Airbnb Guest Stealing Things? Here’s What to Do

When renting out your own home to complete strangers from the internet, you know there’s a possibility that an Airbnb guest could steal your things. Things like this are rare,…

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When renting out your own home to complete strangers from the internet, you know there’s a possibility that an Airbnb guest could steal your things.

Things like this are rare, but that doesn’t mean they can sometimes happen. Not only do you have to replace the missing items, but it can be hard to trust the next guest, so what do you do if your Airbnb guest is stealing things?

The first thing you want to do if you think an Airbnb guest is stealing things is to contact the guest immediately. You have to do this before your next guest checks in or within 14 days (whichever is first). If you can’t reach the guest, contact Airbnb and then the police so they can investigate.

Let’s take a closer look at the steps you must take after a guest steals items from your Airbnb home. You’ll also find a list of tips to protect yourself from future thefts at the end of this article.

Read Through the Different Policies of Airbnb

Before you start renting out your property to Airbnb guests, you’ll want to make sure that you read through the different policies that protect hosts from damage inflicted by guests. These are important policies that will give you an idea of what’s covered for reimbursement through Airbnb. Reading these will save you a lot of time and frustration later on down the road.

Below is a brief summary of what each policy covers. It’s important that you also go to the Airbnb website and read both of these policies thoroughly.

Airbnb Host Guarantee

The Airbnb Host Guarantee is a great policy. The Host Guarantee is in place to protect the host from damages your guest might incur during their stay. These are typically damages that your guest is refusing to reimburse you for.

What the Host Guarantee Covers

The Host Guarantee can reimburse you for damages up to $1,000,000. This can be a beneficial service, depending on the claim you are submitting. Below is a list of what is covered by this policy.

  • Damage to your place
  • Damage to your belongings
  • Damage caused by your guest’s pet

The catch? The guest in question must cause these damages in order to be covered by the Host Guarantee, and it must be proven either by an admission or with video/pictures.

Many hosts have claimed that the process for being reimbursed under this policy requires a lot of hoops to jump through, and it’s critical to gather your evidence (receipts and repair estimates) and file your claims immediately.

What It Doesn’t Cover

The Host Guarantee doesn’t cover everything, so it’s important for you to review the following list carefully. Understand that sometimes things happen, and Airbnb won’t be able to reimburse you for the theft.

  • Stolen cash, savings bonds, or other securities
  • Damage caused by regular wear and tear
  • Bodily injuries to your guests

Airbnb Host Protection Insurance

The Host Protection Insurance is needed to cover you for accidents. This is important to read and understand so that when you rent your home, you know exactly what’s covered. The biggest thing to remember is that stolen items from your home may not be covered under this policy.

What Host Protection Insurance Covers

This is really important to know, even though it doesn’t cover theft. It’s also important to understand that some of these things may not be covered depending on the circumstances. This policy is in place to cover your legal responsibilities for the following:

  • Bodily injuries to your guest
  • Damage to your guest’s personal property
  • Damage to neighboring buildings, lobbies, and other general areas caused by your guest

What It Doesn’t Cover

Just like the Host Guarantee, the Host Protection Insurance doesn’t cover everything. Below you’ll find the list of things that Airbnb won’t reimburse you for:

  • Intentional damage or injuries
  • Any loss of income
  • Damage to your property or your belongings

Now that you’ve read through the policies in place to protect you, let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take if a guest stole something from you.

Contact the Guest

There’s a list of things you’re going to want to do if you suspect that your guest stole something from your home. The first thing you’re going to want to do is to double-check the property for the missing item. It’s possible that the guest moved it and forgot to put it back.

Once you’ve determined that the object is actually missing and taken by the guest in question. It’s possible that they aren’t even aware of the theft.

You’ll be able to contact the individual through the Airbnb website or app so that you have a written record of your conversation.

Make sure you aren’t accusing them outright. Remain diplomatic when you ask them if they’re aware that some of your belongings have gone missing. Ask them to either reimburse you or return the items in question.

If the guest claims not to have the items or refuses to reimburse you, things can go south pretty quickly and they can leave you a retaliatory review. Remain calm while you speak to the guest, but know you have additional options for this.

Call the Police

The next thing to do if the guest isn’t cooperating is to contact the police in the rental property area. Explain the situation and inform them that you’ve contacted the guest. Tell them what the guest said to you, then request a copy of the police report.

Make sure you have plenty of evidence that the item is missing. If you have before and after pictures of the property, you’ll want to supply those to the police. You’ll also need to have any information about the guest available to give to the police as well.

