Canadian tenant trashes Airbnb Paris home, leaves it covered in ‘excrement, urine’

Laurie S posted shocking before-and-after photos of her home on Facebook after she rented it to a Canadian man in August for three weeks.

A Parisian woman, who rented her home through Airbnb, found her “charming” studio apartment trashed into a “vulgar ‘squat’ filled with excrement, urine and an impressive quantity of alcohol bottles”.

Laurie S posted shocking before-and-after photos of her home on Facebook after she rented it to a Canadian man in August for three weeks. Not only did the tenant overstayed for a week illegally, he also left a jammed front door, badly damaged shower and toilet with the seat dumped in the sink, and a warped floor, she said.

“I was shocked and devastated to find my studio in that state when I returned after three weeks,” she wrote.

When she contacted Airbnb, the US-based online marketplace for home-sharing told her they will call her back but there was no response until she took her complaint to Facebook.

“I was waiting but I was told the same thing again. It was only with Airbnb that I could get in touch with the tenant. But things did not move. Yet the situation was becoming urgent, since this is my main dwelling,” she wrote.

Laurie said it would cost around €10,000 (more than Rs 7 lakh) to fix the damages, according to an estimate by a building firm.

“The cost is enormous. The cleaning of the apartment requires the intervention of professionals who inevitably charge for the disinfection and removal of excrement,” she said.

It was only after she made her complaint public and media picked up her story that the company was forced to contact Laurie.

“I received a call from the Airbnb Help Center and they are now dealing with my file, which is being studied. I am waiting and hoping to get compensation from the tenant or Airbnb,” she added.

According to the e-marketplace, 30 million flats were rented on its site last year but serious damage had been done to only 0.009% of them.

“This type of bad experience is extremely rare,” Airbnb told France 3 television.