An Airbnb host has gone viral after sharing how a guest left him with damage of more than $3,000 and the need for two deep cleans.
In December, Vincent Villegas, 41, rented out his property in Saugatuck, Michigan, to one guest for two nights. However, he told Newsweek that the person “did not leave on time” as checkout is 10 a.m., but the guest in question didn’t vacate until after 2 p.m.
When Villegas was finally able to return to the property after the guest left, he was horrified by what he encountered. He didn’t even need to enter the Airbnb to see the damage, as the guest had placed multiple furniture items and decorations outside in the snow, including side tables and soft furnishings.
Upon entering the property, Villegas discovered that a lot of small furniture from around the house had been relocated to the garage, and some items were missing entirely. Many of the walls, doors, and mirrors appeared to have substances smeared across them, the thermostat was changed to 50 degrees, and the back door was left open.
@villegasvince / TikTok
“This guest had stayed at another property we manage and also moved furniture outside, yet didn’t place markings on the walls that time,” Villegas said. “I messaged the guest to remind him of the checkout time, but he didn’t respond after a few messages, so I knew we would run into another late departure issue.
“We had to have to property cleaned twice and it took half a day for 3 workers to put everything back and to replace broken items. It cost over $3,000 to repair the property, plus we had a week of lost rent as we had to source some of the broken furniture items and schedule workers.”
It’s believed that the red substance on the mirrors and switches was lip gloss, while the clear substance on the doors was Vaseline. Villegas sent the guest a full invoice for the cost of the damage, which he said he “refused to pay.” However, Airbnb covered the costs in the end.
A spokesperson from Airbnb provided Newsweek with the following statement: “This type of behavior has no place on Airbnb. We removed the guest from the platform when this happened last year, and supported our host with damages stemming from this incident. Our AirCover for Hosts program provides hosts with up to $3 million of protection in the rare event of property damage during a stay, and includes things like income loss and deep cleaning expenses.”
Having left Villegas’s property in disarray, the Airbnb guest even sent him an invoice amounting to $1,000 for “their redecorating services.” Villegas told Newsweek that he has refused to pay it and is simply ignoring the request.
Villegas was supposed to be hosting another person shortly after this guest left. While they couldn’t stay in this property, he was able to relocate them to one of the other properties he manages instead.
Villegas captured a video as he wandered around the home and uncovered the mess that was left behind. The footage was shared on TikTok (@villegasvince) in December and it went viral with over 7.1 million views and 467,200 likes at the time of writing.
He initially decided to capture the video to share it with authorities and Airbnb as proof of what the guest had done. However, he later shared it on social media to show people the reality of renting out properties.
“I decided to post it to TikTok to give people an insight to some of the issues we face, but I didn’t expect to get the amount of coverage we received from it,” Villegas said.
The clip horrified many people online, leading to over 12,300 comments on TikTok so far. The bizarre nature of the damage also left many internet users curious about what could have possibly been going on during that stay.
One comment reads: “I can’t believe you touched anything without gloves on. What even was that on the light switch?”
Another TikTok user wrote: “There was some crazy stuff going on there!”
“The redecorating invoice somehow makes the least sense in all of this,” another TikTok user responded.
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