I personally am a huge fan of Airbnb, and I have used it on both ends of the spectrum. When I’ve hosted and rented my place out to travelers during times of long stretches of travel to help cover the cost of rent, I’ve had nothing but polite and respectable guests. I’ve also been a guest several times in places where I wanted a good local experience, especially when neighboring hotel prices were through the roof (such as Rio de Janeiro). It’s safe to say that I love Airbnb.
I came across an interesting article this morning, and I couldn’t help but to laugh a bit despite how unfortunate it was for the man who had faith in his Airbnb apartment guest.
It’s always nice to expect that guests would have the common courtesy to respect your home, but this story clearly illustrates that that’s not always the case…
According to this article published by NYMag, one Airbnb host experienced the ultimate horror story – his NYC apartment was [unwillingly] rented out to host an orgy (a “BBW Panty Raid Party” to be exact… Google BBW if you don’t know what that stands for).
The guest lied and said that he needed the apartment to host in-laws who were visiting from out of town, but when the host forgot something, he returned to find his apartment trashed and filled with overweight naked people.
Luckily, Airbnb stepped in, and within 24 hours, they had sent a locksmith to change the locks, put him up in a hotel for a week, and compensated him $23,817 for the damages (looks like the Airbnb promise is legit). Too bad they didn’t cover some counseling services… what he saw in his home can not be unseen, LOL.
It doesn’t seem like it can get worse than that, but I’ll open up the floor – have you had any horror stories using Airbnb or a similar service (couch-surfing, etc.)? Let’s hear it…
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I’ve got my first Airbnb stay next week in NY; the woman who owns the apartment has been great so far. The reviews on her apartment are stellar, so I think I’ll have a wonderful stay. I’m not brave enough to rent my place out, and after the story that ran yesterday, I think a lot of people might reconsider renting their homes out.
What I’m really happy about for this upcoming trip is that I used Barclaycard World Arrival points to pay for it. That makes me very happy!
What an experience! I’ve used Airbnb as a guest with only good experiences, but have never hosted. Frankly I wouldn’t want someone staying with me while I’m home and I’m too nervous to rent the place while I’m out of town since I don’t have someone trustworthy nearby to check up on things if needed. But as a guest it’s been a great way to save money.
I’m glad this horror story came out after my recent first rental through airbnb. I think it would have had me worrying all last week. I rented my house out in Austin for a group of 8 during SXSW last week. The group was great to communicate and treated my house with care. They even left beer and wine in my fridge. I’m definitely planning on renting through airbnb again. Seems like a no brainer way to subsidize my vacation budget.
I went to Sochi for the olympics and couldn’t find any hotels so decided to go with airbnb — and LOVED it! Due to the whole terrorism threat, we picked a house that was a mile away from olympic park (so we walked every day.) The house is not new so it was cozy and didn’t have any plumbing/water issues. The hosts were like our tour guides and it gave us a different perspective had we stayed in one of the chain hotels. I used my CSP and got double points for it too so that was an extra bonus.
Big girls need love too !!! And a follow up via Gawker, UPDATE: Gawker has received the following statement from Airbnb:
Over 11 million guests have had a safe and positive experience on Airbnb and problems for hosts and guests are incredibly rare, but when they happen, we try to help make things right. We were appalled when we learned about this incident and we took immediate action to help this host. The individual who rented this space has been permanently removed from our site. We’ve reimbursed the host for damages to his apartment and ensured he has a new place to stay. In the days ahead, we’ll continue to work with the host to assist him with his additional needs and we will work cooperatively with any law enforcement agencies that investigate this matter.
I have stayed in plenty of hotel rooms worldwide and I suspect not all of them were used for tea parties.Such is life and the nature of humans. That being said I’m glad Airbnb did the right thing here. They did screw things up in 2011 over a similar incident, but since then have put in place a million dollar host guarantee. I will be using them when I travel.
Hey Angelina! Love your blog, even though I’m no longer based in the EWR area myself, I still like to stay in touch with what’s going on there locally. I’m coming out of my usual lurking just to point out that I’m not a huge fan of specifying that the the orgy participants were overweight–would this be all that less horrifying a story if it were an orgy of thin and conventionally attractive people? Personally, I wouldn’t want large groups of naked people in my apartment, regardless of what size they are.
Anyway, apropos of nothing, congratulations on the new addition to the family! :)