Airbnb guest turned into a SQUATTER

[Heather1328]

Have any other hosts ran into this issue? We had a guest who had a 6-month reservation for our 4-bedrom home, the dates of the reservation were December 2020-June 2021. His insurance company paid for it through a property manager who made the 3rd party reservation. As soon as the reservation was confirmed under her name and her many 5-star reviews the reservation updated to Joe, the actual person staying at the property. Apparently professional property managers can book as a 3rd party through Airbnb as a "feature". The reservation seemed legit, we didn't have red flags, and with his insurance footing the bill all seemed good.

Until June. Long story short...Joe allowed Wayne to move in with him. Joe got arrested. The house was trashed. Wayne refused to leave the property at check out and due to California squatter's rights we had to go through a 2-month eviction process to legally get him out. I had to cancel my next reservations. 

Airbnb provided zero support through this process. We have reached out many times. With a court decision made in August we finally got access to the house and could fully access the damage/make repairs/invoice Airbnb. 

Airbnb is refusing to reimburse us one penny now. Stating "For damages to be eligible for payment under our Host Guarantee, the damage must have occurred during the reservation dates booked on the Airbnb platform. Based on the information we have to date, it appears the reported damage occurred outside of the reservation dates.

Based on the information we have to date, this requirement was not met."

We have been in contact with Airbnb since 2-days prior to the reservation's end. We have provided videos showing the walk-through we did with the Police on the check out date which clearly shows the damage. We have provided dozens of police reports which we accumulated over the 2-month period. 

I have been asking for assistance and get bounced around between department, always starting over with a new representative who I have to re-tell the whole story to, only to be continuously told that "I'm not eligible for support." We have over $30,000 in damages to the structure of the home and to the furniture inside. This has been a devastating financial impact as well as one of the most stressful and toxic situations we had to deal with. Drug dealers legally allowed to stay in our home while we could do nothing but follow the legal process and wait 2-months for a Judge to give us a written order giving us our home back. 

My husband thinks the next step is to hire a lawyer and sue Airbnb. Any other recourse possible would be greatly appreciated. This has been a nightmare and another court case is so much stress.

[Christine1560]

Have you talked to your areas elected representative? They might have some advice. Also, it takes people like you to propose changing the laws. If you are going to sue someone, what about the management company that booked it, the guy they booked it for, and the insurance company they work for?

[Ingrid767]

I'm extremely disappointed with the Airbnb system. We had guests who overstayed in our house for two days and then tried to claim squatter's rights. The police had to come to our home three times before they were finally removed. While Aircover compensated us $6,000 for the damages after reviewing the case three times, Airbnb has refused to remove the negative review these guests left. I’ve repeatedly insisted that these individuals were trying to get all their money back, which is why they overstayed and caused us so much trouble. The whole situation is incredibly unfair, and Airbnb's refusal to take further action has been really frustrating.