So, we are new, having begun in September. We have a cottage and during the winter, our guests are mostly here to ski. We had a family of four arriving on Christmas eve. The prior guest was to be one night leaving the 23rd. On his departure, my husband and I were horrified to find our beautiful cottage absolutely trashed. These four very young kids had no intention of skiing. They were here to party, and nothing else. They played beer pong indoors, spilling alcohol everywhere including all over the walls. We know they were playing beer pong because they left their cups, broken table, and ping pong balls behind.
They broke a window and a door jam. They stole firewood, our house manual, and other minor stuff, but still. To top of their evening, they vomited all over the place, and of course left everything filthy. They were here less than 24 hours and we had a family arriving for Christmas the next day. There was no way we could cancel. My husband an I spent the next 24 hours busting butts to clean the place. We had to deep clean, and have all the rugs, walls, and floors professionally cleaned on an emergency basis. We were unable to fix the window and door in time but it was liveable.
I am so angry that Airbnb did such a lousy job of vetting these people. Airbnb gives you no information about the person making the reservation until after it's been accepted and is too late to do anything about it. When I googled the name on the reservation, I found out this was a local kid who had just graduated from high school, and the phone number he gave was fake. This is not acceptable and I'm seriously considering whether Airbnb was a good idea.