Pregnant Airbnb host left homeless with over 2 crore in debt, narrates horrific ordeal in viral post

As of Thursday, Erika and her family remain homeless. (Image: @ErikaCoaches/X)

A pregnant Airbnb host’s life was turned upside down after guests caused damage of to her two-unit building in San Francisco she used her “life-savings” to buy. Coach Erika said that the guests flooded her apartment and left her in a debt of $300,000 (approximately Rs 2,49,71,895) on top of rendering her family homeless in a long thread on X (formerly Twitter) that has gone viral.

“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 wrote. “I jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway. Waterfalls of water were pouring from the ceiling and light fixtures.”

Want to hear an Airbnb horror story this Halloween season? Here's the story of how I ended up pregnant and homeless and in over $300,000 of debt after Airbnb guests flooded my home. It's a real cliffhanger.

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Would love your thoughts @airbnb and @bchesky. pic.twitter.com/ASvguMlnet

— October 19, 2023

Erika mentioned that she lived in a modest unit below the larger, renovated Airbnb, with her husband, a rescue dog and two cats. The dreaded guests arrived in April for a one-month stay.

“They checked out early, no warning. They had clogged the bathroom toilet with baby wipes and human waste. They also damaged the valve that manages water flow from the tank to the bowl. A perfect storm,” she added. The host claimed that her apartment was flooded with water mixed with faeces and it poured nonstop for 15 hours. In just 15 hours, 50% of her building was completely ruined.

As context, I own a two-unit building in SF. It's two flats stacked on top of one another.

I used my life savings to buy the building.

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I live in the smaller lower unit with my husband, rescue dog, and orange tabby cat.

I rent the larger, fancier upper unit.

— October 19, 2023

She also shared that Airbnb didn’t compensate her for the damages after the guests refused to take responsibility. She thought that Airbnb’s $3M Host AirCover Guarantee would come to her rescue but she was wrong.

“And what about that $3M Host AirCover Guarantee? What kind of support was this?” Erika asked citing Airbnb’s advertised policy.

The woman, who was 12 weeks pregnant, then called Airbnb to try to relocate the next guest who was scheduled to stay in her apartment.

Erika went on to write in detail about her horrific experience and also included the endless number of steps she took to seek redressal. She also broke down the various expenses that she had to endure due to the damages.

So here's the math. It's July now and I'm out:

$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
---
$52,743

— October 19, 2023

According to New York Post, she finally got a case manager who responded to her emails, but she has had to move 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. Moreover, Airbnb made a dismal offer of compensating her with only $31,000 that is Rs 25 lakh approximately.

This week Airbnb offered me a "final offer" of ~$31,000.

If you're following the math, that's 10% of my total out-of-pocket financial losses to date.

Each time they offer a reimbursement, they ask me to sign away my rights to future reimbursement claims, amongst other rights.

— October 19, 2023

She claimed she still hasn’t gotten a timeline for moving back into her home, nor has she seen a dollar from Airbnb. “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 claimed.

As of Thursday, Erika and her family remain homeless and she still haven’t received a response from Airbnb, New York Post reported.