@Olivia373
You wrote..
"So, as it stands, I am now drained, exhausted after 3 days of hell, with a broken house and a broken heart, a damaged reputation and much worse of financially than if I have never rented at all and I badly needed the income"
Having been through similar (and even worse!) situations with Airbnb guests on more than one occasion - including having every single room in my entire 3 storey house ransacked by an Eastern European group who staged a burglary, then threatened to destroy me with Airbnb and all over the internet if I didn't refund their entire group of 12 for their 10 day stay, plus comepensate them for their "distress" - I can fully understand how devastated you must be feeling.
I vividly remember sitting alone on my bedroom floor at 3am, amongst my broken furnture, with my most intimate and precious personal effects - including my underwear and my sons' old baby pics, school reports and Mother's Day cards - ripped and strewn all over the place, with the wind and rain whistling through my smashed windows, and Airbnb unresponsive. I sat there for hours, sick to my stomach and sobbing my heart out, waiting for the forensics officer and a glazier to come, and swearing to myself that I would never, ever rent my home out on Airbnb again.
The guests - unbelievably - were a national sports team, here to represent their country at the World Championships in their field. And yes, the neighbours were out in force, with their eyes on stalks, to witness the furious showdown in the street between myself and the 6'6" tean svengali (I'm 5'2"), with the other 11 team members and my two lovely cab drivers, Jimmy and Robbie, also caught up in the melee. (Probably the most excitement our very quiet residential street has seen for many a long year!) So I totally get how mortified you must be right now.
Not a scenario I'd wish on my worst enemy. Like you, I badly needed (was dependant on) the income, and at the time, it felt like the end of the world, and I couldn't see how the situation could possibly be salvaged. But salvage it I did, and hopefully, you can too.
Firstly, have a good old cry. Maybe throw in a few shouts, screams and roars to release a bit of steam (even if you have to go down the fields to do it, so the neighbours don't have you down as a complete lunatic altogether!). Then have a looong sleep, when the exhaustion and shock finally take their toll. Once you've got all that out of the way, you'll be much better able to start getting things back on track.
You've had some great advice here from some excellent contributors about the practicalities of trying to claim for damages etc, so I won't add to that. My advice to you though - which won't be popular, but could potentially save you a lot of further time, energy, stress and grief in fighting a battle with Airbnb CX that you're highly unlikely to win - is... muster up every ounce of strength you have, accept what's gone, swallow the losses, get stuck into the clean-up, replace/restore your damaged items as cheaply and quickly as possible, understand that you're on your own when it comes to Airbnb and that you - and you alone - are in control of guest behaviour in your home.
Next, scour the T&Cs, have a long read through this forum and others to fully inform and educate yourself on all the realities of hosting on the Airbnb platform, and honestly re-evaluate whether it's a financially and/or emotionally viable option for you. After all that, if you do conclude it's worth continuing, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, grow balls of steel, and start all over again. It can be done, if you set your mind to it.
Whether or not you do carry on hosting, your most pressing concern at the moment is actually your neighbours. From what I can gather, you're relatively new in town yourself, and from their (understandable) current perspective, you're a recent arrival, who's brought trouble and drama to the neighbourhood already. Yes, small-town Ireland can often seem like a cold, judgemental, unforgiving place - "valley of the squinting windows", as we call it - and the locals do love a good gossip (takes the focus off their own shortcomings!).
By and large though, they're good, decent people, and if you make the effort to fit in and to be a willing, productive member of the community, you'll find that they soon accept - and protect - you as one of their own. The key word there being "you" (Contrary to Airbnb's airy-fairy "Belong Anywhere" rhetoric, nobody actually has a god-given right to just pitch up to an established community and expect to be instantly accepted - in the real world, the right to belong, and to be accepted, has to be earned)
So as soon as you've recovered a bit, get yourself out there, knocking on doors. Be open, honest and friendly - no need to give your lifestory, just the basics will do - apologise profusely and explain that you're new here, just trying to get on your feet, you realise you screwed up badly, and you're taking every possible step to ensure that such a debacle never happens again. Let's be honest here - there aren't many Irish people who at one point or another, haven't had to deal with a friend or family member in similar dire straits to your poor unfortunate guest, so you might be surprised to find people a lot more understanding of what transpired than you'd expect, and even appreciative that you dealt with the young lady in such a sympathetic, compassionate manner, despite the consequences and inconvenience for yourself.
If you can bake, a few nice warm buns or scones as gifts for the neighbours would probably go a long way to getting you back in the good books! They'll respect you for having the guts to be upfront with them, probably invite you in for a cup of tea to go with the scones, and you'll very likely find yourself making a few new friends (and allies!) Every cloud... 😉
Anyway Olivia, hope you're feeling a bit better today. If you still need to talk, or I can be of any help, PM me on here and I'll send you my number. In the meantime, best of luck with getting everything sorted.
