Hello everyone, I need your Host experience on this one, because it happened yesterday and stressed me out so much! Still stressed 😞 I've been hosting for a year and never had this problem before. And it's such a strange robbery case! Please take some minutes to read it and give me your thoughts!
This weekend, like every weekend I spend in my family's, I rented out my room.
I share it with my flatmate and he's very used to people from Airbnb staying 1 or 2 times a month in my room.
He lives next to my room, to clarify.
So, this happened:
I had a reservation for 2 nights: a couple. Friday and Saturday night.
To be very very honest, I felt weird about them. But they had nothing weird actually! It was just a gut feeling.
I didn't leave my home in peace when I gave them the keys and left, even tho they didn't look shady.
Friday was great, and Saturday apparently too. Nothing happened.
Then Sunday I wake up to the message of my roommate at 7.30 AM: "Look, everyone is safe but apparently someone broke into your room through the balcony and took stuff from your Airbnb guests". I panicked.
I took the train home, an hour and a half later I was there.
Apparently, while my guests were away partying (let's say, around 4 to 7 AM), someone broke into the room through my balcony (NOTE, they left the balcony open, or they can't remember they closed it anyway) and –supposely– took an iPad and a Reflex camera. Also, the thug made a mess around my room. The thug even searched inside bags that were obviously just full of winter clothes or sheets. Everything was kinda spread away. Their luggages were open and clothes spread around. They left everything just as they found it, for me to see. I guess.
Also, the thug took 4 beers I had in my fridge and put them in a paper bag, and left it in my room.
While all of this happened, my roommate and his girlfriend were sleeping in the room next to mine. They didn't hear a thing. Walls are quite thin, I must admit. Our balconies are next to eachother, but mine is accesible and his isn't). They didn't hear my guests leaving, or the thug. Only when they came back at 7 AM.
Also, the police came. They filled in a report. I got a copy. The police didn't even bother to come and take fingerprints (eg the beer cans!) so they were of no help at all.
AND, funny enough!... My stuff was there. I had an iPhone inside the drawer that was open (the only drawer open, actually!) and it was still there. And my credit card. And my documents... My belongings, to sum up, were untouched. Super strange! I was already ready to see that my iphone was gone and my card and my documents, or something. Anything. But it was all there. Only these two expensive items of them were gone.
I am terribly sorry for their experience, and also that I don't have an insurance in my home, I'm still a student who doesn't have a steady job so I can't afford it. What I do, usually, is close the windows when I leave so that nobody can come in easily. Apparently, they didn't and so someone broke in.
Another possibility is that someone has my keys and came through the door. That is very scary. I'm thinking maybe someone who rented out my room and lives in the same city (a few weeks ago, a guy from here rented it out saying his boyfriend and him would reunite in Madrid and they wanted a bigger room than his... But I had no troubles with him). You know, the most humble hosts on Airbnb have no security at all, and every Airbnb guest can copy our home keys and have access to it any time.
So, after all that happened, and being so sorry like I was and am for my guests (if the robbery was real), the only thing I could offer among all the shame I had, was to give them back the money they paid to stay here. It was and is the only way I can help.
But, what do you think, as hosts, about that? Is it my obligation to reimburse them at least the days they were here? In one hand, it really wasn't my fault (either if someone came through the balcony or thru the door), but I can't stop feeling guilty and sorry that it was in MY home. Obviously, I also want to avoid a bad review because I've had great ones so far, I'm 2 points close to be a 5 stars!
What would you do? Would you reimburse guests that were robbed in your home?
I really don't know what to do so that's what I'm gonna do. But also grinds my gears that it wasn't under my control and that I can't help it if thugs want to come to my home and steal. It also is a traumatic experience for me 😞
PS. I am installing spikes in my balcony now, and asking future guests to ALWAYS close the windows since this IS a first floor with balcony in the middle of Madrid! And also close the door properly. I can't control my home at all times, sadly.