what do I do after my House trashed by a minor guest

[Malalai0]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my story and ask for some advice. 

The guest approached me by saying he want to throw a party around 30 people. He normally do this at home but there's guest at his home. He said they are all responsible and will take care of the house. I accepted him with a special offer and with additional rules. Before leaving the house to the guest, I took a video of the house. When the guest arrived, he told me he checked-in and told me the place was lovely and he will make sure the house is as clean as now. The disaster started the next morning. When I got to the house, an hour earlier than the check-out time, I saw lots of beer cans outside and trash was all over the entrance. I went into the basement, which the guest are not allowed to go and I saw the bathroom mosquito net in my yard. I knew things didn't went well inside the rented place. I didn't wait until the check-out time, I went in the house. The house was completely destroyed.

I was so shocked, tears started to come out and I couldn't even make a sound. 

The guest sent a message saying: I have bad news for you. I'm sorry, but some uninvited boys came and trashed the party and the place. There's some serious damage. I tried to stop them but I couldn't so I called the police. The police came too late, everything was already broken. The police filed a report. We can meet at your place or you can call me anytime.

He left his phone number. Before calling him, I called Airbnb Resolution center. At first, they didn't take me seriously. I told them the house is completely destroyed, there's no more wall, everything is upside down and broken. They told me to take photos and send them with the claim. I estimated 20 000$ but at the end I couldn't submit the claim, there was a maximum of 13 000$. I called them and told them that I can't submit because it won't let me. Then the person on the line was really nice, she told me to try and send it directly in a message. When she saw the first 2 pictures, she couldn't believe it. She immediately put me on hold and went to her superior. She came back to me saying, thanks for sending the photos, she had put my case directly in contact with the Claim department. A few hours later, I received a message that Airbnb has sent out my information to an independent adjuster to inspect the property due to the nature and extent of the damage. The adjuster from Crawford came. He saw the pictures but when he saw the house in person, he said he never saw something like this. This is a crime. It's way beyond his knowledge to estimate the cost of the damages and he will recommend Airbnb to send an building expert as well as a material good expert to estimate the cost of the damages. ( I will post some pictures)

I also called the police to sue him. This is vandalism. From what I heard from the police, is that the guest is a minor.

I hope that my situation did not happen to anyone but does anyone have some advice?  Did anyone had a good or bad experience with Host Guaranty? How can a minor book my place ? Will Airbnb sue him for this as police has evidence that he was the responsible?  Should I proceed to a civil charges? What can I do or what are the options that I have?

Thanks for all your help!!

[Malalai0]

@Pete69 

I called the police. I hope they find those youngsters and that they will pay the consequences. I learned my lesson and will not be hosting parties anymore. But I want to point out that "party" does not necessarily mean what happened to me. I had a group of around 20 people in their 20's for a week. They took care of my place, they moved all the fourniture in a safe place before doing their stuff. I guess I was lucky.

[Suzanne302]

@Malalai0  Oh my gosh I'm so sorry this happened to you. How heartbreaking! I've never seen anything like this, but as others have said, this is a CRIME. The only problem is that Airbnb does not release guest info, so if you don't have the guest's ID, it will be hard to sue in civil court. I hope Airbnb steps up and does the right thing for you.

[Malalai0]

@Suzanne302 my lawyer called a couple of times and the guest answered. We got his info. Hopefully Airbnb will do the right thing. Thanks for the support !

[Jennifer1421]

@Malalai0I'm so, so sorry that this has happened to you. This is the sort of thing that lurks in the back of my brain every time I accept a guest. Shocking that a minor is able to obtain membership on Airbnb in the first place. More than shocking - egregious.

Best wishes for a speedy and satisfactory resolution. I'm truly hoping that Airbnb will take ownership of this. Hugs.

[Linda108]

@Malalai0   I find it interesting that so many of us  initially jumped to the errors of judgement you made in accepting the booking, myself included.  That has been the stance of Air BNB about party house problems all along.  To put this in perspective, no one was killed.  Sadly that is the new bar...

You are doing all the right steps now, @Malalai0. This is a criminal act and a civil law suit.  You have a long road ahead of you.  How do you feel about continuing to have a short term rental?

[Laura2592]

@Linda108 yes the first question I asked was why accept such a reservation? And I think its a fair question. Airbnb has not been historically host friendly on these matters, so its incumbent on a host to protect themselves. Rejecting a request for a 30 person party by a very young guest seems to be a no brainer for me. This damage is catastrophic to be sure, but how many times have we seen hosts with less damage who allowed party guests posting here on their monumental efforts to get compensation even for basic things like extra cleaning? There is some responsibility on the host to protect their investment and not allow persons who freely state 30 people will be in a house designed for a family of 4 or 5 to book. It is a common sense judgement here. 

I don't blame this poor host for the level of damage she now has to suffer through. Truly its beyond the pale. I will stand by my statement that hosts need to protect themselves and reject requests which the average person can intuit might be an issue. If someone says "I would like to bring a goat with me and he chews a lot and isn't house broken, but I promise to clean up" most of us would probably say "No thanks." There is no way one person can adequately clean up after 30 while (very likely) hungover on a short check out window. 

