How the trashing of my home led to a tool for the sharing economy
I’ve been an Airbnb SuperHost for nearly 4 years — here’s my party disaster story with lessons learned. Don’t let it happen to you!
By Amanda Mills, Sept 21 2016
With a marketing and tech background, I became very excited to participate in the sharing economy back in December 2012, and quite quickly expanded my listings in the Silicon Valley. A couple of years ago, we accepted a booking from a guy named Kurt. He said it was for 2 people (fairly unusual for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom home), and due to strange circumstances, he booked the same day he would arrive in our home. Kurt and his girlfriend checked in at noon that day, and even though he was younger than we expected, we thought it would be OK.
Lesson 1: Never accept a booking with someone who’s profile photo is a cat! Pay attention when there are a few odd things about a booking.
A few days into his 9-day stay, a neighbor complained about extra cars parked oddly out front. We messaged the guest as normal, and he promised to not block the neighbor’s driveway again. There wasn’t a lot of noise happening, just a lot of cars. We only later realized that there were a lot of guests coming in and out. From the outside, there was little to indicate that anything really bad was going on inside the house. Upon checkout, we realized the gravity of the situation! Not only was the place a mess and the carpets destroyed, but all windows in the house were open, and the front door was left unlocked. Even worse: our home smelled like propane! We later learned that they were making and selling DRUGS in our home and that propane was a key ingredient of their drug making. Seriously! One room was particularly stinky and we noticed that they tried to wash a duvet (blanket) that had been doused in propane. It had been left freshly washed, but still wet, on the bed and smelled so badly that we had to dispose of it immediately. It’s a good thing we didn’t put it in the dryer or we could have had an explosion on our hands! We took photos and informed Kurt about the damage immediately (that same day). He blamed a friend, apologized and a promised to pay for the damage and return the missing key that very night. Really? As we suspected, we were never reimbursed by Kurt.
Lesson 2: Avoid last minute bookings as it may flag a cash problem!
The party disaster aftermath continued to progress. When the key was not returned, we became a little concerned and contacted the guest again, but we did not expect what happened next. Kurt (or someone else involved) had made a copy of the key and came back to rob our house that night (1 ½ days after check-out). The usual things were missing — the TV, VCR, Roku (smart TV), a hairdryer and a few other random things. The ‘thief’ made it out to look like a burglary except that once the police came the next day, they confirmed that the break-in involved a faked force entry — done from the inside — and that the ‘thief’ had entered with the key! They went to the trouble of leaving muddy footsteps and everything!
Lesson 3: Only use digital locks for any space rented where the owner isn’t nearby or living on-site! We love August locks and have installed them in several locations.
That weekend, we hired carpet cleaning, a locksmith and a handyman to fix the broken windows. We wasted thousands of dollars and countless hours of our time cleaning up, replacing things and locating receipts (as needed to prove the fair value of the items stolen). Luckily our listing photos clearly showed the stolen items and we had taken numerous photos of the damaged carpet, bedding and kitchen immediately. The washer could not be repaired, as all of the towels and bedding came out smelling like propane. Eventually we had to buy a new washer and new linens.
Lesson 4: In case of damage, take pictures and save receipts!
Airbnb kindly reimbursed fair value for the items mentioned in our claim, but the feeling of distrust and disgust could not be easily reversed.
Lesson 5: Notify the vacation rental company immediately — this helped a lot as we dealt with this mess.
I took my listings down for a few weeks while we decided how to proceed. After purchasing some smart locks and imposing an even stricter guest policy, we were back in business, but I was on the lookout for technology that could have prevented this. I thought, ‘there must be an app for that!!’ But there was nothing on the market. Eventually we took our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom home off the market and continued to look for a better tool.
A few months after the party disaster, while walking the floor at an advertising trade show in San Francisco, I discovered a company called BlueFox.io and became intrigued by their technology. Typically used in the retail environment, their Wi-Fi sensor could count the number of mobile phones visiting shops or restaurants so that retail customers could view trend data. The idea for Party Squasher was born then and there. After discussing the idea with the BlueFox CEO, I purchased 10 devices and put them in my properties. I could see the obvious value of the peace-of-mind offered by these devices, but we still needed to understand whether other hosts could see the value. In collaboration with BlueFox, a modified app and sensor was built. It showed the trends of the devices detected, plus it sent a text alert if the number of devices (aka estimated number of people) surpassed the limit. I attended Airbnb Open in Paris last November, along with the BlueFox CEO, to get feedback and returned to Silicon Valley with a vision to make this product a reality. Based on additional feedback from focus groups and beta users, we developed some extra features for people with multiple properties and we added more customization options so that homeowners could more easily set the detection range of the device and modify their alert settings.
A few months into the project, when thinking about how I could prevent party disasters in a privacy-friendly way, I consulted with legal experts. Of course, taking videos of guests is a no-go. In the design of Party Squasher, I thought a lot about guest privacy, how to display trend-data without spying, and how to look for spikes without tracking individual devices or personal information.
Lesson 6 — Make sure everything you do is privacy-friendly! It’s a must! Use your house rules to disclose that you’re using device-detection technology to help enforce your rules… you don’t want party planners to choose your listing in the first place.
We’ve spent long days and nights developing Party Squasher so that you’re not stuck cleaning up a party disasters or filling out paperwork to get reimbursed! The sharing economy typically doesn’t have security guards, keyless entry and surveillance cameras surrounding the property. It needed new tools! An app needed to be built and the hosts like me needed Party Squasher.
I’ve learned many lessons from this experience. As a side benefit, it led to a new job for me, but more importantly, it led to a new product to help other hosts protect themselves in the craziness of the sharing economy. Visit us at www.partysquasher.com to learn more!
