Meth smoked in my AirBnB

[Jessica West-Walker]

Hi all,

I spent the past 6 months building and decorating an AirBnB apartment in my basement, and the third guests smoked meth in the unit.  :/  It is a long story of how we figured it out, but essentially bags over the smoke detectors and drug paraphernalia in the trash gave the situation away.  Needless to say, we were shocked and heart broken.

We decided to arrange proper testing (as this is our family home and we also want to be responsible hosts).  The results came back, with trace meth levels just over the state limits for 'contaminated' (.5 mcg) in the AirBnB and a couple rooms in our private residence (as we share HVAC).

My question is, does anyone have experience processing this sort of claim with AirBnB or their Home Owners / Umbrella insurance? 

AirBnB have been a bit cagey / slow to respond and have offered no advice on how to manage this process.  I am working through their resolution center, but I am concerned they are not going to pay when they see the whole bill.  So far they have said they will pay for extra cleaning and direct losses, but no indirect losses.  Like the testing, that cost $2,500.  

The cleaning is looking to cost around $10k alone - and this doesn't include replacing soft furnishings, or the HVAC system - as we have flexible ducting and Colorado meth regulations don't allow the cleaning of flexible ducting.

Not to mention we've had to move out and find other accommodation until this is resolved - which is looking to take 4-8 weeks.

My insurance have said they don't cover the cost to remediate meth contamination, but I've not pushed hard on them yet, as I was waiting for the test results.

Any help / advice would be much appreciated! 

Thank you.

[Paul Sandhu]

Police won't do anything.  Just shampoo the carpets and move on with the next rental.  I do this with dead bodies.