We normally screen our guests pretty thoroughly. This recent nightmare renter whom has 8 good reviews on airbnb rented our house. He said he will bring a dog and agree with our pet fee. Upon check-in he said we didn't have 12 beds (we pointed out that our listing clearly stated we have 9 beds and sleep 12 persons), he kept insisting that he needs 12 individual beds.. we gave him an option to cancel his booking for shortening his stay (he booked for a month stay and we said he can just stay until he find a listing with 12 beds and cancel ours. A few hours later, he said he rented another unit to put some 3 of his guy and the dog and ask me to refund his pet fee. I agree to refund pet fee when upon checkout, my house cleaning company said there were no pet hair or sign of a dog.
A few days prior to their check out, a random person called me to report an issue with cable tv/internet. During the call, he told me the renter whom rented my house doesn't actually stay there.. he only rented it for his workers (pretty bad sign) and during the call, I can hear a dog barking in the background. After they checked out, my house keeper reported they trashed my house.. dry up fish scales stick to the wood floor, pet hair and trash everywhere, my sofa smell like a dog, my kitchen sink is broken.. and all my pots and pans are stolen! After some back and forth with the renter, he is willing to pay for all the damages and extra cleaning.. but he insists there was no dog at my house. He deducted the pet fees out of the total less another 150 (he claims it's airbnb fees) and remit less than half of the agreeable fees. When I contacted airbnb's resolution center.. they told me the extra cleaning fee cannot be claimed. We have $500 damage deposit which would be enough to cover the extra fee he didn't pay us.. but airbnb refuse and said I can only claim the pots and pans and broken sink. This was really new to me and very upsetting. Airbnb gives host a fales sense of protection.. but in fact, they don't really care about helping them. We have been a superhost ever since we start hosting with airbnb and we now have to re-evaluate if we should continue hosting our 2nd home. I hope my experience is useful for something else before they decide about hosting or joining airbnb.
