I am mostly angry with myself for not trusting my gut from the beginning of this disaster scenario when I kept telling myself to deny these guests because something wasn’t right. I will try to make it quick because I am so pi$$ed and need to get busy cleaning up this awful mess. My questions from you are, what do I do with Airbnb about filing a claim for bed sheets and a mattress? If someone could perfectly outline the steps that would be great. I am also including some photos for your entertainment.
Before Thanksgiving we received a email through our website, outside of Airbnb from guests having trouble booking on Air. We emailed them the phone number to Air and never heard back.
A week later, someone showed up at my farm and said he was the one having the issues booking. We have no idea how he found our home address because we do not list it anywhere publicly. The only way would have had to have been asking a post office employee or looking at property tax records. (we are a very small town).
He said they weren’t actually having trouble, but needed to be discreet and wanted to pay cash but Airbnb forces you to use a credit card. I told him that we absolutely do not accept bookings outside of Airbnb and he would need to figure it out with them. He walked around my farm for 20 minutes and finally left and I expected to never hear from them again.
We were down in DC for Thanksgiving and sure enough they finally put through a booking request. My gut kept saying no no no, but the woman had already booked plane tickets and I was feeling guilty, so I asked her to confirm she read all the rules and she replied that she agreed, so we accepted.
They showed up Friday night, and we allowed them to do a self check-in as we don’t greet guests in the evening once we settle into our home. (This is regarding our guest house which is on our farm, a few hundred feet from our home). They didn’t leave the house for 2 days so we didn’t get the chance to even meet them or say hello.
Today was check-out and I received a text asking permission to stay an hour late so they could walk the property and enjoy the snow. I said that they could stay 1 extra hour. They then decided to stay inside for 1.5 hours after check out time, and then proceeded to walk around my farm for another 30 minutes.
When I went inside the first thing I noticed was the smell of filth in the air. Like rotting food and sweat. The livingroom sliding door curtains were apparently removed and then put back on incorrectly so they were hanging off.
The bedroom had wetness all over the floor, and the bed itself was filled with soaking wet towels, and the sheets were covered in sticky liquid, and blood. The liquid went through and is no on the top of my memory foam mattress.
The bathroom floor had towels all over it, all soaking wet, with grape stems all over the floor and in the tub. Everything in the bathroom was wet, including the curtains and walls.
The kitchen had dirty dishes in the sink and there was food and crumbs all over the counters and floors.
This is just what I am seeing right now and I haven’t even gone in to have it cleaned yet. I am so appalled and shocked that they would do this and I can’t believe I fell for it. This was a complete abuse of our hospitality and I am so beyond angry.
What do I do with Air and how do I proceed? I need to make sure I am covered for a new mattress, sheets, and the amount of money it will cost for an extensive cleaning. I am sure there will be a lot more wrong with it once I go in and get through it but I am so angry I don’t think I am going to do it today.
