PENSACOLA, Fla. — A 31-year-old Pensacola woman is charged with two counts of felony criminal mischief.
According to an arrest report, Nicolette Keough urinated on furniture in two Airbnb homes in Downtown Pensacola. Records say she caused thousands of dollars of property damage.
The arrest report says Keough ruined $3,000 worth of appliances and furniture. This includes an antique chair, typewriter, coffee maker, toaster and television.
"There was a young lady inside making money in a very unusual way that damaged somebody else's property," Pensacola officer Mike Wood said.
Keough allegedly uploaded videos of herself urinating on the items to an adult content website. According to the arrest report, the Airbnb owner must now replace all of the items.
"There's a list of items including a television, a record player, a coffee pot, some bedding, some carpeting I believe, or a rug," said Wood.
And there was more damage caused.
"Yeah, we've seen damage to Airbnbs and hotel rooms before, but nothing like this," Wood said.
According to court records, Keough filmed herself urinating on the items and uploaded the videos to an adult content website. The Airbnb host told deputies every soiled item must now be replaced.
Airbnb shared the following statement to WEAR News:
This kind of behavior has no place on Airbnb. We’ve removed the guest from our platform and are continuing to assist the host with their reimbursement request through our AirCover damage protection for hosts. Property damage incidents during Airbnb stays are rare, and our hosts are backed by our 24/7 global Community Support and AirCover, which are included with every reservation.
Airbnb's terms of service explicitly state that homes are not to be used for sex work or commercial purposes. Additionally, Airbnb provides up to $3 million in host protection for property damage, extra cleaning costs and more.
Regardless, insurance experts say people who own short-term vacation rentals should still seek out extra coverage in case of emergency.
"If for nothing else, you need to have some sort of liability coverage in place," Kristi Summers, personal account manager for Higginbottom Insurance. "Because like I said, somebody gets hurt on your property, they come after you to sue you..."
"Say they left the water running and it was left running for days and nobody knew," she said. "You know, mean, that can get very, very expensive."
Another tip is to document everything.
"Carriers really, really like photos when it comes to claims and, you know, trying to get coverage for, they want to make sure that you have proof... or it was not previously damaged," Summers said.
https://weartv.com/news/local/repor...ating-on-furniture-at-2-downtown-airbnb-homes