This covers you if the guest tries to fight the issue or if you’re unable to contact the guest at all, and in many cases is required under the Host Guarantee.

Reach Out to Airbnb

Finally, once you have contacted the guest and reached out to the police, call Airbnb and speak to someone about starting a reimbursement claim. You have to do this either within 14 days or before your next guest checks in, whichever one comes first. This is very important.

If you wait until after your next guest checks in, Airbnb will close the investigation before it even starts. If you let the 14 days lapse, the same thing will happen. You need to report the theft to Airbnb as soon as possible.

This is another reason why it’s important to reach out to the police and get the ball rolling on that report. Airbnb will likely ask you for it at some point in their investigation. It may take some time before a verdict is reached, so be patient. Airbnb tries to give a fair investigation to both guests and hosts.

It is also advised to use the AirBnB website or app when you reach out to them so you have a written record of the conversation, as you may end up needing to escalate things to higher up the customer service chain.

Tips to Protect Yourself From Future Thefts

If you’ve had something stolen from your property by an Airbnb guest, it’s easy to feel vulnerable and used. It may cause you to go on the defensive and purchase different safeguards to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.

Below you’ll find a list of nine easy ways you can protect yourself from future thefts.

Use A Wifi Security Lock And Change The Code

We have written a post on the best wifi security locks for AirBnB, and while they wont prevent thefts from happening, they do have some features that will help with your reporting and turnover.

In fact, sometimes theft from your AirBnB won’t happen during the guests visit, but after they leave. If you use a regular house key, your guest may make a copy and come back later to steal your things or even rob your next guest. A wifi security lock will enable you to:

  • Assign a different key code for each guest
  • Expire key codes automatically
  • Keep a log of when (and who) a particular key code was used

Keep a Detailed Inventory of Your Items

Inventory everything on the property. You want to ensure that you keep track of serial numbers and where the item is located on the property. Make a note of whether it’s inside or outside as well as the exact location, such as kitchen or patio.

Take pictures of the objects as well.

This will be beneficial in case there is any damage done to the property. You’ll have visual evidence of what it looked like before the damage was done. When taking these pictures, make sure a timestamp is placed on the picture as well. This will also help prove your case.

Draw Up Clear Legal Paperwork

Something that can also help prove your case of stolen items is having a clear legal agreement drawn up that requires your guest’s signature. Typically, this kind of thing will deter some of the more dishonest guests from booking your home for their trip. However, it doesn’t always prevent thefts.

Even though your guest could still steal something from you, this legal document could further help you get the money back from the guest or their security deposit. Either way, it’s in your best interest to have some kind of agreement made.

Another option is to put your legal disclosures and fee schedule within your house rules, as guests have to agree to them before booking, rendering them binding (for the most part).

It is important to specifically state what you will be charging for violations. Although rules against stealing is a no-brainer, if you state in your house rules that you charge $100 for theft then it will make it easier to collect that during your claim.

Pre-Screen Your Guests

Airbnb gives you the option to verify your guest’s identity before they confirm their booking with you.

This is a great option that you should try to implement in future bookings if you aren’t already doing it. This means that the guest will have to submit some kind of information that Airbnb will verify. This can be something like a government ID of some sort.

Another way you can screen your guests is to request a video call with them before their check-in. This will give you a face to the name so that if you’re there when they check-in, you’ll know they are who they say they are.

You may also want to do a simple background check on each guest that can be done online.

Set Up Cameras and a Security System

It’s important to know that if you have any cameras set up on your property, you’ll need to let your guests know about them even if they aren’t turned on during your guest’s stay in your home.

Place cameras outside of the home all around the property as well as face all of the exits.

This way, you’ll know if someone walks off with your TV or if your guest has unauthorized people in your home. Check out our post on the top security devices for your AirBnB.

In addition to cameras, a great idea would be to set up a keyless entry. This is a great idea because the code can be changed with each guest. There are no keys needed, so you don’t have to worry about a copy being made. Once the guest checks out, you can change the code for your next guest.

Do a Walk-Through After Each Guest

Immediately following your guest’s check out, you’ll want to do a thorough walkthrough of the entire property. If you made an inventory checklist, take that with you or give to your cleaner. Ensure everything on your inventory list is there and that it hasn’t been damaged in any way.

Make notes about what you find and whether it’s normal wear and tear or something more.

