Thanks JJD! This is useful info and I need to do so research.
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It never occurred to me that my guests would do about 90% of the screwed up things I read that other hosts have experienced, nor have they.
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I live right next door to this AirBnB and meet my guests in person. Iād like to think my guests wouldnāt do this butā¦why not? They have broken most of my house rules, at one time or another. Iāve had guests dye their hair and stain my bathtub, smoke on a non-smoking property, bring pets (not allowed), etc. Odds probably are, unless you are in a shared house situation, someday you may have guests who egregiously misbehave. Shared house situations seem to be somewhat insulated from these issues because the owners are right there.
The rule breaking has slowed to a trickle since Iāve made it clear I meet my guests in person.
Realistically, AirBnB guests are a subset of the general population. Iād like to think they are special, and donāt engage in uncivilized and sociopathic behavior, but 
Iām not going to bet the farm on it.
Most of them have been delightful people, but some have been somewhat clueless and some have been careless. Luckily, none have been criminal yet!
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Most of the stories that make the news are for cases where hosts rented out their own home while they were away, but there are still a lot of cases of guests breaking into locked storage areas, such as cabinets, closets, rooms, garages, and sheds.
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Where? Is there any geographical pattern to this?
if there is a āpatternā then it would be in well-to-do neighborhoods and airbnbs. Why break in to a modest homeās closetā¦
Spark, your dog whistle was heard loud and clear - the innocence of my reply was sarcasmā¦
??? Guests donāt just break into locked or off-limits areas because they assume there is something valuable to steal. Some people just have curiosity and no respect.
And I donāt understand your second paragraph at all. What dog whistle? What sarcastic reply? (as there doesnāt appear to be any other response from you on this thread)
Please proceed, governor
Just a typo I thinkā¦ Office, not off iceā¦
Asking if break ins were geographically connectedā¦
I donāt see that as a dog whistle. Iāve definitely noticed a pattern over the years in which areas seem to get more of various types of bad guest behavior. Some of it is cultural- for instance in Mexico many hosts find many more Mexican guests staying than were booked for. But many Mexicans are of the attitude that the more the merrier and grow up in large families with little privacy and are not accustomed to king size beds for only two people, so seeing a king size bed they might think āWe can fit 5 of us in that bedā. One of my young Mexican guests assumed she could invite anyone to share the room she booked for 1, sprang her boyfriend on me, and they were perfectly happy to share the twin size bed.
And there are parts of the world or big cities as opposed to small villages, that experience far more felony crime than others, so I think itās a fair question.
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And the question had nothing at all to do with the affluence of the neighbourhoodā¦ not even remotely.
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I often find that absolutely every drawer has been opened in my 3 bedroom listing. Being antique furniture there is sometimes an angle or a trick to close them properly. As I go around closing the empty drawers, I wonder to myself- what are they hoping to findā¦ā¦
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Theyāre looking for the Gideon Bible, of course.
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They will be a long time looking for that!
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my guess is condomsā¦
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I hope they will open every unlocked drawer and cupboard in the house. They can store their stuff, find things Iāve left for them like pizza cutters, chopsticks, blenders, emergency flashlights or first aid kits.
I do have locked ownerās cabinets that hold the extra TP, shampoo, coffee, soap, etc. To my knowledge no one has ever tried to break in at either house.
Or Rocky Raccoonā¦
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Iām on VRBO and my garage and a linen closet are off-limits. You can have areas that are off-limits as long as you arenāt sharing the house with the guest. My house is on VRBO and AirBnB when I am traveling. BTW. it takes about 3 seconds for someone with 5 minutes of YouTube training and a $15 lock-picking kit to pick most locks. The only ones that are difficult are deadbolts. Also, my Schlage keypad lock has not been successfully picked by my lockpicking friend yet but they literally watched a 5-minute youtube video to learn how to pick locks. Iām sure a more experienced lock picker would be able to pick it so make sure you have deadbolts too if the house is going to be empty for longer than usual. A guest broke into my garage and took $680 worth of wine so now I have a hotel-style security guard on it in addition to the lock.
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The pocket door canāt have a deadbolt but the other door, which is a solid oak door with hinges, will have a deadbolt, and possibly an electronic keypad. I always get Schlage if possible.