Guest trashed my house

[Vaishali-and-Nehal0]

Hi,

I know this  is not the right way to escalate my issue but felt i had no other way to reach to Airbnb team for my ongoing issue , also i know you have seen hundreds of cases like mine - much more riskier and dangerous cases but i really wanted to talk or reach to a person who can escalate my issue to the right team. Recently i have started hosting on Airbnb in India and since then i have hosted around 4 properties with my friends and one for my own house.  I have tried my best to provide each and every guest a wonderful experience and thats why i think airbnb has granted me a SuperHost badge too . 

I wanted to bring to your notice that recently i had a reservation with number - ** On the name of **  they came to my house and threw a Party which is against my house rules and played loud music in night , i have a heart patient next door even after saying that they did not respond to my requests . Next morning i went for a checkout and saw that my whole place has been trashed , i see my chairs upside down , my centre table in living room has been burnt with Coal and idk what other substance ,mattress  has blood stains , My plates and dinner set has been broken , kitchen is full with rotten overnight food , gas stove-has been kept open , walls have shoe marks  , Alcohol spilled all over floor  My bed has foam has been burnt too. one Speaker was missing too and they flew as soon as i came for inspection.
I have been contacting guests ,she once picked and said i checked out earlier so i dont know who spoiled the place and then after she stopped picking up my calls or replying to my messages. 

This case has been escalated to TNS case manager which is yet to respond  and its been two days now i have not even received  even an acknowledgment mail for the same.

I know things take time but you should understand  that i have back to back bookings from Airbnb and i cannot host with my broken furniture , stained floors and mattress the guests they will put a bad review for airbnb and as well as for me and  i might lose superhost status too. I had a booking on the same day this incident happened and it took more more than 500 dollars to get the immediate house deep cleaning and i am yet to fix the damaged and burnt furniture and mattress which i dont know how much should cost.

With this incident i have blocked my calendar for upcoming months as i am now really scared of my guests , additionally i had to block few more days in july since i have to get new furniture and painters all over my house . This has also led me to a per day occupancy loss.

I really love the concept of airbnb , i have hosted such wonderful guests across the Globe but this case was horrific for me .I hope my mail reaches to you and please support me in this case  as soon as possible. 

**[Sensitive information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

 Food SpilledGlasses and table brokenBed foam have been burntFloor stainedWalls with Shoe marksMattress stainedGreasy food blocked water lineTrashBed sides burntBurnt with Coal marktable damaged

[Lisa723]

@Vaishali-and-Nehal0 you have posted this in a community forum for other customers of Airbnb; not much we can do for you. Some people say publicly calling out Airbnb on twitter and facebook has gotten results.

[Mark116]

Yikes, that's one of the worst I've seen, that mattress is gross.  Airbnb is notoriously random in terms of host/guest disputes.  It's good you took photos and that you immediately contacted the guest, hopefully airbnb will not let the guest get away with pretending that after check out some other people have broken in and destroyed the house, LOL.  Good luck.

I am told that airbnb tends to be more responsive to contacts that are made through either twitter or facebook, or as a last resort, negative stories that may appear in local media.  

[Vaishali-and-Nehal0]

Thanks for the support , i will wait for them to respond.

[Linda108]

@Vaishali-and-Nehal0  Like many new hosts you have had a wonderful list of respectful guests for your beautiful apartment.  Now you have had guests that were disrespectful and damaging.  You need to be aware of how to deal with damage by guests.  Sometimes it happens because the guest is malicious and sometimes it happens because a good guest has an accident.  Either way, the damage claim has to be handled the same way.  Read about the process in the Help Center.  In short you need to start the claim by contacting the guest and it is best to use the Air BNB messaging system, not the phone.  You will have a record of your communication that way.  Second you must submit the claim before the next guest arrives.  All of this is laid out in the Air BNB Host education about making a claim.

As hosts we can only encourage you to be patient about an Air BNB response and continue with your business as usual.  Make sure you have a security deposit so damage claims can be more easily paid.  Also consider if there is anything you could have done to avoid this in the first place.  Perhaps you should avoid guests that do not have reviews because you are not there until after they leave.  Also, if there is a complaint about loud music and there is no response from the guest, you should have a way to either go there personally or have a representative show up.  In my city, complaints must be addressed within 45 minutes.  Loud music is seldom there when people are behaving themselves.

Don't be too discouraged but do learn and keep providing the good hosting and value you already have done.  Keep us posted as to what happens.

[Mark116]

The "security deposit" is wholly dependant on the guest agreeing that the money is released, if they say no, then that's it.  All the "security deposit" is good for is a possible deterent effect that most people will assume it's a real deposit, and it will make them more careful.

[Vaishali-and-Nehal0]

Hi @Linda108 , My issue has been solved now and Airbnb has supported metotally in this matter,Such an assistance from airbnb is truly encouraging and goes a long way in instilling faith of the hosts on airbnb and we feel assured that airbnb is always there for its hosts and travellers alike. I really appreciate the timely assistance provided by the team and assuaging my concerns.

[Linda108]

@Vaishali-and-Nehal0  By the way, please provide a thumbs down review of these guests to help the host community to avoid such guests.   Also, if they do review, just respond that you have no desire to host them again due to the disrespect of the space.  Don't go into detail and do not rant!

[Marina897]

I had a guest destroy a room of my house in the most vulgar way possible. Apart from the host guarantee seemingly being designed to make you fail at attempting to claim I was particularly disappointed that the guest walked away holding a 4.5 star review after my review - surely there should be punitive action and a warning to future potential hosts of this guest.

[David126]

AirBnB do not really offer a security deposit, anything you can get under that usually requires the guests agreement.

Do you have any Insurance that would cover this.

Are there legal options, small claims court?

[Vaishali-and-Nehal0]

I dont have any insurance and i am right now handling back to back bookings  I didnt get any time to escalate it legally , I have heard Airbnb is helpful in resolving all these matters.

[Christine615]

You need to get replacement estimates  and then bill the person who booked your place. Do it through resolution center. Change your lusting to say guests are responsible for all damages atvreplacement cost so then renting from you is agreeing to that.

Airbnb resolution center needs to find replacement homes for your upcoming guests and compensate you for the loss of bookings. Then Airbnb needs to kick in their insurance to fix this and ban those guests from the platform.

[David126]

@Christine615 AirBnB does not offer Insurance, there is the Host Guarantee but you will find many many exampes of disappointed Hosts.

You can say what you like in your listing, collecting is the issue.

[Christine615]

@David126

host guarantee is what I meant not insurance. But I suspect their guarantee is underwritten by insurance.

Either way, Airbnb splashes the guarantee on all its advertising and in our accounts so they should be required to  honor it without all the hassles. 😞

[David126]

I am pretty certain it is not underwritten, there are a number of reasons why.

I agree they should be required to honour it, the sad reality is otherwise.