Third Party Guests- damage

21

Sadly locked doors don’t always do the job.

A friend’s expensive oceanfront rental owner’s LOCKED closet was cleaned out: booze, wine, nice sheets, nice towels, compact stereo, food & more. The guests took the door off the hinges to gain access, clean it out, then put the pins back into the hinges so the cleaners were none-the-wiser of the theft.

It wasn’t discovered until my friends returned many rentals later so no clue who did it.

Moral of the story, if the hinges are visible (door opens into the room) a lock stops only honest people. Their solution was to place a deadbolt lock on the hinged side of the door. The only way then to get into the closet was to damage the door.

22

In the year we’ve had this rental, we’ve found a few people do really poke around, not classy, but it happens. After this, we’ll switch to a locking bin (and I have new toothbrushes, hair brushes and such for our next visit).

Knowing that, we keep the more serious stuff like keys to the tractor, the lawnmower and the chain saw (this is a ranch property) in a locked shed away from the house. I guess now I can hope no one takes the hinges off!? But it’s not air conditioned so we hadn’t put the bin in it.

This is why we can’t have nice things people, ugh.

No new response from the renter yet, I’ll let the group know how it works out.

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23

I’m so sorry that happened to your friend. That’s not just inconsiderate behavior, that’s theft!

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24

fairly blank expression, and by then I was at the top of the stairs talking about milk. She’d got as far as the drawer with the hidden sex toy :frowning:

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25

I’ve had that too - when an emergency workman had to go into the rental to repair the water heater - which is in the locked cupboard. He left it unlocked and the guest made away with wine and toiletries. Luckily that’s all we had in there apart from loo roll!

26

we put a lock on our pantry after a guest admitted that she opened every door that wasn’t locked because she was bored. So rude!

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27

Keep all communications on the Abnb platform, you probably will prevail on this.
Good luck!!

28

And not only have it on a locked door but also state in your listing that that part of the house will not be available for guests.

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29

Adds new meaning to the term “whole house”, don’t it?

I struggle with going through Airbnb on this.
The Airbnb insurer will simply say that they only provide insurance for registered guests.

This is fraud. The person who signed off is liable for every penny, lost business, and punitive damages.

The tresspassers may also be liable too.

I’d at least advise Air and your guest of the steps you will take. After you call the media.

30

Great news! we called Air for support today as the renter keeps stalling (‘trying to get details from the guests who stayed there’). Air looked at the pictures and paid the full claim!

Lots of lessons learned on this one, thanks all for your support that what they did was terrible. Air also confirmed they will leave our bad review on her profile.

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31

Thanks for the update.