I just had a guest that left my place trashed. He had no reviews, so I had to approve his stay. It was he, his wife, and a small child. I saw no red flags as why not to rent to them and I often rent to folks that are newer to Airbnb and feel like someone has to give folks that have no reviews, a chance. He was very pleasant through out the stay, messaged me about a problem with a doorknob, told me how lovely and clean my house was. He checked out on time and my cleaning lady arrived a few minutes after they checked out. I have never had my house left in the condition that they did. The child stuck stickers on my walls, wrote on my walls, there was feces spread on the floor, walls, sink, side of toilet in the guest bath, cooked food in the microwave, fridge left full of food, dirty dishes on counter, several glass items were broken, master bath shower curtain was missing 3 shower hooks (which of course I don't keep extra on hand), and a piece of door molding had been broken. There were also child handprints all over the front of a new 55" TV. They also moved furniture, moved rugs around, etc. It took my cleaning lady over 6 hrs to clean the house and I had to pay her $100 extra from what I normally pay her. And I was very fortunate that I didn't have another guest checking in that day as we would not have been able to allow her to check in on time. I messaged the guest and he surprisingly owned up to everything I had stated, although blamed everything on the child stating that it all happened while they were sleeping (I do not think the child left dirty dishes on the counter, nor food in the fridge and microwave, LOL) but what I find shocking is that the guest was well aware of all of this and just chose to check out with it in this condition. I filed a claim for $200 through Airbnb Cover and he did pay the $200. I have completed an honest review on his stay as I hope to save other hosts from having the same thing happen to them.
What I found ever more disturbing is that he says that they stay in Airbnb's all the time and always leave the places they stay in pristine. Which I truly doubt. But as I said, he had NO REVIEWS. So this leads me to 2 conclusions, either hosts are not leaving him reviews for fear of a bad review or maybe his wife had a profile that they previously rented places through.
If he really has rented Airbnb's prior to this, I really wish hosts had reviewed his stays. And I wish hosts would post HONEST reviews instead of being fearful of a bad review from a guest. Had I read a review such as one that I have done on him, I would not have rented to him. This is also my home part-time and it's heartbreaking to have your home treated as poorly as this.