What a wild last guest I had at Ol’ Faithful! The cops were called to my Airbnb property and I would have never expected something like this to happen. Having the cops called to my Airbnb property was a great learning experience for me on how to handle the situation. The next time this happens, as I am sure it will happen again at some point, I will take the things I learned from this experience and I will become even better in how I handle it.
I can now say I have had to deal with the cops being at one of my properties. All in all, I am glad my property wasn’t completely damaged and the guest wasn’t harmed (at least from what she is telling me).
For those of you who weren’t checking my stories, here is what happened:
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I had a guest who continued extending her stay, which I was fine with. I didn’t think anything was too off.
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Two days before she checked out, she called me at 12:30 am. I was asleep and didn’t answer the call, but called back in the morning. No answer from the guest. I was a little confused. She finally called back and just wanted to let me know that the mirror in the master fell because of something and that she would pay for a replacement. Ok, cool no worries.
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An hour later she calls from her Apple Watch telling me I need to call the cops. Someone slashed her tires and then her ex boyfriend found out where she was and forced his way in my home. Yeah…this is where it starts getting crazy.
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I tell her to go to the front desk at the clubhouse and call the cops. First, I didn’t know what to do because I had never experienced this before; and, I am not there so I have no idea what is actually going on.
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She goes to the front to call the cops. I try calling her back shortly thereafter and get no response.
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I then call the front desk to see if they knew what was going on. The lady mentioned to me that the cops arrived at my place and they seem to be handling the situation.
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I continue to try to get a hold of the guest with no luck.
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An hour later, I call the front desk back. The lady at the front desk let’s me know the cops left and everything seemed to be quiet and good now.
Okay, that is all well and good, but what happened?
Finally Getting A Hold Of The Guest
I finally got a hold of the guest after two hours. She told me her ex had slashed her tires and then forced his was in and tried hitting her and that is when she ran outside.
I immediately stopped her and said, “There are only two things I care about. First, were you physically harmed in any way and are you okay? Second, is the inside of my home damaged at all?”
She told me she was okay and when asked if she wanted to press charges against her ex that she didn’t want to. She mentioned everything inside was fine.
Time To Actually See What Happened
That night she calls me back. I am just thinking, oh here we go again.
The guest tells me she is leaving and apologized for everything that happened. After she left, I immediately deleted her access code from the door. I didn’t want to have to deal with someone getting back in. I confirmed the door locked and felt somewhat good about the current situation.
The next morning, I decided to go to the property to check out how things were.
Here were the main things that happened:
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There was excess trash everywhere in the home. You could definitely tell she just bounced and didn’t want to clean anything up.
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The sliding glass door leading to the pool wouldn’t shut all the way. I was able to open the door and the realized this was due to the thing on the wall being bent. I reached out to my handyman and he said that is what happens when someone is trying to break in and open the door. So this lead me to assume her ex definitely did try to get in the back door and luckily she had it locked. My handyman is going out there today to fix this. I am assuming it will cost around $80 to fix.
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Towels were left all over the home. Beds weren’t destroyed, but it was a mess. I knew I was going to get charged extra by my cleaners, which was fine by me. I would charge back to the guest.
Key Takeaways:
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It is not if something is going to happen, but when. This is the same whether you are running a short term rental or long term. Long term, you just won’t know unless you do regular inspections of the property.
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Don’t let something like this get to you. I controlled the situation to the best of my ability and understanding of how to control it.
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I charged the guest $180 for the extra cleaning, breaking a mirror in the master and my handyman fixing the door. She immediately paid and didn’t ask questions. She apologized again and I wished her the best and that she stayed safe.
