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crehn

So what would happen in practice if I completely trashed an Airbnb for $1M's worth?

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Wouldn’t you have to have a guest rent it out via airbnb to be eligible?

What if I'm the guest?

You would be sued for a million dollars in damages by the owner, and it would be an open and shut case.

I imagine (good) insurance would pay the owner and then file the lawsuit. Don’t think the owner would need to sue directly.

I rent an Airbnb in Miami but fly back to uk after a hangover style party. Good luck sueing me, even if you did most people don't have a 10,000usd never mind a 1m, then enforcement and collection.how does that open and shut?

You'd have a hard time re-entering the usa after automatically losing the case by not showing up at the courthouse and not paying the bill. But in any case the scenario of leaving the country is not unique to airbnb and exists for rental cars, other loans, and basically any activity involving borrowing something

Not really. no time to re-enter, they will not enforce this upon entry. It is not criminal, it is civil.

It is not criminal yet to not show up in a civil case.

Here in California (and, I would bet, all other states) it is felony vandalism. Definitely criminal.

The criminal part I am referring to is failure to pay (assuming you are able to in the scenario that one fled to another country to avoid paying)

You're making a good argument for the reinstitution of debtors prisons.

I'm making the point it's hardly open and shut

Nothing, your airbnb account is banned, they'll probably try to bill your credit card, but not much.

You can send a fee request, but mostly you do that to show airbnb you tried and they'll maybe compensate you if they agree.

It's true, you can commit crimes and flee the country consequence-free. You found the loophole. Close it up boys, we're done here.

Actually intentionally trashing place at 1M level is criminal offense (vandalism/destruction of property) in pretty much every state, local police will most definitely open criminal case and it may even rise to the level of extradition (and UK has extradition treaty with US).

If you intentionally trash the place at a few thousand dollars level then year - nobody will probably bother other than banning you from AirBnB for life. One time we sort of trashed AirBnB (my 2 year old got hold of pen and draw on the wall and couch while we were not looking) and the only consequence was paying 400 or so in fine (max liability on listing) and stern letter from AirBnB that they may ban us if it happens again.

Straight to jail. Assets seized by insurance underwriter.

Proceeds to trash jail.

This is also a felony, a friend of mine got destruction of government property for drawing on the walls of his cell while in county jail.

Not even true, at best a civil case after months and you must provide service to the defendant or defendant attorney - depending on who booked and who stayed can be different and will not proceed normally.

tl;dr mostly nothing if they don't value their airbnb account.

At least in New York:

"A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the second degree when with intent to damage property of another person, and having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he has such right, he damages property of another person in an amount exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars.

Criminal mischief in the second degree is a class D felony."

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/145.10

Class D non-violent felonies are worth up to seven years in prison, likely varying widely depending on the circumstances.

I guess most states probably have similar statutes on the books. Whether you could get a prosecutor to charge it probably depends on the exact circumstances. I reckon you could find cases of people being charged on much less than $1M in intentional damage, though.

Good luck dragging the offender to court. Especially if she lives in a foreign country.

No one in the comment chain above me stipulated that the proposed violator was a foreigner. Most Airbnbs in the US are rented by domestic renters. And anyway, I'm only responding to the notion that civil action is the worst case scenario. That is plainly false.

Also, yea, you can commit minor crimes that don't rise to the level of extradition then skip town. That's always been the case. So? Who is going to go to the U.S., trash an AirBNB, risk getting charged with a crime and potentially banned for life from coming back? The people who trash AirBNBs are not the same people who can travel internationally, by and large.

Is this a joke? It's unclear to me, a person without much understanding of the law. Aren't debtors prisons illegal?

Vandalism is a criminal offense, and >$400 damage is a felony here in California.

Luckily you can steal more than twice that at your local Best Buy in California and it's a misdemeanor. So take good care of your AirBnB but feel free to go to town at a Walgreen's. If you can find one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_California_Proposition_47

I'm not seeing what your point is. The two things aren't really related. They aren't even the same crime.

Nonsense. He's long gone back to his own country, scot free.

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