Work

<p>Renting your home out on AirBnB is a great way to make a little extra cash. But it&#39;s not without risks. I can speak from personal experience that, even with the ratings system, you never <em>really</em> know what you&#39;re going to get with AirBnB guests until you meet them IRL. I&#39;ve been fortunate to avoid any truly terrible scenarios, but the following people weren&#39;t quite so lucky.</p><p>In various Reddit threads, people who&#39;ve rented their homes on AirBnB are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4yoq7y/hosts_of_airbnb_who_was_your_worst_guest/" target="_blank">sharing</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/7bn6to/people_that_rent_out_their_personal_property_as_a/" target="_blank">stories</a> of their worst guests.</p><h2>These 19 hosts learned the hard way that renting out your own home to strangers can go very, very badly:</h2><p>1.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Never-On-Reddit/" target="_blank">Never-On-Reddit</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Last week a woman who was fully vetted by Airbnb rented my house for what turned out to be a Halloween party. She lied about her intentions, even when I spoke to her over the phone. In just a few hours, they did over $3,000 in damage, and the police evicted 150 people for my 1200 sq ft (!!) home. It was only broken up by police because there was a gun shooting that landed somebody in the hospital. All this in a quiet residential neighborhood that is part of a golf resort, in a city that is not especially known for crime. I&#39;m sure the damage would have been far worse if the police hadn&#39;t come because of the gunshots. Thank God nobody was killed.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>2.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Clavo_PR/" target="_blank">Clavo_PR</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I used to rent a Property in Puerto Rico on a year lease basis. My last renters in 2012 left 2 months before their lease was up and took all the appliances. Fridge, Stove, microwave, dishwasher, even the f**king ceiling fans!</p> <p>After a year long case court I won and didn&#39;t get a single penny. They said they were broke, they went to jail and I lost a whole year of rent plus almost 6k in damages.</p> <p>Never again.</p> </blockquote><p>3.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/APsWhoopinRoom/" target="_blank">APsWhoopinRoom</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Some little shit shot BBs through one of our bathroom doors. We know which family did it too, but they denied it and we have no proof.</p> <p>Those parents knew damn well their kid did it too. I&#39;ll never understand why they couldn&#39;t act like adults and own up to it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>4.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Twothumbsthisgy/" target="_blank">Twothumbsthisgy</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Ran an Airbnb for a year. 4 clean cut frat boys had a 7 day stay. When they checked out I sent my usual 'Hope you enjoyed your trip!' text, and they responded that the toilet hadn&#39;t been working for their stay. They could have told me this on day 1. On hour 1. Instead they used the toilet for a full week. There was a mountain of poop. A mountain.</p> <p>A. Mountain.</p> <p>I took the toilet tank lid off. The chain had come loose.</p> <p>4 men in their 20s didn&#39;t know how to attach the toilet tank chain.</p> <p>Forever and ever, for the rest of my life, I will feel smart. Even though I&#39;m the dummy who had to shovel poop mountain into contractor bags.</p> </blockquote><p>5.) From [deleted]:</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I helped my boss manage her Air BnB.</p> <p>First off, she was running it illegally. The city I live in, a lot of apartment buildings don&#39;t allow it. Anyways, this girl rented it out for a week in December last year. My boss is out of the country and gets this call that her fob has been deactivated due to damage to the property and the fact that a brothel was being run out of her apartment.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>This woman and her friend were literally having sex ALL over this place. One guy got mad, left and punched a picture in the foyer which was caught on camera. I got a call to be on standby, but the police went in and did their thing. It was a huge mess. She got a pretty hefty fine for the damage and also for the fact she was using AirBnb to rent out her condo.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>6.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WouldHikeThat/" target="_blank">WouldHikeThat</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I rent out a rustic cabin on my property. The setting is really nice and serene beside a creek and there&#39;s a cedar sauna on the property as well. But the cabin is small. There&#39;s a queen bed in the loft and a double futon on the main floor and it&#39;s dimensions are roughly 12&#39; by 10&#39; so I tell people the max is 4 people per night. Well, this young guy messages me and asks me if they can have 7, promises they&#39;ll be really respectful and clean, and I work with some one the guy knows so I cave.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>They left the place kind of clean, but burned a hole in the hardwood floor, and broke the handle off the sliding glass door. Turns out, with that many people cooking etc, the humidity in winter caused some moisture condensation on the track, which subsequently froze, and instead of just leaving it and letting me know, he forced the door closed, breaking the handle in the process. Not an easy feat. Hurt his hand as well, he was sure to let me know, code for 'don&#39;t take my damage deposit or I&#39;ll sue you.' You can bet I never let more than 4 in there now.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>7.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Racetimingco/" target="_blank">Racetimingco</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I own and rent out four different houses. At the same time, everything below happened (broken down by different properties):</p> <p>A- tenants son got out of prison (didn&#39;t know the son was even a trouble maker). Said son is invited to live with my tenant (who was excellent). Son sold narcotics to undercover agent out of my property. The city was threatening to seize the property. Ended up evicting long term, great tenant to get city to leave me alone.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>B- long term tenant lost their jobs.</p> <p>C- lady died.</p> <p>D- tenant said to me 'I am gong to live here, and I am not going to pay you.' Talked with Lawyer, and he said laws are in her favor. Gave advice to drive her out. Was a three month process, but she left.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>8.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Chappiefit/" target="_blank">Chappiefit</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I rent my pad close to the beach on Airbnb. Every year there&#39;s a music festival and I stay clear of it. Last year I forgot to lock the dates and got an instant booking. They said they were 8. They were 11. They didn&#39;t have enough garden furniture and took the mid century modern style chairs on the garden. Then they left for the concert and it rained. One star.</p> </blockquote><p>9.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ders_wit_a_hard_An/" target="_blank">ders_wit_a_hard_An</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Not a horror story but frustrating.</p> <p>I have an Airbnb rental in a small ski town.. one of our first guests was a single guy who brought his shih-tzu. He stayed for 1 night and left a 1 star review saying there was no silverware in the house (there&#39;s literally like 40 of everything), the power went out across half the mountain due to an ice storm and he was bored, and finally that he was disappointed that the fridge wasn&#39;t stocked (clearly says on our listing that food and drink are not provided). Here&#39;s the kicker... the next guests that came in went to clean some 'mud' they thought they tracked into the house. Ended up being dog shit from the asshat&#39;s shih tzu...</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>10.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kmpdx/" target="_blank">kmpdx</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Had an Airbnb guest who had a manic episode while staying with our family in our house. She cleaned the basement laundry room one night while we were in bed. It really was clean but it got to the point that it was really uncomfortable that even though laundry room was kind of dirty, it was not part of her rental space and she was basically really invading our space.</p> </blockquote><p>11.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yungbeefstew/" target="_blank">yungbeefstew</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Not my personal story, but my friend and his fraternity just rented out an AirBnb this last weekend for one of their formals. It was in a small mountain town so the house was fairly big and fit quite a few people. However, everyone brought a date so I imagine there to be at least 15-20 people who ended up staying. Anyways, everyone was heavily drinking all weekend and one girl was dancing on the counter tops, somehow jumped onto the stove and smashed through it. She was literally standing knee deep in the oven. Most things in the house were broken and even the hot tub was left brown by the end of all of it. Oh greek life! I would hate to be the father of the man who used his credit card for the reservation.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>12.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/maumacd/" target="_blank">maumacd</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>My in laws used to air bnb their house while they were travelling. Once, the people staying there left the deck doors and windows open all night (despite the instructions being very clear that this should not be done) a bird got into the house and in its stupid attempt to escape bloodied itself all over the main floor and died in the living room.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>The people staying there decided not to mention anything and just left it like that.</p> <p>Two days later they get back and see the mess. What the f**k people!?</p> <p>I mean, I get that it was kind of a crazy situation, but staying quiet and leaving was not the best way to handle it.</p> </blockquote><p>13.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/snarkyopteryx/" target="_blank">snarkyopteryx</a>:</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Not airbnb, but back when couchsurfing was big I hosted a lot of couchsurfers at my house. This one dude (who I think had pretty good reviews?) stayed with me for two days, and on the first day I was nice enough to give him a little tour around my neighborhood. We stopped in at a local cafe and he very earnestly told the server that he and I were on a date and I was like 'no we&#39;re not' and he just laughed and told the server I was crazy. I figured he was just trying to be funny, but after he left my house he found and followed all of my social media accounts and started sending me nonstop weird messages begging me to be his friend. I blocked him, but then he just created new accounts to re-follow me. This went on for years.<button aria-label="upvote" aria-pressed="false" data-click-id="upvote"></button></p> </blockquote><p>14.