BAD GUEST EXPERIENCE
Recently, when going to my unit to adjust an a/c I just bought, I found someone inside my unit illegally. Just one guy there, but at least 2 had been camping out.
I called the police to get him out, once he knew the cops were coming, he fled and left the pitbull, and my place, which was just cleaned, was a huge mess.
Guy had a dog, suitcases of shoes, clothes, laptop, electronic equipment, had loaded my fridge with groceries, ALSO a bunch of drugs, pipe paraphernalia, assorted dildos and lubricants and a printout, listing a dozen pages of banks and financial institutions, like some kind of scamming calls were being made potentially. That’s what the officers were guessing and they vaguely mentioned teams like this were around in pockets.
They took my shower head filters (about $200 each) and grabbed other stuff that wasn’t necessarily expensive, but also not there just for the taking.
MY HYPOTHESIS
I don’t know how they got in. The building my unit is in (Santana Row), has a front door with kiosk, so you get in with a code, which means any previous guest can enter the building again.
my unit has a smart lock, but as a guest can autobook my space at 3am if they want, I’ve included a default code, sent with Airbnb’s “Arrival Guide”, so such spontaneously acting guests can still access my unit once the transaction is verified.
I now change the default code each time a guest leaves, even if the default was never used.
unfortunately, because of this, I don’t know which previous guest was the culprit.
What I have also noticed since however, is a pattern of a guest booking, but canceling same day. They get their money back, waste potential earning for that night, but much worst, they gain access to the unit, which if the host is not meticulous about changing the code immediately after cancelation, again, the place becomes vulnerable. Guests can easily check the calendar to see if subsequent days are booked or not, they can calculate the chances of it being empty based on watching the calendar vacancies.
I wanted to report this incident and my suggestion on what might be happening, to Airbnb, and to see if it is common, and if there are good practices to be aware of, but saw nothing specifically fitting so decided to just post my experience here, and hope messages are circulated.
sorry for the long story,
Gene
(hosting a loft at Santana Row with Airbnb)
