Thief broke in the villa (according to guest)

Anton33
Level 2
Bali, Indonesia

Thief broke in the villa (according to guest)

This morning (GMT+8) time, I had a message from my current guest saying that a thief broke into the villa and stole money from them. So immediately I sent my staff and security to the villa to investigate (we have 24 hours security patrolling the villa at every 2 hours, and we have electronic logs of the security doing the patrol)

 

Upon entering the villa the 2 ladies guest was very upset about the incident, so we went to investigate further and call the local police to witness the site. We found 2 hand bags outside on the patio near the swimming pool placed on the table, all passport, credit card are still inside the wallet, but all the cash is gone according to the guests.

 

The thing that raised the suspicion further is that there are no sign of force entry to the doors, we have this glass sliding doors, with locks on it, the locks was taken apart but the screws was loosen from the inside of the villa.

We also noticed a phone was missing, I put an android phone as part of the villa amenities for guest to connect with music services inside the villa.

 

The villa layout is enclosed by a wall, and at the back there is some garden and swimming pool, somebody could have climb the walls from behind the house but the detective examining the scene could not find any footprints nor marks on the white painted walls, even though the ground is wet from the wet monsoon season in Bali currently.

 

They claimed about $500 in cash was missing and demand replacement as they don't have cash (even to buy lunch) so I offered them sandwich.

 

I reached out to airbnb about this problem but they still have not replied.

 

We offer to take them to the police station to make an official report (the police need to use the computer at the station) but they refuse to go, saying that they don't feel well, we have explain to them for the report to be official we need to do this, and later we can claim insurance if they wish to do so.

 

Later in 40 minutes or so, a couple of male friend come around the villa (while the police still there doing the examination) they started to chat around the living room, put on the music, laughing and dancing...! (I cannot understand what they are saying as they don't converse in English)

 

So I am confused now......anybody has this problem before? I am a superhost with almost 3 years of experience and 220+ reviews with no problem so far but this 😞

 

 

8 Replies 8
Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hello @Anton33 

 

If the guest have items stolen @Anton33 , then your role as the host is to help them report the matter to the police.

 

It is not your responsibility to claim on your insurance. It is their responsibility to make the police report so they can claim on their travel insurance. 

 

In your situation all I would do is follow up on Airbnb messaging to confirm that they need to go to the police station to make a report, so they can make a claim on the travel insurance. Confirm the security arrangements you have in place and that neither your security or the local police who came out could find any evidence of a break in.

 

It is not your responsibility to replace the cash that they say has gone missing. This is what their travel insurance is for.

 

It does seem suspicious that they have declined to go to the police if there actually was a theft.

 

 

Thank you @Helen3 for putting things into perspective, when things like this happened sometimes I just got dumbstruck 🙂

I made sure all the conversation is done through the airbnb chat for future reference just in case.

Luana130
Level 10
State of Bahia, Brazil

From all you have just mentioned, they are trying to scam you. Make sure to emphasize to airbnb about the police mentioning the lock was broken from the inside. And also about how they do not want to press charges. Do you have security cameras?

 

You have gone above and beyond in this case, with private security. Tried to help the best you could.

 

After all that evidence, I would tell airbnb that I am no longer confortable with them in my house.

 

Do not pay for anything. They don't have cash? They have credit cards! 

I am installing CCTV now, thank you for your suggestion.

We had security patrol device, that security personnel tap in at every couple of hours when they patrols the area, so we had the log evidence with time stamps, it is almost impossible for a thief to enter, although some camera will further be better for the future.

Cormac0
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

@Anton33 

 

based on what you've told us, I can summarise as follows,

 

They want to report the robbery to you and look for compensation but do not want to make an official report of the theft to the Police.

 

It has all the marking of a scam

 

Explain to them as Host you are just as much a victim of the crime as they are.

It is confirmed a spam, I spoke to one of the detective that came to the villa the other day, they are quite sure that the theft is fabricated.

The weirdest part is that somebody took off the screws of the door locks from the inside of the villa, and I scratched my head in awe every time I look at the photos until now, lol

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Anton33 

 

If it looks like a scam, and smells like a scam.. it's a scam. And this has scam stamped all over it (clearly amateur scammers - often referred to as "am-scams" - in your case though.. not very bright, haven't even thought it through properly, but still chancing their arm to see if they can wangle some free holiday spends)

 

You're being played, without a doubt. Apart from the dozen other red flags that clearly point to the guests' story  being a complete fabrication, no self-respecting thief on the planet is going to rob cash from a couple of handbags, but leave the cards and the passports behind (far more valuable than any $500). Just wouldn't happen. 

 

I've had this exact experience happen to me - except mine was on a much larger scale. A national sports team (well, 3 of the 12), here to represent their country in the world championships of their sport, staged a burglary by smashing a window, thrashing my home and ransacking every room in the house (on the final night of their 10-day stay, of course). Not only did they claim to have had cash, jewellery and other valuables stolen in the "burglary" that they insisted I should immediately reimburse them for, they also demanded that I should also give them a full refund (12 guests, 10 days!), and compensate them for their distress.. or they'd destroy me (their words) with Airbnb and all over social media

 

Airbnb were unresponsive to my initial contact attempts, so I took matters into my own hands, turfed them all out, told them they weren't getting a red cent out of me, and informed them if they made as much as an attempt to destroy my business or reputation, that I'd see to it that the governing body of their sport in their country would be fully informed of their scamming ways, and I'd make sure they'd be barred from ever competing as a team again. They never did get around to reviewing me, strangely.. 😉

 

If I were you, I'd be getting these guests - and their local "visitors" - out of my house, asap, before their behaviour escalates into something worse. The signs are all there - don't ignore them. 

Wow thank you for sharing your experience, mine is nothing compare to yours!

The guest already check out today, they gave up on getting the reimbursement after explaining that it is not possible since they refuse to make a police report and let the detective to further investigate the incident. The place was left messy but nothing are broken thankfully. I made it clear to them that any loss or damage will be charged through airbnb, but I could not leverage the threat further as they don't have any governing body as far as I know.

So finger crossed I hope they don't further wrote review that could affect my ratings.