A devastated Airbnb host has told of her “nightmare” when she was “left homeless and $300,000 in debt after inconsiderate guests flooded her home with sewage earlier this year.”
Expectant mother Erika Gemzer is demanding answers from the lodging company after visitors clogged her toilet and fled, leaving “a literal storm” that flooded all three levels of her San Francisco home with sewage.
Gemzer shared details of her horrific ordeal in April
The Google employee, who also runs her own technology consulting firm called Pocket Board, said she used her savings to buy a duplex in the Golden City.
She lived in the lower unit with her husband, rescue dog and tabby cat, while she rented out the “larger, fancier upper unit” to guests through Airbnb.
Expectant mother Erika Gemzer (pictured) is demanding answers from the accommodation company after visitors clogged her toilet and fled, leaving “a literal storm” that flooded all three levels of her San Francisco home with sewage
Gemzer said the venture failed on April 14 when she woke up to the eerie sound of dripping water, even though it was a clear, dry day – after her upstairs guest checked out early without “warning.”
Gemzer shared photos of the devastation, including a room full of expensive-looking power tools, flooded with feces-filled water and liquid running down the walls
Gemzer said the venture failed on April 14 when she woke up to the eerie sound of dripping water, even though it was a clear, dry day – after her upstairs guest checked out early “without warning.”
“I jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway,” she said. “Waterfalls poured from the ceiling and light fixtures.”
Gemzer said the dripping was caused by carnage in the upstairs bathroom – where the guest had “clogged the toilet with baby wipes and human waste” and “damaged the valve that controls the water flow” before fleeing.
“The water ran continuously from the tank to the bowl, over the bowl and into the apartment for more than 15 hours,” said Gemzer, who was 12 weeks pregnant at the time.
“I had gone to bed at a normal time (the night before), dealing with terrible pregnancy sickness and had no idea the unit above was flooded.”
“Then I woke up to a nightmare: a veritable shitstorm in my own house, flooding all three floors of the building I had bought with my savings. ‘And remember – it’s fecal water.’
Gemzer shared photos of the devastation, including a room full of expensive-looking power tools, flooded with feces-filled water and liquid running down the walls.
The distraught host called Airbnb, who advised her to file a lawsuit against the guest for the full amount – and, if she denied the request, to file a Host Damage Protection case.
The Google employee, who also runs her own technology consulting firm called Pocket Board, said she used her savings to buy a duplex in the Golden City. She lived in the lower unit with her husband, rescue dog and tabby cat, while she rented out the “larger, fancier upper unit” to guests through Airbnb
Gemzer shared details of her horrific ordeal on X, formerly known as Twitter, as she struggles with mountains of debt that she says Airbnb has done little to help with over the past seven months
“What kind of support was that?” she seethed. “It was a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar, multi-month home demolition and reconstruction project.” There was no way the guest could afford it, and what about the $3 million Host AirCover guarantee?
Airbnb’s website states that this guarantee protects all hosts with $3 million in coverage for any damages beyond the security deposit.
“I watched the last drops of water run down the 120-year-old coffered ceiling and my brain could barely register what had happened,” Gemzer said.
“The seriousness of the situation has hit us hard. A week after I reached the milestone of 12 weeks pregnant, I was homeless and started spreading the good news.”
Gemzer said she scrambled to accommodate her upcoming guests, including one who needed a place to stay during surgery, before spending “dozens of hours” on the phone with Airbnb and exchanging 93 emails.
She said the online real estate marketplace giant eventually agreed to a third-party investigation that took seven weeks to conclude that the toilet blockage and damaged valve caused the carnage.
But that wasn’t the end of their misery – Airbnb then sent an email “pointing out certain doubts about the origin of the baby wipes and feces” that had caused the blockage, and hinted at “concerns about maintenance issues.” .
Gemzer said her toilet had never had problems before, and Airbnb offered her $6,000 while asking her to “waive” her “rights to future payments.”
She said that after frantically reaching out to several current and former Airbnb employees for advice, a former employee told her about an “internal escalation process” where employees can report an internal error.
Gemzer said her baby is due “any day now,” adding that she told her story “out of desperation,” hoping Airbnb would turn it from a “story of terrible financial ruin into a cliffhanger thriller.” by putting things into action immediately
After exchanging dozens of more emails with a new case manager, Gemzer was offered $31,000.
“If you follow the math, that’s 10 percent of my total financial losses that I’ve suffered out of pocket so far,” she said.
“Every time they offer a refund, they ask me to, among other things, waive my rights to future refund claims.”
Gemzer said Airbnb told her the $3 million guarantee doesn’t cover the other 90 percent of her losses — including the water bill from the flood, lost revenue because the unit was unusable, mold testing, demolition and storage of her belongings.
“I truly cannot imagine that a company like Airbnb intends to leave hosts homeless and otherwise abandoned in their darkest moments,” she said.
“Especially when the cause of the emergency is 100% due to guest damage.”
Gemzer said her baby is due “any day now,” adding that she told her story “out of desperation,” hoping Airbnb would turn it from a “story of terrible financial ruin into a cliffhanger thriller.” by putting things into action immediately.
She said she has struggled to find permanent housing since being evicted from her home and has had to move several times.
has reached out to Gemzer and Airbnb for comment. Neither party responded to this report in a timely manner.