Guest STOLE $7000 of items and trashed my house

[Victor--And-Kate-0]

I want to warn all the Dallas hosts that there is a thread of robberies happening across the city inside Airbnb homes. 3 men and their dog stayed at our home and stole all our electronics, Airbnb supplies, cleaning machines among many more big ticket and small ticket items up to $7,000. They also tore apart and trashed our home and allowed their dog to urinate and poop everywhere. We are fortunate to live in a nice area where the police and detectives are on the case. They have caught one of the men after he pawned some of our stuff and then found more of our electronics in his car. He had done the same thing to another Airbnb host using the same exact Airbnb account immediately before he robbed us. I wish we had been informed by Airbnb. I want everyone to be aware of these fake accounts in Dallas and be very diligent about asking for people’s names and stories. I wish Airbnb had done a background check on this guy as they would have found he had multiple warrants for arrest on him already. It has been 14 days since this has happened and I am still awaiting Airbnb’s response after submitting over 120 photos of damage and 100s of receipts and replacement costs

[Linda108]

Thank you for your warning.  I am glad the police have apprehended at least one of them.  While the claim process can be slow, are you able to accept new guests if you wish to continue to host?

I am not in your area, but your experience is helpful to hosts in other areas.  In hindsight, do you have any ideas about how you could have vetted these guests?  I agree that Air BNB genereal verification process is lacking in being an actual background check.  

[Victor--And-Kate-0]

I google all guests names now. If we had, we would have found a disturned young male with a drug problem.

Yes we are still able to host. We replaced everything we could the next weekend as luckily we did not have a booking. Our calendar is pretty full for October and November so I will now google everyone’s name planning to stay in my home. 

[Helen427]

Victor and Kate, so sorry to hear of your unfortunate situation.

It's a very wise thing to do a google search of a person prior to accepting there bokings, it pays to err on the side of caution.

Warmest regards and keep safe

[Dawn33]

I am so sorry this happened  to you.

Did he have prior bad feedback and did you leave some for him, too, to warn others?

How do you get their names before  booking? Do you ask them for it, Google them  and then decide to accept their booking?

Good luck on getting all of your reimbursements.