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SquidgeSquadge/" target="_blank">SquidgeSquadge</a>:</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>My boss rented out his old house on Airbnb and in the night they took every item and piece of furniture in an afternoon except a sofa.</p> </blockquote><p>15.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/StarfishStabber/" target="_blank">StarfishStabber</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>1.) One guest used my house to cheat on his wife and then proceeded to proposition me.</p> <p>2.) The reason I quit hosting was because of a couple who stayed with me for $500 for a whole month. They had a two room suite with a bed and TV in one room and a futon, TV, computer, printer, small fridge and microwave in the other room a very very large walk in closet and an en suite bathroom, and they still took over my entire house. I ended up staying in my room if I wasn&#39;t at work. They ate all of their meals for the day from the breakfast food I provided so I was spending about $50 a week on breakfast food. I forgot to preset the coffee maker ONCE and the wife complained about it the entire day. She was unbearable, nothing was good enough for her. The next year even though my home wasn&#39;t listed on Airbnb, they had the nerve to email me and ask me to stay with me for 2 months at a much lower rate.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>16.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pp112358/" target="_blank">pp112358</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I always offer to take my guests out on the town, I always host on the weekend. First off, my friends and I go pretty hard when we go out. This couple, maybe in their early 30s and very professional, had not planned on getting shitfaced, but after a couple drinks they decided to stay out late drinking with us. The next morning I woke up still drunk, walked out to my living room to find the man passed out on my rug, 10 ft from the bedroom, and he had pissed himself. I&#39;m a super laid back guy, so I found it hilarious, the girlfriend, not so much. He was still out for the count, so we dragged him into the shower and turned it on. I made them breakfast and 30 minutes later when we went to check on him, he was still passed out but in the shower. She was so pissed off, then they left. I received a nice apology over the phone later in the week but I never got a new rug :(</p> <p>Now I hear Big Lebowski jokes whenever I tell the story, which I love.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>17.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pokemon-collector/" target="_blank">pokemon-collector</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Everything was great until the last night. She called and said the house was very warm and she didn&#39;t think she would be able to sleep that way. So I said just turn the AC on. I didn&#39;t hear anything back from her until the next morning. She said she could barely get through the night and it was so hot because the AC was broken. So I get home and notice that the AC unit was on and blowing cool air but she had moved the unit close to the bed and detached the exhaust hose so all the warm air was blowing out the back and into the room.</p> </blockquote><p>18.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sweetestmuffins/" target="_blank">sweetestmuffins</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Rented to 2 well dressed and well spoken art students. At about 4am the neighbor called me asking what in the actual f**k is going on. I could hear this crazy music in the background. Drove over. They have about 30 people in myb one bedroom. Naked. Covered in glitter, paint, wine. They&#39;re all banging. One dude is sitting in the corner looking at them like he&#39;s examining a painting, making suggestions to add to the 'art piece'. There are naked people everywhere. A TON of alcohol. There was a random feral cat inside. There&#39;s a dude screaming randomly in the middle of the road about nonsense. My apartment was used to film some weird psychedelic art porn.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>19.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/turttlesoup64/" target="_blank">turttlesoup64</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I&#39;ve lucked out so far but I have a small apartment so it&#39;s just small weekend stays usually. But my first guy baffled me a little. I come in after he&#39;s left and my shower curtain is in my bedroom with half of the shower pole. The other half I&#39;ve never seen again. It was a $10 fix I didn&#39;t even report it. I was more confused than anything. But no note no sorry ...</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

19 people who rented their home on AirBnB share stories of their worst guests.

may wilkerson

Renting your home out on AirBnB is a great way to make a little extra cash. But it&#39;s not without risks. I can speak from personal experience that, even with the ratings system, you never really know what you&#39;re going to get with AirBnB guests until you meet them IRL. I&#39;ve been fortunate to avoid any truly terrible scenarios, but the following people weren&#39;t quite so lucky.In various Reddit threads, people who&#39;ve rented their homes on AirBnB are sharing stories of their worst guests.These 19 hosts learned the hard way that renting out your own home to strangers can go very, very badly:1.) From Never-On-Reddit: Last week a woman who was fully vetted by Airbnb rented my house for what turned out to be a Halloween party. She lied about her intentions, even when I spoke to her over the phone. In just a few hours, they did over $3,000 in damage, and the police evicted 150 people for my 1200 sq ft (!!) home. It was only broken up by police because there was a gun shooting that landed somebody in the hospital. All this in a quiet residential neighborhood that is part of a golf resort, in a city that is not especially known for crime. I&#39;m sure the damage would have been far worse if the police hadn&#39;t come because of the gunshots. Thank God nobody was killed. 