If anything is missing, make a list of it so you can bring it up with the guest. You can even use these times to take updated pictures of the things on your inventory list. Make sure timestamps are on the pictures as well.

Make Clear Rules and Post Them

When you rent out your home, you want to make sure you have a clear set of rules for your guests.

These rules get posted in the rental listing on Airbnb. Then they’re told to the guest before the booking is made. They are told the rules again when the booking is confirmed and finalized. They are even emailed to the guest as well.

You can make these rules as strict or as lenient as you want, but you’ll want to make sure they’re clearly stated. You can even incorporate the rules into your legal rental agreement that your guest needs to sign in acknowledgment.

Use a Safety Deposit Box

You mustn’t store any valuable belongings in the rental. You can set up a safety deposit box at your bank and use that to store any jewelry or money that you might have at your home.

Storing these things off-site will remove the temptation for your guests to take them, but it will also give you peace of mind about your irreplaceable items.

These things are also not covered under the Airbnb Host Guarantee or the Airbnb Host Protection Insurance. So, you must keep them stored in a very safe place.

Give a Gift Bag or Box to Your Guests

Sometimes little items will go missing from your rental because your guest is looking for something to remember the trip, much like the serial killers from Mindhunter who take memento’s from their victims.

These “souvenirs” can be avoided if you give your guests a small welcome gift bag or box. This can be a nice little touch that results in repeat guests or positive reviews, but it also removes the temptation to steal from your guests.

These little gifts could be anything from the area that would be a reminder of their stay. It could be a keychain, a mug, or even a t-shirt. You can get pretty creative with the gift, and it’ll be a perfect surprise for your guest.

Use a VPN on Your Internet

There are some guests out there that are quite tech-savvy individuals. They have ways of using your internet to get into your accounts. While this isn’t extremely common, it’s a possibility you’re going to want to keep in mind.

You can protect yourself from these cyber threats or cyberattacks by protecting your internet using a VPN service. These services encrypt the network as well as give new devices single-use IP addresses.

This means that your guests can’t use the IP address to hack into your network after leaving your property. VPNs range in price and what they have to offer. If you decide to give it a try, choose a VPN service that works for your budget.

Keep an Eye Out for Red Flags

In addition to the tips above, there are some red flags you’ll want to keep in mind. These are just little things that may not stand out as bad but are a little odd. Take a look at the list below.

  • They refused to use your preferred payment method. When you are renting out your home, you want to be able to trust the source the payment is coming from. If your potential guest refuses to pay through your preferred payment method, this should be considered a red flag. In fact, if you’re hosting through AirBnB, it is against their TOS to accept payment outside the platform.
  • They actually live in your area. Consider it a red flag if the guest is looking to rent your home, but they live within the area you’re located. If they live nearby, why are they using your home? In many cases it is because of nefarious activities, like a party or meeting an escort. In other cases, it can be for legitimate reasons like someone sold their house and they are transitioning. Definitely inquire further.
  • They’re using a temporary email service. There are many temporary email services out there, such as Mailinator. Be on the lookout for emails that seem strange or don’t contain a part of the guest’s name. There are plenty of scams out there that will contact you using these temporary email services.
  • If they can’t take no for an answer. If your potential guest asks for something, but you tell them it isn’t possible (such as an early check-in), but they continue to ask for it, be careful. If you have to keep telling them no for the same thing, it could be a sign that they won’t follow the rules you set up for the home. These tend to be extremely high maintenance guests as well, who will often wreck you in the reviews.

Summary

It’s hard to know just what you’re getting into when you rent your home out to complete strangers.

You never really know what they’re going to do with the things you leave in the house. The best thing you can do is work hard on protecting yourself, just in case.

Hopefully, this article has given you an idea of what to do if an Airbnb guest steals something and what you can do to prevent future instances of theft.

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Welcome To Skyline STR!

We are Airbnb photographers who specialize in short term rental marketing.

Before that, we started off as Airbnb hosts and had to figure out how to stand out in a very (VERY) saturated market.

We learned a LOT, and made a lot of mistakes along the way too, but eventually figured out what works and what doesn't...

Skyline STR is the place where we share everything we've learned about Airbnb hosting and make it our mission to help hosts create better, more prosperous listings.

We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy your stay!

- Benjamin & Sheila

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SkylineSTR.com is a participant in several affiliate programs, including the Amazon Associates program, and may be compensated for referring business to these companies at no additional cost to you. This post may contain affiliate links and/or links to our own products. We never recommend anything we don’t love or wouldn’t use ourselves.

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