Life

Home Destroyed After Being Rented Out On Airbnb

by Kat George

It's official: People are animals. Filthy, disgusting, not-fit-for-society animals. Especially these people (who remain unnamed) who trashed an Airbnb home in Calgary that they rented for the weekend. And even "trash" is probably too generous a word to describe what they did—they destroyed this home. They desecrated it. Watching the video walk through of the house is heartbreaking, and listening to the heavy breathing and shaking voice of one half of the couple who rented the house, Mark King, will make you feel exactly how violated and vulnerable he feels.

Mark and his wife Star rented the property on Airbnb to four people who said they were going to a wedding. Instead it seems they spend the night tearing open couch cushions, blocking the toilets with condoms, breaking anything they could get their hands on, and vomiting on the floor. Allegedly, shortly after the Kings had surrendered the keys to the renters, a luxury party bus delivered around 100 people to the home, at which point neighbors began contacting police and the Kings. The part where I nearly contributed to the vomit on the floor was when the video of the damage caused by the revelers revealed a baby's crib. The destruction is bad enough, and then somehow knowing it's happened in the home of a small child makes it that much worse.

CBC News reports that Jakob Kerr, Airbnb spokesperson, said the company had banned the guests in question from renting through their site. He said in a statement, "We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour and our team is working quickly to make this right. Over 35 million guests have stayed on Airbnb, and property damage is extremely rare." Kerr also told CBC "that King family will be reimbursed through its Host Guarantee insurance, which provides up to $1 million 'to eligible properties in the rare event of guest damages which are not resolved directly with the guest.'"

Meanwhile, let's consider how some people have no right to participate as part of human communities with some more nightmare tenants:

1. These tenants who literally shot bullets through the front windows of the house they were renting

2. These tenants who did not clean once while in residence

3. These tenants who lived in piles of garbage

4. These trash hoarding tenants

5. These tenants who created a roach infested hellhole to live in

Images: Antonioguillem/Fotolia