Having your wedding night interrupted by a drug-fuelled orgy is not the best way to see in 2016, but for one couple who rented out their apartment on Airbnb for New Year’s Eve this is exactly what happened.
Still, some comfort might be found in the fact that they were not the only homesharers who fell foul of unscrupulous guests on the night. Here, we take a look (occasionally through our fingers) at their story, as well as other reports of New Year’s Eve guests from hell that have graced the news this week.
Montreal residents Justine Smith and husband Francisco Peres have two rooms in their apartment which they rent out through Airbnb. The first room was already booked for New Year’s Eve, when a request came through for the second. As it also happened to be Smith and Peres’ wedding night, they hadn’t planned to fill their house with any more visitors, but they’d forgot to turn off the instant booking on Airbnb so decided to roll with it. Plus, they needed the money. According to Buzzfeed, Smith initially tried to cancel, but the renters promised her they’d “be super chill”.
Cut to 2.30am and the newlyweds return to their flat to find their guests out (presumably partying) and their flat a mess. They decided to deal with it in the morning. Shortly after they were woken by the guests returning, which was followed by the sound of people snorting cocaine in their living room and others having sex in the room next to them. The impressively patient Smith – who detailed the evening in an account for Vice – didn’t lose her temper until the next day, however, when she found two naked strangers on her sofa, surrounded by empty cocaine baggies, and discovered that three extra people had been invited back to stay. After being caught short, the guests did at least tidy up the flat, leaving a five-star rating and a note saying: “Sorry for being such bad guests. We have no excuses for our behavior. We were honestly just fucked up. Congratulations on your wedding!”
In Oakland, California, Reshma Vasanwala and Jim Santi-Owen found their house had been used for a much bigger party after they rented it to what they thought was an older man from Chicago. Instead, it was an 18-year-old who wanted to celebrate his birthday … and invited around 200 people to the party.
The couple first heard what was going on when a concerned neighbour called them and by the time they returned home, the revellers had dispersed leaving the house looking like a bomb site. “Sofas were outside. The TV was in my bathroom. Objects … photos, memorabilia … I have pictures of my nieces that are on my fridge that were on the floor, trampled on and torn, with shoe prints all over their cute, little faces,” she told local news channel Kron4. To add insult to injury, over the following day the couple had kids showing up trying to find pieces of clothing they’d left behind. Owen has said he plans to press criminal charges.
In London, Airbnb was used once again as a means to book a cheap party venue. Magazine designer Christina McQuillan rented out her apartment for one night, but returned to her home in Putney to find hundreds of people spilling out onto the street outside. Speaking to the Evening Standard, McQuillan said: “We entered the property and we told her to shut it down immediately. This girl just laughed and said, ‘no, I’m holding a party’.” Damage totalling £3,000 included ripped-up floorboards and a television pulled off the wall. There were also reports of (are you noticing a theme here) a couple having sex in the upstairs bedroom while another man watched, cue reports of yet another NYE “orgy”.
In all three cases, Airbnb has been in touch with the hosts to help resolve the situation, adding that the offending guests had all been banned from using the site. In a statement it said: “We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour and when something goes wrong we work quickly to make it right … our Trust and Safety team has reached out to the hosts to work with them under our $1m Host Guarantee, which covers a host’s property in the rare event of damages.”
Though these NYE disasters have struck a chord, it is worth noting events like these are rare. According to Airbnb, over a million guests used the service for their New Year’s Eve accommodation and out of 35m guests last year worldwide, just 540 cases of “significant property damage” – damage costing more than $1,000 (£680) – were reported.
