An Airbnb host has claimed ‘middle-aged ravers’ turned his property into a ‘battlefield’ – ransacking rooms, smashing doors and even ‘flinging mattresses through windows’.
Muzingaye Nduna says he woke to find messages from the police and neighbours after cops were called to ‘restore order’ at one of his Airbnbs overnight.
The 37-year-old sent his cleaner to the West Midlands home and was stunned to see horrific images of the damage.
Snaps show all the wooden doors snapped, the bathroom sink pulled off the wall and the rooms trashed.
Other images even show mattresses in the garden as if they’ve been launched out of an upstairs window and a patio door ripped off its hinges.
After renting out the property, Muzingaye Nduna said mattresses and bed frames were ‘thrown outside through upstairs windows’
In the bathroom, those at the property had allegedly been so violent they ripped a sink off the wall
He shared the striking pictures to TikTok last Monday and its stunned users remarked it looks like a ‘battlefield’.
Mr Nduna, who quit his business improvement job to become a property investor, questioned if the incident was a ‘crazy rave’ or if it was a personal attack on his business.
He says when he checked the guests’ IDs before their arrival they said they were in the late 40s and early 50s so he assumed they wanted to use the home to access the nearby hospital.
Despite loving house parties when he was young, Mr Nduna says he’s never seen as much destruction as after that visit in February 2022.
The property investor claims he was initially quoted an eye-watering £12,000 to restore the property, forcing him to consider leaving the rental industry completely.
Thankfully Airbnb investigated and gave him £8,450 as part of their host damage protection scheme and it took a tradie two weeks to restore the property.
Airbnb said issues are ‘exceptionally rare’ but they are willing to pay hosts up to $3 million in the event a guest damages their place or belongings during a stay.
Mr Nduna, from the West Midlands, said: ‘When I first saw the pictures I was shocked.
Mr Nduna said when his cleaner arrived, they found a patio door had been completely ripped off its hinges and dumped in the back garden
He claimed that all the doors of the house had been damaged in some way, with some ‘smashed’ in two
Mr Nduna said:Â ‘Every single door in the house was crushed but there is one that is a sliding glass door so they took that off the hinges and threw it in the garden’
Mr Nduna, 37, was left stunned after a cleaner sent him photographs of the horrific damaged caused by the ‘ravers’
‘I asked myself ‘is this just a crazy rave or is it someone who is intentionally trying to cause damage here?’.
‘I was actually scared because I’ve not really dealt with the police before, so I was worried that something major had happened and that I was going to have to sit in court.
‘When the police are involved there is an element of fear because you ask yourself ‘did we do something wrong?’.
‘Every single door in the house was crushed but there is one that is a sliding glass door so they took that off the hinges and threw it in the garden.
‘Basically all the furniture was damaged in one way or another.
‘The sink and all the TVs were taken off the walls and thrown on the floor, the shower screen was off and all of the beds were thrown out of the windows, including the frames and mattresses.
‘There were holes in the walls from punches or things being thrown and furniture was thrown down the stairs.
‘I’ve been young and a student before so I’ve been to house parties and I know how crazy they can get but we never ever did anything like this.
‘I did know that there may be a few people who could cause a bit of damage but I thought maybe a broken table here or there – something you could quickly fix.
‘I didn’t concern myself with anything that would be over the deposit.
Mr Nduna said there was no furniture left undamaged, and that AirBnB had helped him cover the costs of repairs
He said the damage was so bad he wondered if someone had been ‘intentionally trying to ruin my business’
‘I wondered if someone was trying to intentionally ruin my business because they weren’t happy with the property being on Airbnb or me generating income.
‘All of that just ran through my head for days before I finally thought ‘I have to get back to business’.’
Muzingaye, who decided not to press charges, says he’s unsure who turned up at the property and how many were there.
He first welcomed Airbnb guests to the home in 2021, with it often used by families who needed access to the nearby hospital.
The investor says it’s now used to house ‘vulnerable children and adults’ who need hospital care but he’s still using Airbnb for his other properties.
He has since added a doorbell camera to the property and makes guests sign terms and conditions stating they will cover damage costs.
The TikTok video revealing the shocking damage has almost 20,000 likes and more than 1,000 baffled comments.
One said: ‘Why, just why?? I don’t understand the mentality of some people!’
Another wrote: ‘It looks like a battlefield.’
A third added: ‘Oh my goodness! How can people be so disrespectful and do this?’
Muzingaye says Airbnb’s insurance helped cover the cost of all of the damages to the property and in the end his only losses were in revenue while the property could no longer be let out.
Airbnb claim they now have AI reservation screening technology to help reduce the risk of disruptive parties, which they say resulted in a 75 percent drop in the number of party reports in the UK last year.
An Airbnb spokesperson said: ‘Parties are banned on Airbnb, and we removed the guest and reimbursed the host’s damages when this was first brought to our attention over two years ago.
‘While issues on Airbnb are exceptionally rare, we strive to provide quality support for our host community.
‘Our AirCover reimburses hosts up to $3 million under host damage protection in the rare event their place or belongings are damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay, if the guest does not pay.’
West Midlands Police were contacted for comment.