Living through an Airbnb nightmare; have an airbnb guest check in to my listing on 8/16/23, great reviews, booked for a 45 day stay, accepted the reservation trusting the guest would be great. Couple weeks into the reservation I began getting noise complaints, trash barrels staying out for weeks, noticed my ring cam on the front of the house disconnected and began getting more concerned. Addressed with the guest and he assured me it wouldn't be a problem. Sent messages to the guest 9/24/23 that we had another guest interested if they wanted to extend they would need to do so soon to keep the ongoing reservation. After a week of the guest assuring me they would book, putting off another interested party, they still did not extend their reservation and it lapsed 9/30/23. I called Airbnb throughout the day to reach out to the guest, Airbnb finally got the guest to extend their stay that evening only to find their payment failed that next morning 10/1/23. I called Airbnb at 9:23a on 10/1 to ask if they could reach out to the guest to fix the payment or ask the guest to leave the home. Airbnb advised it would be my responsibility to get the guest to leave but if there were threats they had a team that would assist and to call the police if I felt threatened.
On the way down the guest called, I advised they would need to clear up payment or move out, at which time the guest began to scream, becoming threatening and seemingly dangerous. I arrived at the house with Airbnb on the line, told them about the threat of attack and they assured me someone would call me back. I knocked on the door, stepped about 10 feet back, in fear, until a woman opens the front door and tells me the guest is not there. I advised the reservation ended yesterday and the home would need to be cleaned for a new reservations.
She showed me around what was left of my house; furniture had been completely rearranged, their was dog urine throughout the house, a propped up mattress upstairs covered in dog urine, live ammunition and what looked like an automatic weapon sitting on the garage floor, I took pictures horrified. The woman who was at the home began to pack while the guest kept calling screaming at me until the police arrived at the house. The police informed me, in California, if a guest has been at a home for over 30 days, they are legal residents and must be evicted. While this woman, I had never seen before, was not part of the reservation, she insisted she had been at the home for 30 days and refused to leave. The police then advised that I would need to prove she wasn't a tenant in court and advised I would need to evict her.
I immediately called Airbnb, as the actual guest was using airbnb as their housing option and had told me he was in an airbnb in Texas currently. I figured Airbnb would have influence in getting this woman he gave access to my home to leave. Airbnb took 4 days to get back to me after probably 20 phone calls of me beging for resolution, only for the supervisor to close my case and then shut down my account locking me out of accessing the conversation I would need in my processes of eviction. When asked the reason for the denial and shutting down my account, I was told that I created a lease outside of Airbnb and that I violated airbnb rules by entering the home.
I urged the Airbnb supervisor that I did no such thing, there was no lease and the guest was clearly making this up. I advised for my own safety, I knocked on the door to avoid being attacked by her pit bull and was let inside by some woman. I told her the reservation was over and the guest was not even there. I also told the supervisor the only reason I had gone to the house was because I was told to do so the morning of 10/1 by an agent who insisted it would be my responsibility and urged her to listen to the recorded phone call. She has refused and I now have no access to my airbnb account.
I have this woman & her pitbull in my quite gated 4 bedroom pool home doing lord knows what damage, abandoned by Airbnb. I did some research on the actual guest, it turns out he has a felony arrest for aggravated malicious wounding, 3rd degree misdemeanor for malicious wounding and other misdemeanors charges for public intoxication, impersonating a police office, DUI, revoked lic, ect. It became more clear that this lady wasn't leaving and he is likely to be back. Today is 10/9/23 and to my knowledge he is not back ye, likely still enjoying his Airbnb in Dallas, with no repercussions from Airbnb whatsoever, and no reviews to warn other hosts, perhaps he's done this before.
If there is anyone that has advice in getting to someone reasonable at Airbnb to take a look at what they've done to me, my home and my quite, safe community, this is not how I've come to know . I'm a superhost and have hosted thousands of guests across 17 listings over the course of 10 years, we have been partners. I pray someone with a sense of reasonableness will reach out to me or to the guest to encourage them to do the right thing and leave.
