Artist’s anger at ‘machete’ gang who trashed her Airbnb flat after renting it by posing as young woman who wanted to ‘visit the Albert Hall’
AN ARTIST'S apartment was trashed by a machete gang after it was rented out using a fake Airbnb profile.
Yobs urinated on the bed, smashed the sofa and put out cigarettes on the furniture during a New Years' Eve bash.
Devastated owner Ela Boyd, 36, said the guest posed as a young woman who rented it so she could visit the Royal Albert Hall with her sister.
But 30 police officers were called to the flat in London after a gang carrying knives and machetes went on the rampage.
Revellers caused thousands of pounds of damage and raided Miss Boyd's belongings.
American artist Ela, who was staying 5,400 miles away in Los Angeles, branded the people who left with her with a £20,000 bill "pigs".
Now she is calling for more vigorous checks to be carried out on the home-sharing site.
Ela told the : "They used a fake profile of a young girl who said she wanted to visit the Royal Albert Hall and stay with her sister, close to the fireworks display.
“It took 30 backup police officers to get them out of there after breaking down the door.”
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The gang returned on New Year's Day to try to get back into the flat but cops stopped them.
Ela flew back from LA to discover her ground floor apartment, which has access to a private residents' gym and sauna, completely trashed.
Empty drinks bottles, cigarette ends and nitrous oxide canisters were strewn across the floor.
She said: “The flat looked like when you leave a festival - with bottles, canisters and cigarettes everywhere.
“The damage to the sofa and the mattress makes the place unlivable now.
“They stole clothes, make up, jewellery and even took my hair straighteners.
“They also took prints from the walls given to me by friends as well as my own art work.”
American Ela warned others to be careful when renting their homes to strangers through Airbnb.
She added: "It’s the new sharing economy and a new level of intimacy where you let people into your home set against anonymous internet scams.
“But what kind of society do we live in where people can act like complete pigs?
“There are examples of people using Airbnb for sex tourism and to set up brothels.
“There should be more checks on who is making the bookings."
A spokesman for Airbnb said: “We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour.
"We are supporting the host and have removed the guest from Airbnb.
“There have been over 140million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and negative incidents like this are incredibly rare.”
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