Airbnb Host: A Guest Is Squatting In My Condo And I Can't Get Him To Leave

Since it was founded in 2008, Airbnb has become a hugely popular way for people to temporarily rent their homes over the Internet.

The company has helped 15 million people find accommodations when they travel and most of the time, everyone has a great experience.

But there are times when things go terribly wrong. We've shared stories of hosts coming home to find their homes trashed, and a story of an inebriated host using his keys to enter the property at night while the guest (a Business Insider employee and his girlfriend) was sleeping.

Here's a new one: A woman rented her small, 600-square foot Palm Springs, California condo to someone for a little over a month, and now they guy won't leave and is threatening to sue her.

She's had to hire a lawyer and go through the entire eviction process, which could take 3-6 months, the same as if he was a long-term tenant.

It's "been a nightmare," the host Cory Tschogl told Business Insider.

Tschogl is a rehabilitation therapist, helping people with vision problems, that lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She got "priced out" of buying a home in the Valley so she invested in a vacation rental condo in Palm Springs. For about the past year, she had been renting it as a vacation rental on Airbnb and Flipkey, a vacation rental site owned by TripAdvisor, making enough money on it to help her make ends meet with the higher rents in San Francisco.

She was really happy with Airbnb until a man who goes by the name "Maksym" contacted her through Airbnb asking to rent her Palm Springs condo for longer than a month. He told her he needed accommodations for an extended business trip.

He didn't have any reviews on Airbnb, which she says in retrospect, should have been a warning sign.

But his initial interactions with her seemed ok and she agreed to let him rent the condo from May 25 through July 8, 44 days.

For long-term reservations, Airbnb bills on a monthly basis, 30 days at a time. Tschogl says she recieved advance payment for 30 days.

On Day 1, after the guest checked in, he called her and complained about two odd things: he didn't like the tap water (complained it was cloudy) and he didn't like the gated entry to the condo complex. He asked for a full refund and Tschogl, getting a bad gut feeling, wanted him out and agreed.

She says she had difficulty getting a hold of Airbnb right away to make the refund happen. After sending multiple emails and making phone calls, Airbnb responded two days later. In that email, on May 27, Airbnb told her that it had asked the guest to leave. The company also told her since "Maksym" had stayed in the condo for two days, she was entitled to keep an appropriate portion of the money he paid.

However, Maksym stayed in the condo. "It became a confusing situation. Both I and Airbnb told the guest to leave, but he would not," Tschogl told us.

After a number of antagonistic texts with the guest, Tschogl decided that perhaps the best course of action would be just to let him stay for the duration of his reservation.

Then came the second hiccup. On June 25, when payment for the last part of his reservation was due, Airbnb couldn't collect the money. Airbnb warned Tschogl in an email.

Both Airbnb and Tschogl contacted him and warned him to pay or leave.

Two days later, on June 27, he was still in the condo.

On the last day of his reservation, still unpaid, Tschogl sent him a text message telling him if he didn't vacate the property, she would have the utilities shut off.

And he responded with a threat of his own (see right). "It almost sounded like blackmail. He threatened to sue me, saying his brother was there and got an ulcer to due to the tap water. He said he was legally occupying my domicile and he has rights."

It turns out, "Maksym" wasn't totally wrong. Tschogl researched the situation on a real estate investing social network called Bigger Pockets and was advised by other landlords to "lawyer up."

She hired a lawyer and discovered that in California, once someone rents a property for 30 days, that person is considered a tenant on a month-to-month lease.

To get the tenant out would require the whole eviction shebang, which could take 3-6 months and $3,000-$5,000 in legal fees. She couldn't just ask the police to haul the guy out.

Tschogl contacted Business Insider and the San Francisco Chronicle to tell her story. Shortly after, Airbnb said it would make sure she was paid for the full 44-day reservation. A spokesperson told Business Insider:

Our initial response to this inquiry didn't meet the standards we set for ourselves and we've apologized to this host. In the last week, officials from our team have been in incredibly close contact with this host and she has been paid the full cost of the reservation and we're working with her to provide additional support as we move forward.

But she was still on her own to get the guy out.

When Business Insider pressed Airbnb to address her specific complaints, that Airbnb took too long to respond to her (a complaint we've heard from a few other Airbnb users), this is what the company told us:

"15 million guests have traveled on AIRBNB and while the overwhelming majority of guests and hosts have a safe and positive experience we are constantly working to make our platform even stronger."

As for helping hosts get rid of squatters. Airbnb says it warns hosts that it is their responsibility to know the laws of their state.

Tschogl agrees. She doesn't blame Airbnb for the whole situation, but she does say the company could do more to warn hosts, respond faster when problems arise, and, perhaps, insure them.

She says hosts should know: "Collecting guest fees for 30+day stays for only 30 days at a time equals no guarantee to the host of payment in full."

Ideally, she'd like to see Airbnb expand its $1 million 'host guarantee' to cover rental and legal expenses when a guest doesn't pay and refuses to leave.

"Thousands of vacation rental owners are vulnerable, and they don't know it. The public needs to know, lawmakers need to know, and sites like Airbnb need to know and improve upon their policies, procedures and protections," she says.

We emailed "Maksym" for comment, but he didn't answer. We called and texted his phone number, but got a "phone not available" message.