I had a guest that did $25K of damage and break 3 house rules, which resulted in fines and penalties, mounting an additional $4,250 ($29,250 TOTAL). Broken windows, doors, dishes, glasses, cigarette burns everywhere, window screens thrown over the cliff's edge into the ocean, couch stains, broken glass in pool, broken furniture.....
- smoking fine.
- excessive noise, which called the HOA security and they assessed the fine directly to the homeowner (the guests brought thier own DJ).
- and animals in the house (we reviewed the security footage of the camera in the driveway and saw a girl bring in a massive iguana).
The guests would go to the bar, pick up as many people as they could and bring them back to a $5m oceanfront villa. After they departed, we found instagram photos of a party with at least 50 people on the patio, which constitutes an event fee (which we did not charge).
The guest signed agreements both before arrival and when he got to the house, stating that he understood the terms of the house rules and fines that would be imposed for the items above.
The crazy part is--after his departure--it took me close to 40 hours of my time to file documentation, meet with insurance adjusters, send close to 150 emails back-and-forth with airbnb claims, so that I could recover 75% of the claim and no money for the fines. Of which our company paid to the homeowner, which means we ended up paying money for this guest's wild party.
I have never felt the same about our "partnership" with Airbnb and now I know to have zero leniency with other Airbnb guests. It's unfortunate, but when backed into a corner and made to pay for guest's breach of contract and then protected by Airbnb.... what am I supposed to do?