How to Use the Airbnb Resolution Center to Get Paid for Damage

The Airbnb Resolution Center is where most damage disputes are resolved, or lost, before AirCover ever gets involved. Most hosts treat it as a formality before escalating to AirCover. The hosts who recover damage costs consistently treat it as the primary arena. The difference in approach produces very different outcomes.

What the Resolution Center actually does

The Resolution Center is Airbnb's internal system for financial requests between hosts and guests after a stay. It handles damage payment requests, extra cleaning charges, and other costs that go beyond what was agreed in the booking.

When you submit a request through the Resolution Center, the guest is notified and given the option to pay, dispute, or ignore. If the guest pays, the matter is resolved. If the guest disputes or does not respond within 72 hours, you can escalate to Airbnb for review and, if eligible, file an AirCover claim.

The key point: the Resolution Center is not just a formality you complete on the way to AirCover. Airbnb requires it as the first step. A host who goes directly to AirCover without attempting guest resolution will be asked whether they tried the Resolution Center first. For the full AirCover process, see the AirCover definitive guide.

When to open a Resolution Center request

Open a request as soon as you have documented the damage and have a preliminary cost estimate. Do not wait for a final invoice or completed repair before initiating. The 14-day filing window applies to AirCover claims, and the Resolution Center process must be completed before AirCover escalation is possible. Starting early gives you time to go through both steps without the deadline pressuring your decisions.

See the 14-day deadline guide for the exact rules on when the clock starts and what triggers the window to close early.

How to write a Resolution Center request that gets paid

Most hosts write Resolution Center requests as narratives. They explain what happened, how they felt, and what they believe the guest did. Reviewers and guests respond better to a factual list structure.

Your request should include:

• The date of the stay and the guest's checkout time
• A numbered list of each damaged item, with the location in the property
• The condition of each item before the stay (referencing the pre-stay inspection if you have one)
• The condition of each item after the stay (referencing the post-stay inspection)
• The repair or replacement cost for each item, supported by a quote or receipt
• The total amount requested

Keep the tone neutral and factual throughout. Remove any language about the guest's character, intentions, or how upsetting the situation is. Reviewers assess evidence, not emotion. Emotional language reduces credibility rather than increasing it.

What evidence to attach

Attach everything relevant in the initial request, not in stages. Requests that require additional back-and-forth take longer to resolve and give guests more time to build a counter-narrative.

The strongest evidence package includes a verification URL from your pre-stay inspection, a verification URL from your post-stay inspection, close-up photos of each damaged item, a contractor quote or repair receipt, and any guest messages that reference the property, the damage, or the stay.

If you use Checkout Shield, the pre-stay and post-stay verification URLs are generated automatically. Paste them directly into the request. The reviewer opens the links and sees timestamped, GPS-verified before-and-after pairs without the host needing to explain anything.

For a full breakdown of what makes evidence strong or weak, see the Airbnb evidence guide.

How to handle a guest who disputes the request

A guest dispute does not mean you have lost. It means the resolution has moved from automatic to reviewed. When a guest disputes, Airbnb mediates the request and reviews the evidence from both sides.

At the dispute stage, add any evidence you have that you did not include in the original request. Respond to any specific claims the guest makes with documented counter-evidence. If the guest says the damage was pre-existing, your pre-stay inspection from the same booking is the counter. If they say the item was already broken, your check-in report showing it functional is the counter.

Keep responses short and factual. Each message you send is part of the case record. "The attached pre-stay inspection from 14 March at 13:22 shows the mattress without any stain. The post-stay inspection from 17 March at 10:45 shows the stain in the same location." That is the format that works.

Escalating to AirCover after a failed Resolution Center request

If the guest does not respond within 72 hours or the Resolution Center mediation does not resolve in your favour, you can escalate to AirCover. You will need to confirm that you attempted resolution first.

When filing the AirCover claim, resubmit all documentation even if you already provided it in the Resolution Center. The two teams are separate and do not share case files automatically. Assume the AirCover reviewer has not seen anything from the Resolution Center process.

Before submitting, run the Evidence Checklist Generator to score your documentation across four quality dimensions and identify the gaps most likely to produce a partial payment or denial.

One mistake that costs most hosts their claim

The single most common mistake in Resolution Center requests is submitting without a before record. A host who can show damage in the post-stay inspection but cannot show the same area undamaged in a pre-stay inspection is in a dispute they cannot win on evidence alone. The guest can always say it was pre-existing. The reviewer cannot rule it out.

The before record must exist before the guest arrives. It cannot be created after damage is discovered. Hosts who run consistent pre-stay inspections at every turnover have this record automatically available when they need it.