Here is our story with a recent (January) person who tried to squat at our house. We say no locals in our house rules and we only allow up to 14 days. He sent a request to book for the max 2 weeks and had uploaded ID and verified phone and email. Once we approved it and saw his phone number was the same area code we asked a few more questions. He was polite and said he was a trucker and couldn't work right now because of the weather. It sounded legit. It was mid-January which is the slowest month so we let it go.
After two weeks he asked to extend another week. We said okay but he has to make a new booking and pay another cleaning fee and we are sending the cleaners. He was supposed to check out and leave while she cleaned. We found out later he did not leave and she didn't know to call us and let us know. She cleaned it with him there! (I would have left and called the owners if it were me). Well, we had extended his door code already so he had access and had already paid for the next week so we let it ride (although the red flags started popping up).
The cleaner said it smelled like smoke in the house, which is of course against our rules. We contacted him about this and he said he "only did a couple really cold nights when he couldn't go outside". The cleaner said there was no way. She recognized it was a heavy smoke smell like he was smoking all day in there. We figured we'd just keep his deposit at this point.
Well, he sent a request for one more extension! We already knew he had to go plus we saw it would definitely go over the 30 days. We blocked out some dates and told him we had another booking and he would have to vacate but was welcome to request it again after they left. He said "he would not be ready to leave" on the checkout day. (Excuse me?) We said we were sorry but he would need to be out by noon before the cleaners arrived. We told the cleaning service not to let anyone go alone so the owner went with her boyfriend. He did not leave until they showed up at 1pm and we are positive it was only because the boyfriend was there. He had every intention of squatting in our house.
When we contacted AirBnB to keep his deposit because of breaking the rules and all the extra cleaning and painting we needed to do they only gave us money that the cleaners charged us to wash the walls and linens which was $150 and they did not give us any money for the painters which was the only way to get that smell out of the house completely (prime and paint). We had asked for the entire deposit. Also, he called us a racial slur and said if we ever contacted him again he'd kill us. We filed a police report and found out all kinds of wonderful things about him.
So, lesson learned. We will not take anymore brand new renters for more than a weekend. We will cancel anyone who books and ends up being a local. We also now have cameras and noise detectors in case we need evidence and can remotely set the door codes and alarms. No, AirBnB did NOTHING to protect us. They did not give us the full deposit we asked for and, even though he threatened us, they did not ban his account. You are on your own! Make good choices!