I am a new host and was just robbed by my THIRD guest. I am honestly in disbelief. The reservation immediately made me think twice because the profile was brand new with no photo or information, but after looking online, I approached the booking with an “everybody starts somewhere” mentality. Long story short, I will never use any form of instant booking, and I will never allow a guest to book without some sort of history. This woman and her unknown male guest left an absolute mess in the kitchen. She moved all of my furniture around…lamps moved from room to room, nightstands swapped, even the tvs were switched around…and they were the exact same tv so there was no reason to want to move them. Then comes the worst part…they stole the most random of things, anything they could fold up and fit in a bag. We are missing handfuls of pillow shams, books, pictures, a table runner, a towel hook, exterior lights, an AREA RUG, the TV remotes and more. The guest left about 10 min after check out today and almost immediately requested her money back stating bed bugs as the issue. She even went as far as to send a photo of the “bites” which I could tell was not taken in my house because of a piece of decor in the background. She then changed her name on her Airbnb profile. Rereading this, I feel like I ignored red flags at every step, so this is my PSA to not ignore your gut and DEFINITELY don’t ignore the flags! Still waiting to hear how Airbnb will handle the situation….
