Airbnb Nightmare: Calgary Couple Rents Home To Wedding Party, Returns To Find The Place Destroyed

A Calgary couple who rented their home on the accommodation website Airbnb returned to find a nightmare of broken glass, destroyed art work, and toilets stuffed with condoms to the point of overflowing.

The homeowner, Star King, said she had arranged to rent the home in northwest Calgary to four people who were coming in town to attend a wedding. Star and her husband said they had used Airbnb to rent their home in the past and always had pleasant experiences, but this time was different.

While they were staying across town, the Kings started to receive text messages from neighbors that something was amiss at their home. A party bus had arrived, dropping off about 100 people and, not long after, police showed up.

The couple raced back to their home and had to tell the drunken party-goers to leave. Once the house cleared out, they were able to survey the massive damage.

“Our hardwood floors are all popping because there are pools of liquor. There’s glass shards, there’s dent in our walls, toilets flooded and plugged with condoms,” Star King said.

It got worse, Star told the CalgaryEyeopener.

“They threw paint all over my works that I was going to sell for probably a couple thousand. Just totally disrespectful behavior,” she said.

The Kings took video of the extensive damage, which included broken glass and items tossed about everywhere. In the video, even police surveying the damage were amazed.

“I had some party years in my youth, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” one officer remarked on the video.

Calgary police estimated that the Airbnb renters did between $50,000 and $75,000 worth of damage to the home.

“It was almost anger; I couldn’t believe that someone could do that in three days to another person’s home,” said Constable Attila Horvath.

“In my nine years of policing, I have never seen anything like it,” he added.

After receiving word of the trashed Calgary home, Airbnb spokesman Jakob Kerr said the company was taking action.

“We have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior and our team is working quickly to make this right,” Kerr wrote in an email statement. “Over 35 million guests have stayed on Airbnb, and property damage is extremely rare.”

The Calgary couple will also have help cleaning up their trashed home. An Airbnb spokesperson said the company’s insurance policy will cover the damage.

[Image via GlobalNews.ca]