Airbnb Guest Purposely Used Excessive Electricity

[Myke23]

My guest asked me to extend her month stay for another 14 days, for free. She said she didn't have anymore money or nowhere else to go, and she needed 2 more weeks to figure it out. 

I respectfully said no. So she got mad and ran up my electric and water bills. My electric bill is usually $70, now is $730. My $45 usual water bill is now now over $400. She had the heat on 90, and all of the windows open, with the AC running at the same time. When I saw on my smart apps that the AC and Heat was on at the same time, I called and asked her to turn the AC off. She ended up cutting the chord on my $580 AC unit. Now I actually lost money on this booking. I know I can charge her for the AC she broke.

 

Is there anything I can do about the high bills? 

[Elaine701]

@Myke23 

Oh... What a nasty guest! 

Unfortunately, I doubt you can do much other than request it from the guest in the resolution center. She'll no doubt ignore it (or scoff at it). That's this guest's character. Airbnb will surely wash their hands of it.

You may have gotten off easy though. I'm not sure what your squatting laws are like over there, but if she decided to squat, she may have been legally able to stay (entirely at your expense) for as long as it takes to get the courts to render an eviction judgement. Over here that can take years. 

Very sorry you were victimized by this one. Count your blessings. 

Good luck. 

[Elisa]

Hi @Myke23 😊,

I'm sorry about this, but thank you for reaching out to our hosts for help.

What do you think of Elaine's advice? What did you decide to do?

Warm regards ‌🌻‌,

[Zheng49]

I agree with @Elaine701 

If you had let her extend for 2 more weeks, you will have a much harder time to evict her.

You made the right call in this case. Sorry about what happened to your bills and your A/C though. You can try to submit a damage claim to AirCover in this case. 

[Myke23]

Thank you @Elaine701 . Im sure it could of been worst if she stayed. Airbnb is making the situation a lot worst by refusing to pay for any of the damages. Im backed into a corner now and unfortunately have to get a lawyer involved. I thought they would have my back and honor their AirCover , I guess not. This whole situation has been a nightmare for me.

[Michael6258]

Hope they actually let AirCover do its work. Sad if it is just marketing fluff.