2.) From Clavo_PR: I used to rent a Property in Puerto Rico on a year lease basis. My last renters in 2012 left 2 months before their lease was up and took all the appliances. Fridge, Stove, microwave, dishwasher, even the f**king ceiling fans! After a year long case court I won and didn&#39;t get a single penny. They said they were broke, they went to jail and I lost a whole year of rent plus almost 6k in damages. Never again. 3.) From APsWhoopinRoom: Some little shit shot BBs through one of our bathroom doors. We know which family did it too, but they denied it and we have no proof. Those parents knew damn well their kid did it too. I&#39;ll never understand why they couldn&#39;t act like adults and own up to it. 4.) From Twothumbsthisgy: Ran an Airbnb for a year. 4 clean cut frat boys had a 7 day stay. When they checked out I sent my usual 'Hope you enjoyed your trip!' text, and they responded that the toilet hadn&#39;t been working for their stay. They could have told me this on day 1. On hour 1. Instead they used the toilet for a full week. There was a mountain of poop. A mountain. A. Mountain. I took the toilet tank lid off. The chain had come loose. 4 men in their 20s didn&#39;t know how to attach the toilet tank chain. Forever and ever, for the rest of my life, I will feel smart. Even though I&#39;m the dummy who had to shovel poop mountain into contractor bags. 5.) From [deleted]: I helped my boss manage her Air BnB. First off, she was running it illegally. The city I live in, a lot of apartment buildings don&#39;t allow it. Anyways, this girl rented it out for a week in December last year. My boss is out of the country and gets this call that her fob has been deactivated due to damage to the property and the fact that a brothel was being run out of her apartment.  This woman and her friend were literally having sex ALL over this place. One guy got mad, left and punched a picture in the foyer which was caught on camera. I got a call to be on standby, but the police went in and did their thing. It was a huge mess. She got a pretty hefty fine for the damage and also for the fact she was using AirBnb to rent out her condo. 6.) From WouldHikeThat: I rent out a rustic cabin on my property. The setting is really nice and serene beside a creek and there&#39;s a cedar sauna on the property as well. But the cabin is small. There&#39;s a queen bed in the loft and a double futon on the main floor and it&#39;s dimensions are roughly 12&#39; by 10&#39; so I tell people the max is 4 people per night. Well, this young guy messages me and asks me if they can have 7, promises they&#39;ll be really respectful and clean, and I work with some one the guy knows so I cave.  They left the place kind of clean, but burned a hole in the hardwood floor, and broke the handle off the sliding glass door. Turns out, with that many people cooking etc, the humidity in winter caused some moisture condensation on the track, which subsequently froze, and instead of just leaving it and letting me know, he forced the door closed, breaking the handle in the process. Not an easy feat. Hurt his hand as well, he was sure to let me know, code for 'don&#39;t take my damage deposit or I&#39;ll sue you.' You can bet I never let more than 4 in there now. 7.) From Racetimingco: I own and rent out four different houses. At the same time, everything below happened (broken down by different properties): A- tenants son got out of prison (didn&#39;t know the son was even a trouble maker). Said son is invited to live with my tenant (who was excellent). Son sold narcotics to undercover agent out of my property. The city was threatening to seize the property. Ended up evicting long term, great tenant to get city to leave me alone.  B- long term tenant lost their jobs. C- lady died. D- tenant said to me 'I am gong to live here, and I am not going to pay you.' Talked with Lawyer, and he said laws are in her favor. Gave advice to drive her out. Was a three month process, but she left. 8.) From Chappiefit: I rent my pad close to the beach on Airbnb. Every year there&#39;s a music festival and I stay clear of it. Last year I forgot to lock the dates and got an instant booking. They said they were 8. They were 11. They didn&#39;t have enough garden furniture and took the mid century modern style chairs on the garden. Then they left for the concert and it rained. One star. 9.) From ders_wit_a_hard_An: Not a horror story but frustrating. I have an Airbnb rental in a small ski town.. one of our first guests was a single guy who brought his shih-tzu. He stayed for 1 night and left a 1 star review saying there was no silverware in the house (there&#39;s literally like 40 of everything), the power went out across half the mountain due to an ice storm and he was bored, and finally that he was disappointed that the fridge wasn&#39;t stocked (clearly says on our listing that food and drink are not provided). Here&#39;s the kicker... the next guests that came in went to clean some 'mud' they thought they tracked into the house. Ended up being dog shit from the asshat&#39;s shih tzu... 10.) From kmpdx: Had an Airbnb guest who had a manic episode while staying with our family in our house. She cleaned the basement laundry room one night while we were in bed. It really was clean but it got to the point that it was really uncomfortable that even though laundry room was kind of dirty, it was not part of her rental space and she was basically really invading our space. 