Wow EconProf. I’m really sorry to hear about this. As a property owner of many rental properties, this kind of thing is my worst nightmare.
You did the right thing being so honorable. I’m sure it was a nightmare for the rental tenant as well.
It IS important to note that there are some scam artists out there as well that try to lie about this in order to get free rent. I found this out first hand a few months ago.
In one property I own where I do high end short-term rentals I recently had a guest that tried to claim she got bit by bedbugs. I found it shocking since no one ever complained about anything let alone bedbugs. And I happened to use the property myself on a business trip and most definitely there weren’t any problems at all my entire 10 day stay.
She was demanding a full refund. I gave it to her but demanded she leave immediately so I could call a specialist. I gave her a full refund and the point I knew it was probably a scam was when she wanted to finish her stay in the apartment! She threatened to post online if I didn’t give her a refund so naturally I gave her a full refund.
When the specialist that dealt with bedbugs went in he did a full inspection and he said there wasn’t any bedbugs. He did a few things over the course of 2 days and he said definitely there were no bedbugs. It is a penthouse apartment with no neighbor next door either.
No subsequent tenants had any problem at all. I was prepared to totally change all the mattresses in the apartment if I needed to but I was relieved that it was only a scam.
Through it’s a small world, I spoke to another owner of a property they rented and they pulled the same scam on that owner.
The thing that really sucks is you’re so helpless as an owner. A tenant even hinting that you have bedbugs can totally kill your reputation and business and this lady knew it.
It was just a horrible feeling. I imagine there are probably people that go around scamming property owners and also hotels trying to claim this and trying to stay free.
