House trashed, wrecked, destroyed by guest

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Chris80
Level 3
Eugene, OR

House trashed, wrecked, destroyed by guest

I just had a guest check out and they destroyed my house, causing over $3500 in damages and lost bookings. The list of things wrecked is so extensive, it's not even worth going into exhaustive detail, but here are the highlights (or low points, as the case may be):

 

Huge party lasting until well after 1am, disturbing neighbours and a general nuisance

Vomit stained sheets left in bag upstairs

Mattress stained, wet after sheets and mattress cover removed (presumably because of the vomit)

Two vintage audiophile stereo systems nonfunctional and broken speaker stand

Everything filthy, floor sticky, dirty dishes in sink

Bathroom vile, vanity shelf ripped from wall

 

Additionally, I had to decline a $250 booking since the place is not habitable. I can only hope that the host guarantee covers some of the losses. Has anyone had a positive experience with the host guarantee and how long did it take to be compensated?

1 Best Answer
Breanna
Community Manager
Community Manager
Pontefract, United Kingdom

Hi everyone,

 

You can learn more about damage coverage for Hosts by reviewing this Airbnb Help Center article: Getting protected through AirCover for Hosts.

 

Please note that this content has been archived.

 

You can still access if if you have the link but it won't appear when you search on the Community Center.

 

To ask a new question just click below:

 

Stephanie_0-1677152405466.png

 

Thanks

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110 Replies 110
Lauren231
Level 2
Hingham, MA

I had a guest do extensive damages to my home, I filed a claim and Airbnb did nothing! The host guarantee is what Airbnb says to get you to rent to people but Airbnb doesn’t care about the hosts at all... i have heard horror stories before from hosts and now I’m experiencing it first hand.  

Hey Lauren!

U have to be patient. It can take up to 60 days to get the money.

The most important thing to realize is that if the guest is refusing to pay they are probably also lying.
I'm 2 for 2 on my success with the resolution center.

& had another incident where people lied about the situation after I asked them to pay additional rent for bringing extra guests.

There are two kinds of people renting.  

The first kind is the person who will fess up & pay, & move on without a hassle.  

The second kind is the person who will try to get away with anything, counter-blame YOU, lie about what happened.

I have back-to-back five star reviews. The last time I used the resolution center, it took almost two months.  I was asking the guest to pay the extra rent for the additional 4 people they brought to my house. They turned around & lied & said I had interior cameras watching people & bed bugs.  It is against the law to have interior cameras....NOBODY will install them for you in California. & it was easy for me to prove that they lied bc I had a receipt for the exterior installation.  They just didn't want to pay!!! Can you just sit with that for a second....imagine how ridiculous that is...if I had bed bugs nobody would stay a second night.  They'd move out & ask for the money back.  I would not have all five stars.

Just be patient & build a reasonable case.  You will eventually get paid if there are real damages.

We had guests check-out today, and we were greeted with a fully trashed house. Vomit, filth, stuff left all over the floor, 20+ bags of trash (in 3 days) plus un-bagged trash left all over. Dishes and towels everywhere (some even thrown into the trash), cigarette butts in the house (no smoking rule), beer cans under the beds. Furniture completely moved - including the washer and drier. Blatant disrespect for our property, much of which appeared to be done on purpose.

Is there anything that can be done other than to give this f&$k face a bad review?

 

After reading these other host community posts, it seems we may have no rights as a host to get compensated even for the cleaning required. We could reach out to the renter and request the deposit, but I highly doubt he will respond. And, if airbnb isn't willing to provide compensation or recourse, do we have any rights? Could we sue this guy? The question mostly lies in the fact that there is no direct damaged items, it's just the place is trashed and will need days (and significant disinfection measures) to clean it. Any advice?

@Ant3, Yes, I would still file a claim through Airbnb's Resolution Center. Claim what you feel is fair for the extra cleaning effort you have had to do.  Take photos of everything: the trash, cigarrette butts and the vomit and attach it to the claim.  You never know, Airbnb might just go after this guest. 

 

Second, click on the guest's profile picture and flag him or her.  Airbnb's Trust and Safety team will investigate and if they need more information from you, they will get in touch. 

 

Third, leave an honest and objective review.  Be sure to indicate a "Thumbs Down" to ensure this person can't book intantly on Instant Book listings.  Be sure to give Airbnb a description of your experience in the area designated to tell Airbnb about the guest. 

 

My guess is that at minimum Airbnb will ban this guest from ever booking again. 

 

If you have never filed a claim for damage, here's the link to start: 

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/767/what-is-the-resolution-center

 

Please keep us posted on how you get on with this!

 

What stops them from booking under another name or getting someone else to do it for them? 

I’m in tears!  My first let and my beautiful newly decorated flat is wrecked!  Cigarettes stubbed out on the furniture, drugs, filth, walls need painting!!  Never again!!!! 

My apologies hun, I had a guest literally break down a door and cave in a wall! 

I did toughen up my rules, it helps then buy cheaper stuff that can be replaced easily .it’s just business. 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Deborah309,

 

Lovely to meet you. Aw I am so sorry to hear about your first experience, I do hope you are OK.

 

Have you been in touch with Airbnb yet, if not I would recommend contacting them (here is a useful Community Guide on the different ways to reach them. Also, in the post above @Clare0 has provided an overview of how to make a claim through the Resolution Center. 

 

I really hope you get this sorted out and you consider hosting again. Please do keep us posted if you can.