11.) From yungbeefstew: Not my personal story, but my friend and his fraternity just rented out an AirBnb this last weekend for one of their formals. It was in a small mountain town so the house was fairly big and fit quite a few people. However, everyone brought a date so I imagine there to be at least 15-20 people who ended up staying. Anyways, everyone was heavily drinking all weekend and one girl was dancing on the counter tops, somehow jumped onto the stove and smashed through it. She was literally standing knee deep in the oven. Most things in the house were broken and even the hot tub was left brown by the end of all of it. Oh greek life! I would hate to be the father of the man who used his credit card for the reservation. 12.) From maumacd: My in laws used to air bnb their house while they were travelling. Once, the people staying there left the deck doors and windows open all night (despite the instructions being very clear that this should not be done) a bird got into the house and in its stupid attempt to escape bloodied itself all over the main floor and died in the living room.  The people staying there decided not to mention anything and just left it like that. Two days later they get back and see the mess. What the f**k people!? I mean, I get that it was kind of a crazy situation, but staying quiet and leaving was not the best way to handle it. 13.) From snarkyopteryx: Not airbnb, but back when couchsurfing was big I hosted a lot of couchsurfers at my house. This one dude (who I think had pretty good reviews?) stayed with me for two days, and on the first day I was nice enough to give him a little tour around my neighborhood. We stopped in at a local cafe and he very earnestly told the server that he and I were on a date and I was like 'no we&#39;re not' and he just laughed and told the server I was crazy. I figured he was just trying to be funny, but after he left my house he found and followed all of my social media accounts and started sending me nonstop weird messages begging me to be his friend. I blocked him, but then he just created new accounts to re-follow me. This went on for years. 14.) From SquidgeSquadge: My boss rented out his old house on Airbnb and in the night they took every item and piece of furniture in an afternoon except a sofa. 15.) From StarfishStabber: 1.) One guest used my house to cheat on his wife and then proceeded to proposition me. 2.) The reason I quit hosting was because of a couple who stayed with me for $500 for a whole month. They had a two room suite with a bed and TV in one room and a futon, TV, computer, printer, small fridge and microwave in the other room a very very large walk in closet and an en suite bathroom, and they still took over my entire house. I ended up staying in my room if I wasn&#39;t at work. They ate all of their meals for the day from the breakfast food I provided so I was spending about $50 a week on breakfast food. I forgot to preset the coffee maker ONCE and the wife complained about it the entire day. She was unbearable, nothing was good enough for her. The next year even though my home wasn&#39;t listed on Airbnb, they had the nerve to email me and ask me to stay with me for 2 months at a much lower rate. 16.) From pp112358: I always offer to take my guests out on the town, I always host on the weekend. First off, my friends and I go pretty hard when we go out. This couple, maybe in their early 30s and very professional, had not planned on getting shitfaced, but after a couple drinks they decided to stay out late drinking with us. The next morning I woke up still drunk, walked out to my living room to find the man passed out on my rug, 10 ft from the bedroom, and he had pissed himself. I&#39;m a super laid back guy, so I found it hilarious, the girlfriend, not so much. He was still out for the count, so we dragged him into the shower and turned it on. I made them breakfast and 30 minutes later when we went to check on him, he was still passed out but in the shower. She was so pissed off, then they left. I received a nice apology over the phone later in the week but I never got a new rug :( Now I hear Big Lebowski jokes whenever I tell the story, which I love. 17.) From pokemon-collector: Everything was great until the last night. She called and said the house was very warm and she didn&#39;t think she would be able to sleep that way. So I said just turn the AC on. I didn&#39;t hear anything back from her until the next morning. She said she could barely get through the night and it was so hot because the AC was broken. So I get home and notice that the AC unit was on and blowing cool air but she had moved the unit close to the bed and detached the exhaust hose so all the warm air was blowing out the back and into the room. 18.) From sweetestmuffins: Rented to 2 well dressed and well spoken art students. At about 4am the neighbor called me asking what in the actual f**k is going on. I could hear this crazy music in the background. Drove over. They have about 30 people in myb one bedroom. Naked. Covered in glitter, paint, wine. They&#39;re all banging. One dude is sitting in the corner looking at them like he&#39;s examining a painting, making suggestions to add to the 'art piece'. There are naked people everywhere. A TON of alcohol. There was a random feral cat inside. There&#39;s a dude screaming randomly in the middle of the road about nonsense. My apartment was used to film some weird psychedelic art porn. 19.) From turttlesoup64: I&#39;ve lucked out so far but I have a small apartment so it&#39;s just small weekend stays usually. But my first guy baffled me a little. I come in after he&#39;s left and my shower curtain is in my bedroom with half of the shower pole. The other half I&#39;ve never seen again. It was a $10 fix I didn&#39;t even report it. I was more confused than anything. But no note no sorry ... 

Renting your home out on AirBnB is a great way to make a little extra cash. But it&#39;s not without risks. I can speak from personal experience that, even with the ratings system, you never really know what you&#39;re going to get with...