This guest and his family completely trashed our home. We came home after five weeks to a complete infestation of flies, fruit flies, maggots, bed bugs and lice. This guest never took their trash out in five weeks in July; they simply left it in the house and, as you can imagine, the condition of it was deplorable. We found piles of maggot-filled trash bags inside our home. The smell of rotting food and trash was overpowering. The swarms of flies required multiple treatments from a professional exterminator, who said he had never seen anything like it. They apparently ate in every room in the house (living room, bedrooms, bathroom) and left spilled food on the rugs, couches, and bathroom floor. I’m not talking about crumbs; these were chunks of meat, broccoli, and tomatoes on our furniture just surrounded in flies and maggots.
They broke our TV, refrigerator, and dishwasher, ripped our brand new bed sheets and bedspreads, put tables on top of bureaus (why?), left the mattresses on the floor (had taken off the bed frames), and clogged up the kitchen and bathroom sinks with god only knows what. Our home will never be the same. It’s been over two weeks and the stench of these disgusting people is still in our home. We had to have exterminators come back twice to eradicate the flies and eventually had to throw everything away: beds, couches, pillows, rugs, sheets, towels. We hired professional cleaners to remove the dead bugs not once but twice. These guests lived like complete animals but that does not explain how as human beings, they could completely disrespect and destroy another person’s home.
We have been going all through the proper channels with Airbnb for three weeks and we cannot even get anyone to contact us regarding our claim for over $20,000 worth of damage. They supposedly cover up to $1,000,000 but I don’t believe it. We’ve been waiting on hold for hours at a time, and sending multiple emails with no response. Customer service agents claim to have no authority to do anything except send an email to a supervisor say they will contact us but they never do. We sent 50+ pictures of the damage to our home, videos, receipts for everything, a copy of the police report, and there has been nothing from Airbnb.
Our family has been displaced from our home for three weeks, having to stay in hotels and pay for and replace our damaged items completely on our own. Our lives have been put on hold and this incident has caused our family great emotional and financial duress.
Dodgy guests: I’ve been renting out our Spanish flat through Air BnB and encountered our first problem. I could go through the whole soap opera after the issue; Air BNB’s blaggy, unprofessional and deliberately unethical customer service (designed to avoid them paying out as much as humanly possible!) / multiple calls made / emails sent. etc.) but won’t, as superior communication and total refusal to stop pushing the issue when we had a VERY good argument meant we’ve been one of the 5% to get anything (insurance repair compensation) from them.
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Mitigating ‘realities’ : Flat has security gates entrance and flat door double locks with a second bolt ( i.e. You would have to smash it down to get in and *everyone* in the small block would hear!)
The guest story : The couple report a break in. Says 1000 euros has been taken from flat / nothing else is damaged or taken / the couple had a problem with one of the keys.
No police were called / Only the lady called to inform of the break- in (English speaking partner was nowhere to be heard /seen) / They were asked to immediately provide to pics of the door damage. She stated none of them have a phone with a camera but she will take pictures and send (she never managed to do this).
Upon subsequent conversations the talk of 1000 euros stolen is mysteriously forgotten… We eventually obtain pictures of the door (through a tradesman) and the lock /wood has been gouged / tampered with but no sign of true forced entry. The lady moves into a hotel but we discover her partner left to go home three days early into their break…
Bottom line is Air BnB are set up as a portal to broker bookings. Their customer service for issues is near zero and designed to frustrate / protract things so most people give up. If you have much less than a cast -iron case you might as well do exactly that.
It’s well past time to hire an attorney.
So sorry for you. Hosts are Airbnb’s bread and butter. They treat hosts with contempt. Why do business with them?
No idea why hosts are surprised when this type of stuff happens to them. You are inviting strangers into your home for money.
so I am not saying this was your fault, but I would never have strangers in my home while I was away. at the least
Airbnb sucks! They do not pay, they try their very best to avoid compensating hosts for anything. Think about it they are a parasite themselves, they hold no real estate, they have no responsibility.
This is so very true!!!