Hey AirBnB Community:
I hate to even be sharing this story, because it was that terryfing scenario that existed in the back of my head, but it happened and wanted to seek advice from other hosts, so here it goes:
I had a group staying of 4 young guests staying for 2 nights. They had one previous good review, a verified profile and no indication during their stay anything for me to be alarmed of or raise suspicion. Until the last night of their stay. It was about 9pm and I had left my phone at a friend's house, so left the house to go retrieve it. Upon doing so, I noticed that one of our cats was sitting in the window of the listing, looking toward our house. It seemed strange, as he is a very social cat and if inside usually sticks around people, so I asked my fiance to stay behind and go try to knock on the door and retrieve him. She went to knock on the door and noticed that almost all of the windows of the house were open, during a 15-20 degree winter night in upstate New York, and that they were blasting music (both of which break house rules). She banged on the door, yelled for their attention and still got no response, even during breaks in the music. So she sent them a message telling them asking to close the windows and let the cat outside so that he could make his way back to our house. Still...no response. We waited up many hours, presuming they just hadn't seen the message, finally going to bed, though in retrospect should've followed our instinct to go inside to retrieve the cat. I awoke in the middle of the night with a bad feeling.
The next morning we awoke, expecting to find the cat outside, but he didn't come home. We live in a rural area where nature sometimes takes it's course so it made us somewhat concerned, as did the fact that the first of two winter storms were hitting the next evening, but they are outside cats and have been known to hang outside for a couple days. So we went to work, thinking he'd be there when we got home, but later in the day were informed by a friend who went to check on the cat while we were gone that he hadn't returned. The guests checked-out that day while we were gone.
When I returned home that night around 11pm, after still no cat and no response from the guest, I immediately went straight to the listing to check on its status. At first, everything seemed reasonable, though they had still left windows open in the winter cold. Then, I noticed that the comforter on the bed was missing. After checking all the beds and rooms and not finding it, I looked in the closet and found it, wrapped in a ball, soaked in human urine. I looked through the trash and found empty alcohol bottles, the remnants of a joint and vape supplies (house rules 3rd strike). I looked at the guest's profile again, seeing that it was verified, and also on second notice that the secondary pictures on her profile showed someone very young and a listing wish list called "Prom." Clearly, an underaged party that got out of hand. Still no response from the guest.
The next morning my fiance called the guest directly to ask her if she knew anything about the whereabouts of the cat or about the urine soaked comforter, to which she claimed to have let the cat out that night in question and laughed about the comforter, "Oh, that was probably my friends." The guest was informed of the cost to replace the item and responded, "I'll pay whatever it costs to fix it. But everything else is okay?" Which seemed super suspicious in hindsight after they got off the phone.
Immediately I initiated a call to AirBnB for damage, as the next guest was to check-in the following day, then during daylight I noticed extensive additional damage to the drywall, small wholes in the ceiling, tape on the walls, stains on multipe pieces of furniture, items out of place, a broken cabinet, and a urine smell. I documented everything to AirBnB, who escalated the case, highlighting to them my immediate concern that I believed they were involved in the cat being missing and that two impending winter storms narrowed the possibility of finding him. After an hour on the phone explaining the situation, and my fiance and I already missing our entire day and afternoon of work, the case manager called the guest to ask her side of the story. She claimed everything was great, they let the cat out and that was all she said. As I've heard many times now from the case manager that all phone calls are "on a recorded line."
I didn't believe her and my instinct told me they were lying and had done something to our cat. My mind went a million dark ways, but with the urine, damaged property, odd behavior and clear lies, I believed that they had either killed the cat or messed with it so severely that it ran away. I felt seriously violated their behavior and deeply saddened by the potential that I wouldn't see him again. I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for the cat's body in ditches and properties surrounding the listing, expecting to, but hoping not to find him.
Upon returning, I directly called the guest myself to ask her about the cat. At this point, she had told two people that she last saw the cat after letting it out before going to bed, which is what she told me as well the first of several times I asked her. I continued to press her on the issue, then turning to the urine situation, as that seemed totally strange and multiple parts of her story didn't line up. Her responses took on an increase tone of guilt and finally she admitted, "I'm sorry, we took the cat. We thought it was a stray." I had gotten her to admit that she stole our cat (now have evidence of it), but was immediately most concerned with getting the cat back. To which I was able to force them to meet me halfway and return him, not wanting to risk them harming the cat.
After a treacherous 3 day ordeal, I'm happy to say I got him back and that is resolved. But the question is now about the damage from the stay and the experience we just endured:
-Do I even have to write her a review or will her profile just be banned for breaking AirBnB policy?
-Besides the obvious damage to property, extra cleaning fees, transportation costs, lost wages, is there anything else I should include in our claim?
-Can I ask for the price of installing security cameras as we now no longer trust for our safety?
-Since I don't want underaged guests any longer and AirBnB doesn't display a guest's age or indicator they are 21, is there any way I can prevent underaged guests?
-I've extensively cleaned the floor where the urine happened, but since I didn't find out about the urine until more than 48 hours later and it seems to have soaked into the floor, what if I have to replace the flooring if the smell doesn't go away?
-I've been informed that the case has been moved from the resolution center to the "Host Guarantee" program. There is extensive damage and the guest has already expressed resistance to paying it. I am somewhat concerned, as the guest knows where the house is, that they would potentially come back and inflict damage if I were to actually put the real cost of damage repair.
Any and all (postive) advice is welcome.
Thank you so much and here's hoping that this never happens to anyone else!