An Airbnb “superhost” said her short-term rental apartment became a literal “s—tstorm” — one that left her in $300,000 of debt.
The San Francisco woman, who goes by Coach Erika on X, said she ended up pregnant and homeless after guests in the two-unit building she used her “life savings” to buy flooded her apartment on April 14.
The Post reached out to Erika for comment.
“I woke up on Friday, April 14th to the sound of dripping water. At first, I thought it was raining, but looking out my bedroom window, the sky was bright blue,” she said in a lengthy post on X which has over 17 million views.
“I jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway. Waterfalls of water were pouring from the ceiling and light fixtures,” her post continued.
Erika said that she and her husband, their rescue dog and two cats live in a modest unit below a larger, renovated one. She and her family decided to Airbnb the top unit after her longtime tenants moved out during the pandemic.
“This made it so that when we needed the flat, we could make it available for our families (who would otherwise not be able to afford to stay in SF for more than a long weekend),” she wrote.
In April 2023, her dreaded Airbnb guests arrived for a one-month stay.
“They checked out early, no warning. They had clogged the bathroom toilet with baby wipes and human waste,” she said.
“They also damaged the valve that manages water flow from the tank to the bowl. A perfect storm,” she added.
Erika said, unbeknownst to her, water mixed with feces kept running from the toilet tank into the bowl and poured into her apartment nonstop for 15 hours.
“Then I woke up to a nightmare: a literal s—tstorm in my own house, flooding all 3 levels of the building that I bought with my life savings. And remember — it’s fecal water,” she lamented.
Erika said that in just 15 hours — 50% of her building was completely ruined.
She then called Airbnb for help.
The company told her before they could cover any of the damage she’d have to pay for all the repairs herself or ask the guests to cover it; should they refuse, then and only then would she be able to “create a case for Host Damage Protection.”
“I was aghast. This wasn’t a broken lamp. It’s a building that’s 50% destroyed,” Erika said.
“It was a multi-hundred thousand dollar, multi-month home destruction and rebuild project,” her post continued.
She said there was no way her guests would be able to cover the expenses.
“And what about that $3M Host AirCover Guarantee? What kind of support was this?” she pondered, citing Airbnb’s advertised policy.
Erika, now homeless and 12 weeks pregnant, then called Airbnb to try to relocate the next guest who was scheduled to stay in her apartment.
“They were coming in town for surgery and post-op recovery. I wanted to make sure that our booked guests were relocated ASAP so they didn’t end up homeless, too,” she said.
After “dozens of hours trying to get on the phone with Airbnb” she said they “didn’t seem to care or understand that I wasn’t going to be able to submit a receipt for ‘rebuilding 50% of my entire house’ in the 14-day claim window.”
That’s when she “scrambled to get construction estimates.”
She calculated $130,000 and sent the bill to her guest.
“After the guest clicked ‘hell no, I can’t pay that’ I was finally and officially in the Airbnb case system, as of April 25th, two weeks after the flooding. And $130,000 in debt already,” her tale of woe continued.
She said when she finally was in touch with a case manager at Airbnb, she figured she was entitled to the promised $3 million in host protection. What followed was an even bigger headache.
“Over the next 6 weeks, I exchanged ~93 emails with Airbnb and the 3rd party adjuster that they assigned to “investigate” the claim,” she recalled.
“Airbnb refused to discuss the case until their 3rd party “investigation” was complete. The 3rd party never came to the house. 5 weeks passed,” she wrote.
She then explained that it took “nearly 7 weeks” for the 3rd party to get a plumber to look at her toilet. He told her what she already knew and asked her to pay up.
“He confirmed it was the clog (baby wipes + clog feces) and valve,” she said, adding that the plumber wouldn’t leave her house till he was paid $375 — because he didn’t trust Airbnb would pay him.
She said Airbnb then emailed her saying they doubted that the baby wipes and feces were the issue.
“They hinted at concerns about maintenance issues on the toilet (what?) People have lived here for years with no broken valve or flooding or excessive flushing of baby wipes,” she explained.
She said Airbnb then offered her a meager $6,000 and asked her to sign away her rights for future payments.
On X, she broke down “the math” on her repairs and expenses:
- $19,451 in bookings that had to be canceled
- $5,000 for my insurance deductible
- $375 for their plumber
- $6,270 in insurance premium increases
- $19,547 in water damage demolition
- $2,100 for water damage mold testing.
“This totals to $52,743 😮,” she claimed of her incurred debts.
Those totals don’t even include, according to Erika, “Lost revenue for the entire time that the unit is unusable (X? months), my mortgage payment (which I have to pay despite being homeless), property taxes (still have to pay those too), damaged appliances, other costs not covered by my insurance.”
After a month of “no progress” she got “desperate” and reached out to anyone at Airbnb she could find. She said most didn’t offer help, but one former employee finally did.
In cases like this, it helps hosts to know an employee who can raise a flag internally.
“Ask yourself how broken that sounds…” she said.
She finally got a case manager who responded to her emails, but in that time period, she’s moved three times in 2.5 months. In that time she said she’s written 53 emails to her new case manager and her unreimbursed expenses have climbed to $300,000.
She claimed she still hasn’t gotten a timeline for moving back into her home, nor has she seen a dollar from Airbnb.
“This week Airbnb offered me a “final offer” of ~$31,000,” she said. “If you’re following the math, that’s 10% of my total out-of-pocket financial losses to date.
Erika said anytime they offer her a reimbursement they ask her to sign away her rights. “They claim that the $3M AirCover policy doesn’t cover the other 90% of my out-of-pocket expenses,” she wrote, alleging that they won’t reimburse her for the flooding, lost revenue from not renting, mold testing, demolition and packing out and storing her belongings.
“Airbnb wouldn’t lift a finger to help me find temporary housing, either. It’s hard with a cat and a dog in SF,” she proclaimed.
“10+ hours house searching every 2-3 weeks while spending 20+ hrs a week trying to fix my house,” she said.
The cherry on top is when Airbnb emailed her last week to tell her she lost her Superhost status.
“I truly cannot imagine that a company like Airbnb intends to leave hosts homeless and otherwise high and dry in their darkest moments,” she said. “Especially when the source of the hardship was 100% caused by guest damages.”
She then begged for the “nightmare to end.”
“I hope that someone at Airbnb will try to turn this story from horrific financial ruin to a cliffhanger thriller, where in the final moments, things go right.”
Finally, Erika asked those who see her story to like and share it on X so that her “SOS note in a bottle” can find its way to someone who can help.
As of Thursday, she hasn’t received a response from anyone at Airbnb.
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