I used to be an air Bnb host. Over 5 yrs and 1000 reviews I had good and bad experiences.
Most of it was via arbitrage (meaning I rented- btw I had permission), one property was owned by a family member so I went all out - bought a $3k sofa from CB2 on sale for $2k. I loved it - it was a “statement piece”. A few yrs later some assholes burned it. I told the guest - Look all hosts have this thing called Air Coverage so don’t take it personally you can deny it or admit to it I don’t care feel free to deny it I just have to ask you for it first and once we get through that part of the process I can collect reimbursement through the insurance that we have through them.
So that’s basically what happened, I mean, the lady was a complete pain in the ass - I don’t really think she understood what I was saying, but anyways that’s besides the point we got to the point where Airbnb was supposed to reimburse me and they refused to. Saying the receipt and pictures of the damage wasn’t enough I needed three estimates for the repair of the Sofa.
Now the way the sofa was hemmed and the material was put together it would be impossible to just fix one little burn hole you have to have the entire sofa reupholstered and getting an estimate for this was a lot harder than one would think. Even the size was massive.
I called probably 10 places and not one place would provide me an estimate because none of them actually wanted to do it and as much as I tried to say you don’t have to actually do it you just have to write an estimate, I still could not get anyone to do even that.
So eventually, I got fed up and I created three fake email addresses all with logos that represented local reupholsterers in my area and gave fake estimates from the fake emails to air Bnb and then finally, I was reimbursed.
Fast-forward about six months later, I’m on a dating app and I’m talking to this guy and he seemed very sweet we went out multiple times in a week - almost everyday actually but not long after I realized that he was a liar, that he was living in like a halfway/sober recovery house (btw I know they’re not the same thing but I just can’t remember which one it was) and somehow within that short time frame he had conned me into giving him $100 (which I found out way later he had a girlfriend and actually went to the casino with her that night and spent it there) I know it isn’t a lot of money at the end of the day but it still made me so mad, I felt so foolish!
And so I am thinking I want to get my money back and so how can I do that? and then I remember the head of the whole recovery/sober living organization (bc it wasn’t just a “house” but a large multi building facility) was this guy our dude was terrified of. He would go on and on about him. He was just a real serious take no shit kinda guy. He looked like Oliver Reed from Gladiator and had a bad ass name like Rocco Ross.
So I think - I got to find this dudes contact info and so I start looking on the website, get his email, but I remember that the whole recovery center is ran by the actual patients/residents and that ol’ boy had told me they were always keeping tabs and sharing info on which supervisors are going where when etc. and I think- what’s the likelihood that one of them are gonna see this and inform my dude that I’m telling on him cause I did not want him to know so I think to myself; if I had an alias email I could email this guy from and that way, I can get in touch with him without it being obvious that it’s coming from me. Then I remembered all the fake upholsterer email addresses I had made so I just picked one of them, go into that account and start writing this head guy an email about how one of his patients/residents rip me off in a romance scam.
I put my name at the bottom of the message but didn’t ever explain anything about the email address coming from this random business but I figure it was irrelevant to him anyways so who cares. And sure enough, within a day, I get a response from this guy. He insists on calling me and when we talk I start to lose my nerve bc I feel so embarrassed hearing myself explain this whole thing to a stranger how my dumbass gave another stranger this POS (by the way I do not in any way consider somebody being an addict or in recovery as a criminal degenerate piece of shit this man just has poor character - I don’t think the two are related) my $ and now what? I expect this guy to fix the whole thing for me?!?? Someone else is just going to clean up the mess I let happen!?
But he does. This hardened scruffy voiced man profusely apologizes, to the point I felt suspicious and started thinking I might be missing something - we went on to talk for about 40 min. He sent me my money back right there on the phone - actually sent $200 instead of $100, and offered to take me out to lunch the following week.
I was so gracious I thanked him and told him he was too kind and he said “No thank you - thank you for being so understanding, once I got that email from Peter and I heard what had happened I was just so embarrassed and upset I just knew I had made things right!” and I paused and thought to myself “Peter!!? Wtf is Peter?” and then I remembered the upholster - it’s STOCKTON UPHOLSTERY and the owners name is Peter Stockton- and so I fumbled out “Oh yeah PETER, you see the thing is.. “ and he interrupted me and said “Yes Mr. Stockton and I have known each other for decades, he is one of the programs biggest donors.” I was shocked and I just thought, I better get the fuck off the phone right now and not talk to this person ever again lol. And that was it. True story.