

The new year had barely rung in when Nigel Broome learned that his decision to rent out a brand new family home on Airbnb to holidaymakers might prove rather more costly than he anticipated.

A week later he is still counting the cost – about £12,000 – after a New Year’s Eve party which Broome suggests rivals any other on a list of alleged disaster stories linked to the short-term homeletting site.

Damage listed by him at the luxury new-build in Forest Hill, south-east London, includes flooring ruined after the kitchen was flooded, holes punched in walls, destroyed furniture, broken crockery and a window ripped from its hinges to create an extra door for dozens of partygoers.

According to Broome, the police were also called on the night to investigate a report of a sexual assault.

“The people who rented it from me presented themselves as holidaymakers, but they basically came and just held a massive New Year’s Eve party,” said Broome, who came back to find the house owned by his family “trashed”, with laughing gas canisters strewn around as a reminder of the festivities.

“I found out about it while I was in Colombia, when I got a message through from one of the neighbours who had 18-year-olds walk around the development looking in people’s windows. She gathered from one of them that they had booked it on Airbnb, so she got on Airbnb and contacted me via an enquiry form about the property.”

Broome’s experience is one of a series of new year-related episodes linked to the company. Others have included the Montreal couple whose wedding night was interrupted by a drug-fuelled orgy, a Californian couple whose 18-year-old client invited 200 people to a birthday party at their house, and a Londoner who hit the headlines over reports she was punched in the stomach when she arrived to try to shut down a party at her apartment.

Airbnb said: “We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour and this guest is no longer on Airbnb.

“Our trust and safety team is supporting the host and is working with them under our $1m host guarantee, which covers a host’s property in the rare event of damages. Over 1 million guests stayed on Airbnb on New Year’s Eve, and problems for hosts and guests are extremely rare.”

The company has been in contact with police and is providing assistance in relation to alleged criminal damage at Broome’s property.

The Metropolitan police were unable to confirm to the Guardian on Friday that officers had been called to a report of sexual assault at the property. Airbnb was unaware of an assault.

Airbnb published figures saying it helped 35 million guests make stays worldwide and that only 540 cases of what it described as “significant property damage” were reported to it.

Broome said the person who rented the property quickly cancelled his profile and he has not kept a record of their contact details. He is also not impressed by Airbnb’s handing of the case, saying the repeated calls he made to the company ended up with different junior members of staff in the US, and that information was not passed on and he was not called back.

It was only when Broome contacted the Guardian that the situation began to change and the company has since been in touch. Broome is sceptical of the host guarantee. “They are going to have to sort out the insurance,” he said. “The impression they give is that they have this best possible insurance. But when something happens and you read the terms, it says that it’s basically at their discretion.”