[Hosting] Guests ruined my apartment and AirBnB does not back me up

[Laurens14]

AIRBNB HOSTS BEWARE: January 1st I walked into my own house to find it COMPLETELY RUINED by AirBnB guests. COCAINE on the tables, pungent WEED smell, a wool carpet (which I inherited) full of STAINS and BURNED SPOTS (my house could have literally been burned down to the ground) and a COUCH THAT WAS PEED on. TOTAL DAMAGE over 2.000 EURO. The guests did not respond anymore after confronting them.

AirBnB always communicates that they are insured for cases like this and that they will help you out as a host. In my case they only got to action after 3 weeks of calling them every day and compensated me for a fraction of the material damage. I advise you to read the terms & conditions of AirBnB very carefully. From my experience, this is in no way worth it. The extra money is fun, until something like this happensCarpet and sofa that was peed onThe apartment was left with all kinds of hard drugsBurned marks on the wool rug

[Mitch216]

As I read this thread, I feel sorry for your experience and I am horrified but not a bit surprised. Has any hosts figured out a viable alternative to the Airbnb, Expedia/VRBO/Homeaway etc. Can the hosts community create a crowd funding opportunity for an entity which can develop a new platform like the old VRBO/HomeAway (i.e. an advertising platform). Also, how about a forum for property owners in which we can exchange guests databases with direct guest contact information and experiences. Airbnb sits on a significant amount of money between the time they collect from the guest and the time they are supposed to pay the host. Imagine that Airbnb falls on some difficult times (such as the current pandemic), or they want to beef-up their bottom line as they contemplate an IPO, and they decide to delay pay-outs or go completely rogue and not pay out at all.