Every STRs worst nightmare...need advice on what to do!

[Jenessa NeSmith]

I want to preface this by saying we've been Airbnb hosts for almost 2 years, and this is the first time we have had a huge problem like this.  

For the past two nights we have had people staying in our basement which is a mother-in-law apartment below our primary residence with its own separate entrance.  The guests are from Omaha, which made me suspicious already.  We smelled cigarette and weed smoke on the first night despite our clear no smoking indoors/no illegal drugs rule, and our messages asking them to please refrain from smoking indoors had gone unanswered.  We called Airbnb to see if we could get them out early. Airbnb said we had to have proof they were smoking, and that we had to physically go talk to them before Airbnb would step in. So we went down and talked to them, explaining that the smoke goes up through the vents and bothers us and our other guests, which is why we have a no smoking rule.  We video taped the conversation where he had admitted to smoking and said it wouldn't happen again (I didn't even bring up the weed issue)

At 2 AM, sure enough cig/weed smoke drifts up through the vents.  We had already sent Airbnb the video, and were planning on taking picture of what we found (we were assuming we would find evidence of cig butts in the trash) and we were going to charge them an extra $200 for cleaning, and the fact that we had to block the next day in order to clean everything.  In the grand scheme of things, not a huge deal. 

HOWEVER, my wife went downstairs to begin cleaning the property and take pictures of the evidence of smoking...and instead finds evidence that these guys were cooking METH.  Burnt tupperware containers with a white powdery residue and empty spray paint cans.  I am not a meth expert, but after doing some googling I am pretty sure that is what they were doing.

The guy we spoke to at Airbnb is of course out of the office until tomorrow, so they are refusing to do anything until he comes back.  

In the meantime, should we file a police report? Can the police test for meth in the walls? If we file a police report will we face any repercussions or will it "brand our house"?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

[Julie McCoy]

@Jenessa NeSmith I fully support the decision to get the police involved, and am appalled that AirBNB encouraged you to not contact them!  Seriously, you may want to go to the media with that, that's an incredibly dangerous position for AirBNB to take - for you, other hosts, and for them as a company.  

I would hope the police can track these people down using their identification they had to supply to AirBNB in order to make the reservation.  

Good call with getting the additional security and making your instant booking more stringent.  And I imagine in general you'll turn down future requests from locals - I've heard more than one story about local guests being the worst (though yours takes the cake!).  

I hope your next booking goes incredibly well and helps you shake off some of the nerves this brought!