@Laura4076 sorry to hear this. I have been searching forums on how to deal with AirBNB on a similar matter. Unfortunately in my case we escorted the guest off premises within 24 hours as I live in an adjacent unit in our building.
We just finished a $500,000 renovation on an 1800s apartment this winter and decided to list it as it’s in a very desirable area of Buffalo, NY for visitors. Also a unique property in general. We got tons of traffic within days of listing, we got booked from May-November with only 5 total gaps of a day in 2 weeks of being listed. First month went great, all until a guest who was obviously using a fake account showed up.
Before check-in the guest immediately started messaging us for discounts, they wanted “early check-in” within minutes of the last guest. We didn’t accommodate these things, but are red flags. After check-in the guest, immediately starts messaging me that he wants me to come to the unit. And that I need to take care of some things. In panic, but will not disclose what the issue is. For my own safety, I refuse to walk over until he tells me what the problem is, as I feel like I’m going to get ambushed or mugged.
The guest claims spiders are crawling all over the walls. That they are everywhere. In a very dramatic way. I ask him to tell me where and I will take care of it, maybe send me a photo. He cannot send a photo. But says “EVERYWHERE” I know that isn’t the case. So I walk over with a vacuum. He is wearing a mask, not the pandemic type, but like a robbery type of mask and slurring his words, can barely walk. And screams at me about the unit being terrible and spiders being everywhere.
The unit has 5-stars and his complaints aren’t accurate. But I just deal with the behaviors, and tell him I will vacuum the walls. I walk around the unit looking for spiders, extremely confused trying to vacuum the walls. No spiders, not a single one. I just nicely message them, saying problem has been taken care of. They claim they still see them. I am now under suspicion they are very very high on something. Also cannot afford the unit, they want a discount still.
A few hours go by, now the unit starts sounding like furniture is being moved in the unit. Loud banging noises, doors slamming. I am not sure what he is doing. But I’m uncomfortable. He messages me, says “the TV is being hacked” claiming someone is hacking the TV and he isn’t able to control it. It’s a brand new TV, doesn’t have any reported issues. I am just hoping he didn’t break it. I cannot explain, so I just play along with it could be possible that TV has an issue, it doesn’t, but just let him make the claim try and be helpful. It doesn’t have an issue, he’s just tripping hard on some type of drugs. I start realizing this. Fake spiders and hacked TVs. Lots of weird things.
He decides to complain directly to AirBNB support about the unit for the spiders cause I wouldn’t give him a discount. Now it’s super confusing, I get phone calls from support about the imaginary spiders, the “hacked” TV. I tell AirBNB get him off our property, I don’t want this guest. They give him his money back. He gets to spend the night, but he booked two nights. The next morning, he doesn’t leave until late in the day. He stands outside the unit mad and pacing in front of the house. Obviously looking for me, wants an in person confrontation I believe. I let him do that for hours. None of the other building tenants will walk outside because of him. We all use the back door he doesn’t know about and watch him from our cars. He’s doing drugs in front of the house, we can observe that as well.
I walk into the unit. The damages:
The bathroom vanity was torn from the wall, bathroom door broken off the hinges, dining room table sitting on its side, chairs throw at the walls, sitting on their sides. Must have been throwing furniture at his imaginary spiders. Couch has the arm fall off and middle support broken so middle is touching floor. A mess, food everywhere. Some drugs in water bottles around the unit and spilled on the floor, it was like a weird red syrup. Powders on stuff, don’t even know what it is but just try and dispose of it all.
I get very mad and report it to AirBNB and have to try and figure out a way to make unit decent for next guest. I reattach the door and vanity with screws, bend the couch back into decent spot, but still obviously broken. Long story short, get it to decent, but flawed. I report everything to claims. They call this entire thing, “standard wear and tear” pay me $23 for a sheet he spilled the red syrup on. And that is it. $3000+ in damages. We get $23. Worse we start getting mixed reviews. Some people give 5-stars and then complain about “a few broken things” which are all his damages. Then some just give us terrible reviews 1-3 stars and destroy us in reviews.
I keep trying to deal with AirBNB, nothing. No help, don’t even seem to acknowledge anything happened. Had one other claim, seems AirCover is just a scam to make you feel good if you’re covered.