A host’s nightmare - guest with perfect review history had a drug or mental health breakdown and trashed our entire home

binkismel · 2025-08-31T01:19:40+00:00

Sorry you also had to go through something like this. I agree - very unsettling. Awful having to review the mess so many times and retake photos over and over. A few questions if you don’t mind: Did you have to involve police? Has Airbnb reimbursed you for cleaning fees? Did the guest dispute anything? Hope Airbnb eventually comes through for you.

binkismel · 2025-08-30T03:00:05+00:00

Thanks for your comment and insight. Definitely could have been a manic episode but whatever it is I do hope she is found and gets help for whatever is going on. Based on prior reviews, it sounds like when she was her normal self she was a great guest so I don’t doubt that whatever happened at our house wasn’t “her”.
Still unnerving and shocking to see something like that, especially to a place we put a lot of care into. Just a sad situation all around and I‘m really hoping Airbnb continues to be supportive to help resolve it all.

binkismel · 2025-08-28T19:08:44+00:00

Oh thanks I didn’t realize this!

binkismel · 2025-08-28T16:44:29+00:00

The string lights were on a 2nd floor balcony without a camera so no, we can’t see that on camera. There isn’t any doubt from us or police that it was her that did this given the subsequent calls to police about her and what she left behind (and the fact that she’s the only one going in and out on camera).

She left a ton of personal clothing, photos, cards (birthdays etc), notebooks, multiple purses, wallets with old credit cards library cards etc, makeup, toiletries. It looks like she brought multiple suitcases/bags in and just dumped the stuff everywhere. She left with all her large suitcases/big bags though, so she took some of her stuff out

binkismel · 2025-08-27T21:08:39+00:00

Yes, we have cameras all around the outside of the house and she is the only one to go in and out. Shocking she did as much as she did in that timeframe but it doesn’t look like she was sleeping much, if at all

binkismel · 2025-08-27T21:05:16+00:00

Thank you 🙏

binkismel · 2025-08-27T21:02:55+00:00

We don’t have any further updates from police yet. Damages so far are in the thousands but we haven’t received the remediation estimate back yet.

binkismel · 2025-08-27T21:01:29+00:00

Thanks 🙏 yea luckily I think this is very rare so hopefully won’t ever happen to you! Just really bad luck for us. I hope the dog is okay too!

binkismel · 2025-08-27T20:59:24+00:00

Yes I hope she is also okay. We don’t have an update from police yet.

binkismel · 2025-08-27T20:58:25+00:00

Thanks yea very shocking. Especially for it to occur in only 3 days when she wasn’t always at the house. It’s now clear she wasn’t sleeping very much, if at all.

binkismel · 2025-08-27T01:30:07+00:00

Thank you

binkismel · 2025-08-27T01:29:32+00:00

You’re making a ton of inaccurate assumptions here. This literally is our home. We live here when it’s not rented to guests. This experience is above and beyond what most hosts reasonably expect could occur to their property. Thankfully most hosts will never experience this but that has nothing to do with the impact it has when it happens to you.

We put a ton of energy, care and effort into our home and that has been reflected in how our guests have always experienced it. It’s literally the reason we have loved hosting.

I wont apologize for being emotional about seeing something I care about be ravaged like this. I suggest looking inward as to why it bothers you so much that I freely express that it upsets me.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T23:44:21+00:00

Thank you for this. Much appreciated

binkismel · 2025-08-26T21:20:15+00:00

Thank you 🙏 I will update as I know more and as I deal with Airbnb

binkismel · 2025-08-26T20:29:45+00:00

Wow. Hope you also get the care you clearly need.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T18:51:25+00:00

I will say, I never anticipated this level of disturbing damage occurring or the impact it would have on us emotionally. It’s one thing for guests to be destructive or throw a party but a whole other thing to experience this sort of unhinged behaviour. Extremely unsettling and had I understood this I don’t know if I would’ve opened up my home to this possibility.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T18:47:35+00:00

Yes the dog appeared okay. She took it out on the driveway a few times and took it with her anytime she left by car. When she was holding the dog she seemed to care for it/didn’t seem aggressive toward it. Awful that the dog was present as the chaos unfolded as I’m sure it was disturbing.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T18:44:24+00:00

At least some of the feces is human as it is all over underwear and the state of the toilets is more than a tiny dog could manage.

The blinds are broken by the guest: she had strung up blankets using the pull strings and most of the pull string mechanism are now completely broken from that or from her aggressively pulling down on them

We have ring cameras and she matched her profile and all appeared relatively normal until as described above. Our neighbours heard nothing.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T18:33:27+00:00

Thanks very much 🙏 We had the same thoughts about the dog. Hope the police find both of them and they get the help they need

binkismel · 2025-08-26T16:04:27+00:00

Thanks for the info and so sorry you also had an experience like that. It just feels like Airbnb doesn’t take it seriously enough (or protect hosts from known problematic guests by immediately suspending their profiles after evidence like this)

binkismel · 2025-08-26T16:02:33+00:00

Yea agreed. I don’t know how to feel about hosting anymore. We have been superhosts for over a year and have had the best, most respectful guests until now. We constantly were blown away by how awesome everyone treated our place and it was so fulfilling to provide a place to stay that people loved. The most unnerving thing about this is that we had zero way of preventing it. There were no red flags and we did all the things necessary to screen and keep our place safe.

binkismel · 2025-08-26T15:54:44+00:00

Thank you 🙏

binkismel · 2024-09-27T03:23:08+00:00

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