 

Lizzie

 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Hey Deborah,

 

Wanted to give you alittle insight so you dont give up. My wife and I have a house that we built in Playa Del Carmen. We put so much work and care into getting the place perfect for our guests, went over the top on everything.

 

Even filled the fridge and freezer with food and drinks, snacks etc as they were our first guests when the house was finished. They proceeded to get drunk, lock themselves out and break the brand new handle on our front door, then call us at 4am and woke us up to go there and let them in, then tried climbing the front of the house to break in. After this, they brought girls back to the house and our brand new 3500 dollar couch was covered in sparkles and stains, but thats not the best part. It had a GIANT rip in it. It had never been sat on before this stay. They destroyed the shower curtains, melted our placemats to the back of the toaster oven, broke one of our chairs stained the sheets and towels, Smoked in the house etc. 

 

From this experience we knew what to look out for and what to avoid, we have since hosted 55 guests and have a perfect 5 star rating. There have only been two guests since that were terrible and the most damage they did were beach bags, towels or sheets. No real major damage. Its been a year and a half and we have made a killing. There are tricks to keep the wrong people from your house. Get the names of EVERY guest on the reservation and let them know to give the name as it matches their government issued ID because your concierge or private security will be checking them in and noone is allowed to access the house that isnt on the reservation per AIRBNB policy, so you dont want them or their guests to have trouble getting into the house. this automatically scares away the partiers or the freeloaders trying to pay for 4 people and bring 8. You can also google the names and check social media accounts so you know who is actually staying with you.

 

 

Dont give up, get through it and it will get better!

 

Jeff

 

@Jeff-and-Mariel0  Good post, it's definitely a learning experience. I host a room in my home, so guests don't behave like that.

But I never understand when people assume you can just google someone and all this info is going to come up. Other than a couple forums, like this one, I don't partipate in ANY social media- no facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, none of it. And if you Google my full name, you get a bunch of stuff come up on someone else with my same name who appears to be a call girl. I'd be pretty upset if someone thought that was me.

Hey Sarah,

 

Thank you for the compliment!

 

You are right, it's not always a guarantee that you can get background on people but 9 times out of 10 its very easy. Im pretty good with doing background on people. You have their cell phone, email adress and DOB. The Millenial generation is all over social media and over sharing everything. Information is power. 

 

We had one girl that by googling we found out she was an erotic model who likes to go to houses all over the world with her boyfriend and shoot videos that we wouldnt exactly want our house being the background for. All I did was say hey, saw that you shoot videos for a living! awesome. We don't generally allow our house to be rented as a shooting location but may consider it, we just request that if you plan to shoot at our house that you acquire production insurance as we see you do it for profit and that we can approve any content shot at our location before its published. She never responded and canceled the reservation a week later paying us 50 percent of the rental. I then re rented for that week.  

 

Most of the time though its a waste of energy but if it pays just once its worth it. You can generally feel people out via messages and figure out what they are looking to do. If they ask questions like how many bottles of vodka can fit in your freezer, its a dead giveaway haha. My favorite is when a guest finds out they cant sneak people in after booking with us and lying about the number of people in their group to save money, "oh only people on the reservation can access the house? oh ok well 4 more friends might come but we wont know for a couple weeks. Ill let you know if anything changes." Booking goes from 4 to 8 and we make double the money. Happened maybe 7 times out of 55. Feels like a huge win every time.

David1906
Level 2
Los Angeles, CA

My house was also destoryed by my guests.  Two young kids, which turned in to three young kids.  Doing drugs and hiding them all over my house.  The place was destroyed.  These people were pigs like I have never seen.  They took some of my furniture and put it outside on the lawn where the sprinklers soaked and ruined it all.  They never cleaned the toilet or bathroom.  Garbage everywhere.  Food left out for days.  Ruined a brand new toaster over, ruined pots and pans, runied the kitchen floor, ruined sheets.  It took a crew 3 days to clean the house.  

The worst part is now dealing with Air B n B who want to refund the guests the balance of their money.  To me this is unconcibale.  I did nothing wrong but will not be loose money and have to jump through hoops to collect for damages and cleaning.  

I do not understand how Air B n B could refund these people and penny.  They need to be kicked off Air B n B and made to pay.  I have pitcutres of everything and yet Air B n B is treating me like I did something wrong by kicking them out of my house.  Any advice? 

 

Hi David - try the Party Squasher 🙂

 

I took a screenshot of the # estimated people (based on # of cell phones) and used it as evidence when there were 20 instead of 4 at the house. It alerted me so I actually stopped in... but it does help avoid using Airbnb to try to get money.  The guest felt badly about it and paid without question in the Airbnb resolutions system.

 

Win/win.

Amanda

I do not suggest stopping in. I was held in review for an investigation for 2 weeks because I was asked by the guest to bring over a handyman to check the shower, then they complained that there was sexual tension due to my clothing attire. I was in a business skirt & dress shirt. They actually got my listing taken down for 2 weeks due to me going into the house at their request. Lesson: don’t enter the home under any circumstances while a guests is staying. 

This is at least the 10th example of this I've read about in as many days.

Document everything.

You can sue the guests for damages, labor, materials, lost rental time, in small claims court, usually if less than 5K in damages . If it's more than 5K in damages, it's a civil suit. Check your local statutes on the amounts.

You will win.

I'd also check with an attorney to see if Airbnb needs to be included for breach of contract.

There's also FB and twitter, and the press, which, according to other guests, seems to get a rise out of airbnb.