What's the most drama you've had with an STR?

[Paul Sandhu]

Monday was a rain day for my tenants. They couldn't work. Guy #1 called me and asked if there was any work he could do. I gave him a chainsaw and told him to clear out all the overgrown trees around a STR. Found out some limbs fell down on another STR that his co-worker was renting, Guy #2 and his wife. Drove him over there and had him cut and clear the limbs. Guy #3 is the superintendent, rents from me and lives next to Guy #1 along with his wife and 2 kids. Guy #3's wife was with guy #2's wife at the house with fallen limbs and Guy #2's wife thought something strange was going on.

Yesterday Guy #1 called and asked me to meet him at McDonalds. I was driving there and he asked to meet me at an intersection near where he works.  Get to the intersection and he's hiding in some bushes.  Said his brother is having surgery today and he's taking a bus to see him.  He wanted to do more chainsaw work.  I put him in the back of my truck and drove him to the house.  Guy #3 called and wanted to know where guy #1 was.  I told him the address, then proceeded to the house with gas for the chainsaw.  Guy #1 called and said Guy #3 is here and hung up.  I see #3 leaving in his car, the chainsaw is on the ground and #1 is nowhere to be found.  House door is open, work gloves were on the table. I hear #1 say "Paul, is that you?"  I said yes.  He asked "Is Guy #3 there?"  I said no.  He opened a bedroom door and was on the phone with the police.  He said he barricaded himself in the bedroom and Guy #3 broke open the door.  Door was broken.  Police showed up and he recounted his ordeal and gave a description.  Other police apprehended Guy #3 and got his statement.  I called the owner of their company to let him know what happened.  Owner said Guy #3 called him that morning and needed a few days off to get things sorted out, he found inappropriate text messages on his wife's phone from guy #1 and suspected the 2 of them were having an affair.  

So I called the police and said I didn't want to press charges.  They said it's too late and he's already posted bail.  Guy #1 needed to take a shower and pack his things and I'd give him a ride to the bus station.  He rides in the back of my truck and Guy #3 is at his apartment.  Guy #1 doesn't want to go in and wants me to take him somewhere to take a shower.  I gave him a garden hose and opened a garage door 6" and told him to take a shower in the garage.  I got his clothes from his apartment and told Guy #3 I'm not pressing charges.  Go back to Guy #1 and he's standing naked in the living room.  I gave him his clothes then took him to the bus station. 

I had a comedy station on my satellite radio.  The comedian had a skit about Mormon's.  He said the bible says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife".

Apparently Guy #1 and the lady used to date each other 7 years ago.  Guy #4 is the foreman and lives next to #1 and #3 and told me #1 is fired.  Guy #4 brought #1 here to work.  Now #4 is cleaning #1's apartment for me.

[Peter R.]

I posted this elsewhere, please forgive the copy/paste!

TL;DR: Low level card tester for a local stolen card ring decides to take a mini staycation, gets the fraud ring busted. Her dogs pissed everywhere, we’re out about $6k.

This was an experience with VRBOHomeaway. I personally think Airbnb’s fraud detection measures are quite a bit better as they seem to have more insight into payments.

We had a guest, let’s call her Parys because her fake identity first name that she used is an equally big city just as misspelled.

Parys booked a three day weekend into the unit and everything seemed fine, she was in the area trying to find a long term place and wanted to experience the area, not totally unusual.

On the second day she sent a message through the platform asking to extend for a full two weeks, which, ok, nice!

She asked to pay with a different credit card than the one on file with VRBO but whatever, that’s VRBO’s problem to deal with, we told her to call them up and ask to switch it out and she did.

Payment goes through, we get notified, all seems great.

Nope.

Five days into her stay we get automated notifications from VRBO that the payment had been reversed and they took the money out of our account.

Card was stolen.

Called up VRBO and they are less than helpful, point us to their third party somewhat shady payment processor. Processor says, “Yep, card’s stolen, you should escort her out.” No help beyond that, we’re on the hook for everything.

I should mention this was quite a few years ago and Airbnb has since forced VRBO to step up their host support game via Airbnb’s host guarantees and whatnot.

Anyway, we contact our lawyer and he walks us through how to get access to the property and abide by state law regarding transient housing as this was not a tenant but a guest and the laws of the state are quite landlord friendly in that case.

Local property manager gains access, she’s not there. In plain view on the dining room table was a notebook full of credit card numbers.

Manager nope'd the hell out of there and calls the Sheriff.

They show up and ask permission to enter the property, we grant it immediately and they go about collecting everything that is evidence of her crimes.

Manager snaps a photo of one of the notebooks full of card numbers on the way out before the Sheriff arrives. Full of card numbers and crossed out card numbers with notes like “Declined at Panera 10/6, and Declined at WalMart 10/14, etc.”

Turns out she was a card tester for a local stolen card ring and apparently she just decided to use one of the stolen cards for a mini staycation.

She shows up while the Sheriff is collecting evidence, gets arrested. It becomes a black hole of a case but the Sheriff’s Office says they got quite a bit to move up the line on her theft ring.

The DA declined to prosecute her on charges of Defrauding an Innkeeper which, surprisingly, has quite a hefty fine attached. We'd have never seen the money anyway even if we'd won but I'm still salty about that.

In the mean time, her dogs (we’re a pet friendly rental) have totally destroyed the place even beyond the quite nasty conditions she was living in, even after she had been living only a week in the unit so far.

Two urine soaked mattresses, a destroyed couch, hopelessly soiled rugs and towels, broken plates, furniture, etc, etc.

Between the damage and the lost income we’re out about $6k, not enough to file an insurance claim and make it worth the possible rate increase after the deductible.

Unit was out of service for 3 days just to clean and replace items.

VRBO’s response? ¯\(ツ)/¯

Sadly though, we’re still using VRBO, they make up the bulk of longer term older guests who like to stay for weeks at a time. Airbnb is very much the younger, more last minute crowd.