs you the record you will need in step 7.

6. **Write the message with no adjectives and no accusation in it.** State what was found, when it was found, what it costs, and what you are asking for. Do not write "disgusting", "deliberate", "we have never had a guest behave like this". A reviewer is deciding whether a reasonable person would pay this. Anger reads as exaggeration and invites a rejection on tone alone. Booking.com's damage policy tells guests that "If You reject a claim and Booking.com deems your rejection valid, then we will close the claim and no Damage Fee will be charged", so the guest's rejection is a live outcome you are writing against, not a formality. Name the booking reference, the dates of the stay, and each item by its number.

7. **File on the platform route, and keep the file for the route you did not use.** Submit inside the deadline from step 1, attach every paired photograph and every cost document, and save a copy of the submitted claim with its reference number. Then keep the whole file, because a platform refusal is not the end of the matter: a claim for damage caused by a guest is a contract and tort question, and in England and Wales section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 provides that "An action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued." The owner's insurer or solicitor decides whether anything further is worth doing. Your job is that the file is still intact and dated when they look at it.

8. **Check what you are allowed to have recorded before you offer it as evidence.** Airbnb's policy on security cameras and recording devices, effective 30 April 2024, prohibits devices that "monitor any part of a home's interior, such as the hallway, bedroom, bathroom, living room, or guest house, even if they're turned off", and requires exterior cameras to be disclosed in the listing, for example "I have a camera in my front yard". Footage from a camera you were not allowed to have does not strengthen a claim, it ends your account. If the evidence file contains any indoor recording, flag it, remove it from the claim, and tell the owner why.

9. **Write the prevention line, because the next claim is decided today.** Every claim that failed for want of a before photo produces one instruction for the changeover: which room, which angle, which item, photographed at the end of every clean with the phone's date stamp on. Add the failed items from this claim to that list. The whole difference between a claim that pays and one that does not is whether someone took thirty seconds of photographs eleven days before anything went wrong.

## Then it checks

1. Every item in the claim carries an item number, a room, a description, a cost in pounds and pence, and the name of the document the cost came from, with no line reading "approx", "circa" or "tbc".
2. Every item is paired with an after photograph and either a before photograph with a date, or the words "no before photo held".
3. The claim states the checkout date, the date the damage was found, the platform deadline that applies and the number of days remaining, and the submission date is inside that deadline.
4. Nothing classified as wear and tear, routine cleaning or an act of nature appears in the claim total, and the three piles from step 2 are shown separately.
5. There is a record of a written request to the guest, sent through the platform's own messaging, dated before the claim was filed.
6. No indoor camera or recording footage appears anywhere in the evidence file, and every exterior recording device used is one the listing already discloses.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state or imply that a named guest acted deliberately. You know what was found and when. You do not know who did it or why, and an allegation you cannot prove turns a recoverable cost into a dispute about your conduct.
- Never use a photograph whose date you cannot show, and never present a photograph from a different stay as a before photo. A single mismatched timestamp is enough for a reviewer to reject every line in the file, including the honest ones.
- Never quote a platform's deadline, cap or covered-items list from memory or from this document alone. Open the platform's own current help page for the account the booking sits on and read it on the day, because these terms change and the version here was read on 14 September 2026.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's insurer, letting agent or solicitor to check before any money is claimed, withheld or pursued. It assembles evidence and states arithmetic. It is not legal advice, it is not an insurance assessment, and nothing in it decides what the guest owes.

## Built from
- Airbnb, "Host damage protection", https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/279, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: the fourteen-day filing window in step 1, the excluded categories that drive the three piles in step 2, and the photo, video, estimate and receipt list in step 4.
- Airbnb, "Host Damage Protection Terms", https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2869, last updated 1 August 2026, read 14 September 2026: the thirty-day outer deadline in step 1, the "Legitimate and Verifiable Evidence" standard in step 3, and the requirement in step 5 to pursue the guest before the platform.
- Booking.com, "Damage policy", https://www.booking.com/content/damage-policy.html, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: the fourteen-day window on the second major platform, and the guest's right of rejection that step 6 writes against.
- Airbnb, "Security cameras and other recording devices", https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/3061, effective 30 April 2024, read 14 September 2026: the indoor recording ban and the exterior disclosure rule that step 8 screens the evidence file against.
- Limitation Act 1980, section 5, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/5, read 14 September 2026: the six-year simple contract limit that is why step 7 keeps the file after a platform refusal instead of discarding it.

# damage-claim

## You are given

A folder for one stay at one UK short let containing: the booking record with the checkout date and time and the next arrival date, photographs taken by the cleaner after the stay, whatever photographs exist from before it, and any receipts, invoices, written repair quotes or dated retailer price captures the owner has. Also expect a screenshot or saved page of the platform's own current damage help page, an inventory if one exists, and a free-text note of what was found. Photograph filenames are meaningless, some have no readable date and some are of the wrong room.

