Oakland Airbnb rental trashed on New Year's Eve

Alcohol bottles, soda cans and more litter the home of Jim Santi Owen and Reshma Vasanwala. Alcohol bottles, soda cans and more litter the home of Jim Santi Owen and Reshma Vasanwala. Photo: Jim Santi Owen Photo: Jim Santi Owen Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Oakland Airbnb rental trashed on New Year's Eve 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

An Oakland couple rented out their home on Airbnb for New Year's Eve to someone they thought was an older man from Chicago.

Instead, they say, the renter turned out to be a teenager who threw an 18th birthday party and invited 200 of his closest friends.

Reshma Vasanwala and Jim Santi Owen were notified of the party through a neighbor who saw a parade of teens and police coming in and out of house.

"Next door neighbor texts me and says, 'There are 40-50 youths here throwing a party, they've been shouting for over an hour and there's 4 or 5 police out here," Owen told CBS5.

The couple came home to find dirtied furniture, beer cans everywhere, cigarettes, broken glass and even blood stains on a wall.

The person who rented the place returned and was arrested by police for vandalism. Owen told SFGATE that, as of now, he plans to press criminal charges and file a civil suit against the teen renter -- although officers told him 200 to 300 kids were found in the area following the party.

"Obviously he's, as far as we know, ultimately responsible, but so are those 200 or 300 kids," Owen said.

The cleanup of the house has taken two days, but there is still more work to be done. The couple is taking bids from contractors to fix damage to their floors, fence, walls and upholstery — Owen said the teens smoked cigarettes, cigars and marijuana inside the home.

The couple will also have to purchase new furniture for their home and are looking into a new security system, after a partygoer came back to their home.

"At least one person came back at 6 a.m. that same morning and was trespassing on our property," Owen said. "We had to call 911, so it's been pretty nonstop."

Airbnb told news outlets they banned the guest from their site and that they will work with the homeowners under their $1 million host guarantee.

Owen said it took nearly 14 hours to receive a phone call from Airbnb about the situation, which made him frustrated.

"It was an emergency, urgent kind of situation and it would've been nice to feel that they really had our back as all this was going on," Owen said. "We don't know for sure if they're going to pay, we'll have to see. They're communicating in such a way both to us and the press, that they will take responsibility, but we don't know that."

The Oakland couple told ABC7 that they should have screened their guests more, but they don't plan on renting out their home again.