Illegal Drug Use and MIA Guests

[Sam-and-Jess0]

Hello community! Need some advice here! We currently have a couple staying in our basement Airbnb and they booked instantly for a 3 month stay. We’re a month into the booking now and the couple has been gone for the last week. We live upstairs and my wife can smell a foul odor emanating as we walk past to do our laundry. Last night I decided to do a welfare check inside and found that the place is trashed and there are IV needles everywhere. There is leftover food all over the place and trash EVERYWHERE (which explains why I haven’t seen them dump anything in the trash and they haven’t done any laundry yet). We have tried contacting them via the Airbnb app but have not had any response from them in 2 days. 

We notified Airbnb today and they cancelled their reservation but now have all their personal belongings to deal with. I’ve changed the door code so they can’t come back inside without my permission. 

so what are we supposed to do?

1. Pack all their crap in black bags and leave it out for them to pick up if they ever come back? 

2. wait for them to come back and let them grab all their belongings as fast as possible so we can hire professional deep cleaning?

3. trash all their crap and hope they don’t come back and cause us harm or trouble?

4. any other recommendations?!

I have a 1 year old baby and we are concerned for our safety. 

[Helen3]

Sorry to hear this happened.

In terms of what you can do with their belongings that depends on the laws around disposal of guest belongings  where you live @Sam-and-Jess0 . Check out how long you might need to store them before disposal and notify the guest on the platform and via the phone number you have for them that they have XX days/weeks from whatever date to collect of belongings will be disposed of. 

In your situation, I would pay a professional service who are experienced in cleaning areas which have drug paraphernalia,  photo/video damage and put in a claim via Airbnb for the deep clean, rubbish removal and any storage fees. (read up on how the Guarantee works on the Airbnb Help website).

By the way what sort of checks did you carry out in terms of vetting these guests to ensure they were a good fit before accepting such a long term booking?

[Sam-and-Jess0]

@Helen3 we of course looked at her six reviews that are all from 2018 and they were no red flags there. She has a 4.5 average rating and everyone mentioned how clean they were and considerate. She does have a very unique name and nothing abnormal showed up on Facebook either. They were very nice during our conversations in preparation for their arrival but once they settled in there was definitely a more erratic behavior.

[Helen3]

Interesting I would see guests as having a 4.5 rating as a red flag as when you look at their ratings it is likely they were marked down to four at least once for cleanliness, not following house rules etc @Sam-and-Jess0 

How is it going with processing the claim for the clean up. Did you find out what the regulations are in your area regarding their belongings. ?

[Flavia202]

@Sam-and-Jess0 , you could report it to the police - they should be able to guide you/suggest what to do, so you're within the law.  Take some pics with date stamp so you can show them the evidence. 

[Lorna170]

@Sam-and-Jess0   I would suggest that you get in touch with an attorney who is familiar with tenant/ landlord law as this is a 3 month booking and may no longer be protected by STR rules, even if you or AirBnB has not been paid for the remaining months.  Good luck.

[Lori2546]

I'm so sorry this is happening to you.  I wholeheartedly agree with all of the suggestions.  And in particular about not hosting for longer term stays.  My rental is in the basement of my house and located in Seattle.  Due to Portland and Seattle changing laws over the years tenants have most of the rights and landlords almost none.  A landlord tenant attorney advised me to limit bookings to 27 days or less.  Because it's less than the shortest month of the year.  I would definitely contact an attorney to be proactive and see if he/she has suggestions to protect yourself, family and rental.

[Quincy]

I am so sorry to hear about this @Sam-and-Jess0. I can see that you've been in contact with Airbnb, but I've passed this on to the team just in case.