A devastated Airbnb host has shared her “nightmare” experience of being left homeless and $300,000 in debt after reckless guests flooded her home with sewage earlier this year.
Mother-to-be Erika Gemzer is demanding answers from the staycation company after visitors clogged her toilet and fled, leaving “a literal storm” that flooded all three floors of her San Francisco home with sewage.
Gemzer shared details of her horrific ordeal in April on X, formerly known as Twitter, as she struggles with mountains of debt, which she says Airbnb has done little about in the past seven months.
The Google employee, who also runs her own technology consulting company, called Pocket boardsaid she used her savings to buy a two-unit house in the Golden City.
She lived in the bottom unit with her husband, rescue dog and tabby cat, while renting out the “larger, more luxurious top unit” to guests through Airbnb.
Mother-to-be Erika Gemzer (pictured) demands answers from staycation company after visitors clogged her toilet and fled, leaving ‘a literal storm’ that flooded all three floors of her San Francisco home with sewage
Gemzer said the venture failed on April 14, when she woke up to the sinister sound of dripping water despite it being a clear, dry day – after their upstairs guest checked out early without “warning.”
Gemzer shared photos of the destruction, including a room full of expensive-looking power tools, flooded with feces-filled water and liquid running down her walls
Gemzer said the venture went wrong on April 14, when she woke up to the sinister sound of dripping water despite it being a clear, dry day – after their upstairs guest checked out early without “warning.”
“I jumped out of bed and ran down the hall,” she said. “There were waterfalls pouring from the ceiling and light fixtures.”
Gemzer said the drip was caused by a carnage in the upstairs bathroom – where the guest had “clogged the toilet with baby wipes and human feces” and “damaged the valve that controls the water flow” before fleeing.
“The water continued to flow non-stop from the tank to the bowl, over the bowl and into the apartment for over 15 hours,” said Gemzer, who was 12 weeks pregnant at the time.
‘I had gone to bed at a normal hour (the night before), was struggling with terrible morning sickness and had no idea the unit above was flooded.
‘Then I woke up to a nightmare: a literal shitstorm in my own house, flooding all three floors of the building I bought with my savings. And remember: it’s fecal water.’
Gemzer shared photos of the destruction, including a room full of expensive-looking power tools, awash in feces-filled water and liquid running down the walls.
The desperate host called Airbnb, who advised her to file a claim against the guest for the full amount – and if they denied the request, to open a case for Host Damage Protection.
The Google employee, who also runs her own technology consulting company called Pocket Board, said she used her savings to buy a two-family house in the Golden City. She lived in the bottom unit with her husband, rescue dog and tabby cat, while renting out the “larger, more luxurious top 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 in the past seven months.
“What kind of support was this?” she smoked. “It was a project to destroy and rebuild homes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and months. There was no way the guest could afford to pay this, what about the $3 million Host AirCover Guarantee?”
According to Airbnb’s website, this guarantee protects all hosts with $3 million in coverage for any damages that exceed the security deposit.
“I saw the last drops of water running down the 120-year-old coffered ceiling, and my brain could barely register what had happened,” Gemzer said.
‘The seriousness of the situation hit me hard. I became homeless a week after reaching the milestone of 12 weeks of pregnancy and started sharing the good news.”
Gemzer said she scrambled to relocate her expectant guests, including one who needed a place to stay while they underwent surgery, before spending “dozens of hours” on the phone with Airbnb and exchanging 93 emails.
She said the online real estate market giant ultimately agreed to a third-party investigation, which took seven weeks to conclude that the toilet blockage and damaged valve had caused the carnage.
But this wasn’t the end of her misery – as Airbnb followed up with an email “alluding to some doubt about the origin of the baby wipes and feces” that caused the clog, and hinting at “concerns about maintenance issues.”
Gemzer said her toilet had never had any problems before, and Airbnb offered her $6,000 while asking her to “sign away” her “rights to future payments.”
She said that after desperately contacting several current and former Airbnb employees for advice, an ex-employee told her about an “internal escalation process” where employees can report an internal bug.
Gemzer said her baby is due “any day,” adding that she shared her story “out of desperation” in the hope that Airbnb will turn it from a “story of horrific financial ruin into a cliffhanger thriller” by turning things around to make right now
After exchanging dozens more emails with a new case manager, Gemzer was offered $31,000.
“If you follow the math, that’s 10 percent of my total own financial losses to date,” she said.
“Every time they offer a refund, they ask me to sign away, among other things, my rights to future refund claims.”
Gemzer said Airbnb told her the $3 million guarantee would not cover the remaining 90 percent of her losses — including the water bill from the flooding, lost income while the unit was unusable, mold testing, demolition and storing her belongings.
“I really can’t imagine that a company like Airbnb plans to leave hosts homeless and otherwise dry in their darkest moments,” she said.
“Especially when the source of the hardship was 100% caused by guest harm.”
Gemzer said her baby is due “any day,” adding that she shared her story “out of desperation” in the hope that Airbnb will turn it from a “story of horrific financial ruin into a cliffhanger thriller” by turning things around to make right now.
She said she has struggled to find long-term housing since being forced out of her home and has had to move several times.
DailyMail.com has contacted Gemzer and Airbnb for comment. Neither party responded to this report in a timely manner.