## Produce

Write these files into `./damage-claim-output/`:

1. `deadlines.csv` - columns exactly: `date_label,date,time,source_file,days_remaining_at_build`. One row each for: checkout date and time, date damage found, next guest arrival, platform filing deadline, platform outer deadline, and a final row `EARLIEST APPLICABLE DEADLINE`. Every platform deadline row must name the saved platform page it was read from in `source_file`.
2. `claim-items-GUEST-DATA.csv` - columns exactly: `item_no,room,item_description,classification,after_photo_file,after_photo_date_taken,before_photo_file,before_photo_date_taken,evidence_status,cost_gbp,cost_document,cost_document_type,cost_document_date,item_age_years,repair_or_replace,in_claim`. `classification` is `damage_this_stay`, `wear_and_tear`, `routine_cleaning` or `act_of_nature`. `evidence_status` is `paired`, `no before photo held` or `after photo undated`. `cost_document_type` is `receipt`, `invoice`, `written_quote` or `dated_retailer_capture`. `in_claim` is `yes` only where `classification` is `damage_this_stay` and `cost_gbp` is populated.
3. `claim-total.csv` - columns exactly: `grouping,items,total_gbp`. One row each for: damage claimed, wear and tear excluded, routine cleaning excluded, act of nature excluded, cost not yet evidenced, and a final `CLAIM TOTAL` row carrying only the damage claimed figure.
4. `photo-pairs.csv` - columns exactly: `item_no,pair_id,role,file_name,file_path,date_taken,device_or_camera,indoor_recording_flag`. `role` is `before` or `after`. `date_taken` is read from the file's own metadata, never from the filename.
5. `cost-not-evidenced.csv` - columns exactly: `item_no,room,item_description,why_no_cost,what_is_needed,who_from,needed_by`.
6. `evidence-screen.csv` - columns exactly: `file_name,source_type,indoor_recording,exterior_device_disclosed_in_listing,action,reason`. `action` is `include` or `remove_from_claim`.
7. `guest-message-DRAFT-GUEST-DATA.txt` - the message to the guest, naming the booking reference, the dates of the stay and each item by its number, stating what was found, when, what it costs and what is being asked for. Signed with the owner's real name so it is clear whose name it is sent in.
8. `claim-file-GUEST-DATA.md` - the assembled working document, with the earliest applicable deadline and the days remaining as the first line, then the item table, the paired evidence, the three excluded piles shown separately, and the cost documents listed by name.
9. `prevention-list.csv` - columns exactly: `room,subject,angle_note,when_taken,triggered_by_item_no`. One row per item that failed for want of a before photo.
10. `exceptions.csv` - columns exactly: `item_no_or_file,problem,what_it_blocks,source_file`.

## Rules

- Write files only. Never file, submit, upload or message anything on a platform, never open a platform API or resolution centre, never contact the guest, and never withhold, charge or claim money. The owner sends it.
- Never assert liability, fault or intent. Do not write, imply or draft that a named guest caused the damage, acted deliberately, was careless or behaved badly. Record only what was found, where, and on what date.
- Never invent, estimate or round a cost. Every figure in `cost_gbp` comes from a named document in the inputs, and `cost_document` carries that document's filename. An item with no document goes in `cost-not-evidenced.csv` and is excluded from `CLAIM TOTAL`. No cell may read approximately, circa, tbc or a range.
- Never move an item between piles to improve the total. Wear and tear, routine cleaning and acts of nature are shown separately and never counted into the claim.
- Never write a `date_taken` you cannot read from the file's own metadata, and never present a photograph from a different stay as a before photo. An after photo with no readable date is written as `after photo undated` and flagged in `exceptions.csv`.
- Never read a platform deadline, cap or covered-items list from memory or from this file. Read it from the saved platform page supplied with the inputs and name that file. If no such capture is supplied, leave the deadline rows empty, write it in `exceptions.csv`, and say so.
- Any indoor recording found in the inputs is set to `remove_from_claim` with the reason, never included, and named in the return. An exterior device that the supplied listing does not disclose is treated the same way.
- Where the item is old, `item_age_years` is populated alongside the replacement cost, from a supplied document. Never claim a new item for an old one without both figures visible.
- The guest name, booking reference and contact details appear only in the three files whose names end `-GUEST-DATA`. Never copy them into `claim-total.csv`, `photo-pairs.csv`, `prevention-list.csv` or any summary.
- British English. £ with pence to two decimal places. Dates DD Month YYYY. No em dash characters. No emoji. CSVs UTF-8, header row, comma separated, fields containing commas quoted.

## Return

The ten file paths, the earliest applicable deadline and the days remaining, the item count and total in each of the five groupings, the number of items with no before photo held, the number with an undated after photo, every file set to `remove_from_claim` with its reason, and every platform deadline that could not be read from a supplied capture. State that nothing has been filed, sent or claimed, and that this is a working document for the owner and, if it goes further, their insurer, letting agent or solicitor to check before any money is claimed, withheld or pursued. It is not legal advice, it is not an insurance assessment, and nothing in it decides what the guest owes.