I was thinking the same thing. I would consider selling the house.
RR
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It wouldn’t even have to be going to the wrong door. A guest could come home after a few drinks, a little unsteady on their feet, and step a few feet into the neighbor’s yard. Which is all a guy like that would need to claim he was protecting his property or family, a la “Stand Your Ground”.
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Same, @muddy , except that this was a few years ago and I was a grownup. I was exhausted from travel (like many guests…) and had arrived late in the evening to stay with my daughter. I had been to that apartment once before. The door from the hall was wide open, so I knocked and stepped in. Called out. A man who, even masked by shaving cream was clearly not my son-in-law, appeared from the bathroom. It was then that I realized everything was flipped – the bay window was on the left, not the right, for instance. I was standing in the middle of the next apartment over. I apologized in English and French (it was Montreal) and he said something like, “No worries; it happens”.
I wish this was everyone’s “oops, wrong place” experience.
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My house is so distinctive, high up, 16 red steps, no one would confuse it with anything within miles.
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I live in a retirement community. The number of elderly people who always carry guns is rather scary. I only have to open the local paper to see that elderly couples are awfully good at escalating things. There are those sweet older couples, and those off the charts irritable old people.
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They no longer have a license to drive because of their poor vision, but can carry a gun and shoot a delivery man they mistake for a home invader? Scary stuff.
So glad my hang-outs are Mexico and Canada, where private citizens packing guns around everywhere is not allowed. Despite what people read about Mexico and cartel shootings, while innocent people can occasionally be caught in the crossfire, Mexicans don’t shoot someone because they took their parking space or a stranger appeared at their door.
Actually, there’s a cultural norm in Mexico that unless you are a good friend or family member, you never open someone’s front gate or go up their walkway and walk up to their door. You stand outside the gate and call out. Even delivery guys sit outside and honk rather than walk into your property, unless you’ve already arranged for them to leave your package somewhere inside the gate.
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Was alcohol 
involved lol
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I can’t even start to imagine this. I can say it would never happen here (North Wales, UK). First no culture of guns in most homes and secondly, if you went to the wrong house here, you would simply be re-directed. I too live alone Muddy and all my neighbours are 2 fields away from me but I would never be frightened to open my door.
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Same here in Devon (Blackdown Hills).
Deliveries (plenty as we have been developing a garden cottage), and some delivery men confused as only house names on our road, and some do ask for help to find an address.
Plus other assorted people walking up our long driveway.
No guns here- I do not know anyone who owns a gun!
And those with guns cannot get military weapons either. We have never felt afraid or threatened here. People are calm and usually friendly and kind when we are out walking the dog.
But this is rural England …
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That I am not afraid of strangers coming to my gate or door saved my neighbors a lot of grief when a carload of people came around looking for an Airbnb they had rented. When they showed it to me on their phone, I realized it was my neighbor’s place, who had rented out their place on a long term lease when they had to leave the country. The “tenant”, who had said she was renting it for herself, had turned around and listed it on Airbnb when she went out of town for a week… I notified my neighbors, they told the “tenant” to get her ass back there and boot out the Airbnbers. Turned out this girl and her friends were doing this all over town- renting out nice big places with pools, living there themselves occasionally, and listing on Airbnb, unbeknowst to the owners. So busted.
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Omg ! I didn’t even realise that this was a thing ! But of course logically i can see that it can happen. Such luck that it was you who they asked!
Out of curiosity, I’m not interested in sparking off a debate about customer service, please can you let me know if your neighbour get it sorted out with Airbnb? Were there any problems getting rid of the original renters and getting them to cancel people they’d booked ?
I’m in Cambridge UK and am pondering whether to sell/ long term rent, my house would be perfect for short term rentals and it would be helpful to have as much info as possible. And how to ever avoid this happening to me 
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