A pregnant host on the rental website Airbnb was left devastated after damage caused by guests flooded her three-storey housing unit, leaving her family homeless and in debt.
In a thread shared on Twitter/X, superhost Erika said when guests clogged a toilet in her upstairs unit with baby wipes and human waste, an overnight leak flooded the building, landing her with $300,000 in costs and leaving her with nowhere to live.
As the owner of the two flat building in San Fransico, Erika, along with her husband, planned to hire out their upstairs unit on Airbnb until the baby arrived so it would be available when family came to help with the newborn.
On 14 April, after month-long guests checked out early, “waterfalls of water” started pouring from the ceiling and light fixtures of the ground floor flat.
Airbnb advised Erika to file a claim against the guest, who refused to pay the estimated costs, before a third-party investigation and the case for Host Damage Protection could be made.
The – supposedly up to $3m – AirCover policy “doesn’t cover helping displaced hosts find accommodation”, so Erika’s growing family were forced to move three times before June.
This week, Erika claims Airbnb’s “final offer” of $31,000 compensation covers just 10 per cent of her estimated $300,379 expenses from the last six months of repairs.
Airbnb’s official Twitter/X account responded to Erika’s thread saying: “Hello Erika, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please send us the email connected to the Airbnb account via a DM, and we’ll follow up.”
Erika says there is still “no timeline” for moving back into the house after “over 146 back-and-forth emails with Airbnb support.”
The Independent has reached out to Airbnb for comment.
It’s not the first time an Airbnb host has been left to clean up after disrespectful guests.
In 2019, a host was left shocked after “hundreds of drug-taking ravers” trashed her multi-million pound London home.
