A teen posing as an adult threw a rager and trashed an Airbnb rental on New Year's Eve
According to local news reports, the couple had rented out their Oakland, California, home on Airbnb to a man from Chicago who said he and his sister were visiting over New Year's Eve.
The couple's evening out was cut short when the next-door neighbor texted that there was a huge party at their house. The midwestern man they thought they were renting to turned out to be a teenager, and their home was swarmed with 50 kids and at least four police cars, the couple told local CBS affiliate KPIX5.
Airbnb covers up to $1 million in damages and is working with the hosts.
"We have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior and if something goes wrong our team works quickly to make it right. We have banned these guests from Airbnb, and our Trust and Safety team has reached out to the hosts to work with her under our $1 Million Host Guarantee, which covers a host's property in the rare event of damages," an Airbnb spokesperson said.
With more than a million people staying in Airbnbs on New Year's Eve, the spokesperson called problems like these "extremely rare" and reminded hosts that there are many features they can use:
"Our community is growing quickly because it is built on trust - it is the foundation of our business. We've developed a number of key features that help build this trust, including: