The Airbnb platform, which can be used to conveniently book holiday accommodation, has repeatedly come under criticism in the past. It was said that holiday apartments would mean fewer (and more expensive) apartments for normal tenants in the big cities, and the platform operators were always quite unwilling to prosecute fraudulent or even abusive hosts. Recently, displeasure had been caused by the fact that the price for the accommodation, which was low at first glance, sometimes included horrendous cleaning costs, which sometimes more than doubled the costs for guests.
In one notable case, however, it was not the host who acted with unfair intentions. In South Korea, a homeowner couldn’t believe his eyes after a couple had left his Airbnb: The two had left the water and gas running there for the 14 days – the whole time. And quite consciously, to get one over on the host.
The couple from China had made a mistake beforehand: the two wanted to go to Seoul, the vibrant capital of South Korea. They found an idyllic villa on Airbnb, but apparently didn’t realize that it wasn’t in the city center but in a suburb. So the way to the city was much longer than they had planned. However, they had already paid the rent and missed the deadline in which they could have canceled the accommodation. The host also informed them of this. The couple was angry about it, but the legal situation was clear.
The two guests from China made the trip anyway – they also spent the planned 14 days in South Korea. However, not in the booked villa. They only paid her visits for a few minutes at a time, otherwise they traveled around the country and stayed in different hotels.
From day one, they seem to have had a plan to get revenge on the host. They did it by driving water and energy costs to the highest possible levels – which were included in the accommodation costs and would have to be borne by the homeowner. So as soon as they arrived, the two turned on all the taps, turned on the heating and opened the windows wide. Then they left the villa again for the time being.
After gas and water ran continuously for 14 days, the bill in the end was the equivalent of almost 1,500 euros for the homeowner. More than 120,000 liters of tap water had been used in a completely pointless manner. And so far, it doesn’t look like he’ll be compensated for it. Airbnb said it would pay for damage in and to accommodation caused by guests – but not for additional costs. The homeowner was only advised to clarify the problem directly with the guests. However, they were already back in China and did not respond to his attempts to contact them.
Which: “Independent”
