Airbnb and an apparent drug raid
I had an unhappy incident a few days ago and am still struggling with what to make of it.
I have a house I rent out on Airbnb in downtown Miami. I had guests booked in for a 2 week, $3200 stay.
They checked in and seemed very happy with the place. The next morning I got a message that they had to leave immediately. Obviously I was very surprised and asked why.
They said that 10 police descended on the place at 5am in the morning in some apparent drug raid. The police apparently showed them a picture of a white male who was supposedly staying at the house and wanted in relation to drugs.
Now I bought this house about 4 months ago as a foreclosure and it had previously been vacant for an extended period. I renovated it and set it up as a vacation rental. The scenario of a drug raid on the house just seems odd.
The guests contacted Airbnb and were moved the following day after spending 2 nights there. My cancellation policy is strict, which means a guest won't receive a refund if they leave early. Airbnb said it was an 'extenuating circumstance and I would receive nil payout'.
Airbnb told me that the local police had advised the guests that it was unsafe for them to stay there.
I asked what kind of evidence there was to validate the guests claims and there is absolutely nothing. I called the local police station and they said that there were no officers dispatched to the address. I asked the guest about this and he said that it was a specialized drug squad and not the local police.
I've been left in quite a quandary about the whole situation. It's odd to say the least.
Either the guest is lying for some unknown reason or this actually happened. I'm then quite motivated to try to contact this supposed drug squad to ask what the hell is going on.
I'm extremely vexed at Airbnb's handle on the situation by issuing no payout for this booking for something that clearly isn't my fault. Has anyone ever taken Airbnb to small claims court?