A couple took “revenge” on their Airbnb host by leaving the taps running and the gas on for their entire 25-day stay, racking up huge utility bills.
Due to this, the Airbnb host was left with a huge bill of 840,000 won (£1,260).
Their host said that three days earlier, the couple had tried to get out of their reservation by saying they had COVID-19.
When the guests were asked for proof, they said they would still keep their reservation.
The two people came from China, where they had booked a 25-day trip to a villa in Seoul, South Korea.
After they booked the villa, there also seemed to be some confusion about where it was.
The property is not in the city center but rather in the suburbs of the capital.
Most guests would talk to their host or Airbnb to try to fix the problem, but it looks like the couple took a different approach.
They called their host, whom they only knew as “Mr. Lee,” and asked if the property had security cameras.
Mr. Lee told them it wasn’t, but there was a camera at the entrance to keep track of who came and went.
Instead of using the vacation rental as planned, the guests turned on all the lights, taps, electrical appliances, and gas taps.
After the first five days, they left and came back to the house only five times in 25 days, each time for less than five minutes.
But Mr. Lee didn’t know that appliances were left on until the agreed check-out time because his gas company stopped by because they thought there might be a leak because of the huge increase in usage.
When he got there, the house was empty, with the windows open and the gas on.
The couple wasted a huge 12,000 liters of water, which is the same amount that eight adults would use in two months, according to Seoul’s Waterworks Headquarters. This meant that Mr. Lee had to pay huge bills.
The first was a $116 (£93) bill for water and electricity, a $730 (£587) bill for gas, and a $728 (£585) bill for “undisclosed expenses.”
Seeing how the utility bills went up by quite a lot, I wonder how unkind they have to be to be able to do such a thing,
Lee said.
AirCover policy by Airbnb protects hosts by paying for damage to the property or the host’s things. However, it does not pay utility bills.
It was reported that Mr. Lee was told to pay the bill directly to the couple, but they had already left the country.
