Pigeon Forge Airbnb party leaves property with $5,000 worth of damages

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (WATE) — After an increase of Airbnb parties taking place nationwide, a local Airbnb host is dealing with the aftermath after his property was completely trashed. With space only meant for two inside the cabin, it was put to the test after groups of people arrived at the short-term rental totaling over 60 people.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had several experiences like this so far and this is the first one we didn’t catch in time where we had damages occur,” Goran Ariston, the property owner and Airbnb host said.

Ariston has been a host on Airbnb for almost a decade, and what took place inside his cabin is something he’s never experienced.

“When our housekeepers got here the next day to clean, they started sending us pictures and they almost quit on us because it was a mess,” Ariston said.

Apart from the damages, Ariston said the guest put lives at risk as the structure isn’t built to hold a mass of people.

“It’s a wooden structure, something could collapse, somebody could die,” he said.

Now Ariston is warning other hosts to be alert and hoping that Airbnb will do more to prevent this from happening.

“I’m sure they had fun, but we’re left to deal with the aftermath.”

Ariston stated police can’t do anything to help because it’s considered a civil matter between the property owner and the guests.

WATE reached out to Airbnb and received this response from a spokesperson:

“Airbnb bans parties, and we are currently working with this Host to support them through our AirCover process. We have removed this guest from the platform for violating these policies.”

In 2021 Airbnb implemented their “Under 25” anti-party system which blocks or redirects certain last minute local reservations for users under the age of 25 without a history of positive reviews.

The Airbnb spokesperson also stated that they are in the process currently of removing the guest(s) account entirely who booked to stay at Ariston’s property.