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 I agree with you this was a no brainer, and I fully agree we have to protect ourselves, and most certainly with methods other than relying on ABB checks and verifications. ABB does not help us in the the slightest. It's not always the 'no brainers' though, that can be a problem. None of us should ever rest completely easy. My problem guest (theft and vandalism) advertised himself as arriving with only his fiance, he had fulfilled all the ABB verifications, including govt ID, profile photo etc. I did a search to see what I could come up with on him, after I had his full name and ph #, and nothing came up. I had no alarm bells ringing. I even had a few benign, pleasant communications with him during the week long stay. Totally fooled me. I found out afterwards that he was in fact known to police. He was there with his supposed fiancé/girlfriend whatever, and possibly a few others at various times in the week they were there. But it wasn't at any time a wild party spilling out into the neighborhood. That, I now know, was calculated... they wanted  to avoid attracting attention.  No neighbors remember seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary. @Malalai0 

[#9]

@Laura2592 I agree with you this was a no brainer, and I fully agree we have to protect ourselves, and most certainly with methods other than relying on ABB checks and verifications. ABB does not help us in the the slightest. It's not always the 'no brainers' though, that can be a problem. None of us should ever rest completely easy. My problem guest (theft and vandalism) advertised himself as arriving with only his fiance, he had fulfilled all the ABB verifications, including govt ID, profile photo etc. I did a search to see what I could come up with on him, after I had his full name and ph #, and nothing came up. I had no alarm bells ringing. I even had a few benign, pleasant communications with him during the week long stay. Totally fooled me. I found out afterwards that he was in fact known to police. He was there with his supposed fiancé/girlfriend whatever, and possibly a few others at various times in the week they were there. But it wasn't at any time a wild party spilling out into the neighborhood. That, I now know, was calculated... they wanted  to avoid attracting attention.  No neighbors remember seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary. @Malalai0 

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592  I agree this was a no brainer,  and fully agree we have to protect ourselves...and certainly with methods other than relying on ABB checks and verifications. ABB does not help us in the the slightest. It's not always the 'no brainers' though, that can be a problem. Early in my hosting journey, I had a problem guest (theft and vandalism) who advertised himself as arriving with his fiancé, fulfilled all the usual verifications, including govt ID, profile photo etc. After I had his full name and phone number, I did a search and nothing came up. No alarm bells were ringing. I even had a few benign, pleasant communications with him during the week they were there. Completely fooled me. I found out afterwards that he was known to police. He WAS there with his fiance/girlfriend whatever, and very likely a few others showed up at times, but there was never any wild party spilling out into the neighborhood (in fact neither we nor other neighbors saw or heard anything out of the ordinary). I now know that was calculated. They wanted to avoid attention. None of us should ever rest completely easy. @Malalai0 

[Laura2592]

@Colleen253there is of course no way to ensure that any guest will behave properly. But in the OP's post, she was informed that this was a party request and that 30 people would attend. That would have been enough for me to decline. Her guest was very up front about his intentions. Any host will tell you that 30 people in a small space is a recipe for disaster. Some are very well set up to manage this, but the OP does not seem to have made a career of booking parties. 

There are people who set out to deceive. This did not seem to be one. 

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592  I was agreeing with you. My comment was general and goes beyond this post, to the broader topic, and was intended only to illuminate that under NO circumstance should hosts ever rest completely easy in a booking, even if they think they’ve done their due diligence and there are no perceived red flags. I see hosts take comfort in a full profile, with all verifications fulfilled, when it really means nothing.  

[Malalai0]

@Linda108 I guess this incident put me back on track. As @Colleen253 said, we're never really safe from bad guests. During my hosting, I never had problems with guests. I often accepted large local groups and they took good care of my house. I think this is one of the reason that I didn't really see the troubles I will be in when I accepted this one. I plan on continuing short term rental as I believe there's good people around this world that have good intentions. I learned my lesson for not taking precautions especially as @Laura2592 and others have said it was obvious. Reading the comments on this discussion will help me improve in every way. Thanks for all your support and advice. 

[Laura2592]

@Malalai0  please keep us posted. Also if you have Twitter I would tweet about this. This is such an extreme case that it really is important to warn others. There ARE psychos out there. You seem like a trusting and gentle soul and I am glad that your past experiences with groups have been positive. I am ridiculously attached to our little cottage that we rent on Airbnb and may want to retire there someday so I am extra super cautious about anyone doing any kind of party. I can't even imagine what I would do to the person who did this to my house-- I would probably be arrested for my reaction!

I don't think this is the best platform to do parties for anyone. We hold "micro weddings" and other small celebrations at our space and the cleanup is definitely factored into our pricing. Its time consuming and expensive to do events even for a small group, and Airbnb just doesn't have the flexibility or support you need for variable charges or settling any disputes. This is why event venues are expensive. It was very kind of you to be open to this with other groups, but I think you have to protect yourself and your home. I truly wish you the best from the bottom of my heart and hopefully you can find some joy this holiday season despite all of this.

[Malalai0]

Thank you @Laura2592. I will keep you all posted.

[Christine1]

@Malalai0 Your response and attitude is really lovely. I'm  so glad that the support from the hosting community has been helpful; and you are correct, there are lots and lots of good and great, well intentioned and well behaved guests out there. 

I'm so pleased tjat you have been able to draw strength and encouragement. 

You are a superhost.

Regards Christine 

[Mark116]

I'm trying to process what kind of person/people kicks apart walls?  I definitely agree that this is criminal vandalism and should involve the police, though I'm not sure if that will do anything to restore the house.

This brings home the point that on some level the dodgy, suspicious people are less of a problem than the real con artists, because the shifty, obviously shady person is already advertising their red flags....the super nice, polite, seems like a great person types who are dishonest/grifters require that hosts pay more attention to the subtle signs.