
Blocked drains and blood stains: our Airbnb guest cost us £15,000
The company assured us that all guests would be vetted and that adequate insurance was in place to cover us if our property was damaged. Smarthost accepted a request through Airbnb for a guest to stay in our home for four weeks.
When we came home, exhausted after our long journey, we were horrified to find extensive damage. The bathroom in our loft had flooded, causing water to leak over three floors. We also found that the guests had broken lots of items, such as furniture, electric blinds and even the freezer. The guests took a set of keys, which is a huge security risk and has caused me a lot of worry. They also took kitchen equipment including frying pans.

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The press release for the Scottish three made it clear that they are not joining the Lions tour as replacements for injured players or even as stand-by replacements for players who might be struggling to overcome injury. The release said that they have been given the call-up 'to provide cover for the First Nations & Pasifika fixture' which is next Tuesday. They may not play. John Dalziel, the Lions coach, said today that they may go home once the fixture is done. In other words, they are temporarily filling in. The Lions have, as many will recall, been here before. On the 2017 Lions tour of New Zealand, the head coach Warren Gatland gave a similar late call-up to six players who were required for the final midweek game in Wellington against the Hurricanes. The group of players were referred to as 'The Geography Six' because they had been selected not because they were the next best players available but on account of the fact they were all playing for national teams who were touring nearby, thus making it more convenient to draft them in. Gatland got eviscerated for making the decision. The criticism came particularly from previous Lions tourists who said that he had devalued the Lions jersey by handing it out in this way. His decision also bombed with a number of the players on that 2017 tour; their similar feelings, that Lions jerseys were being tossed around too loosely, were so strong that some players refused to leave the pitch against the Hurricanes in order to stop the new boys coming on as substitutes. The condemnation was such that Gatland would later acknowledge that he wished he had operated differently. Actually, what he had done was merely to be pragmatic, and that is all that Farrell has done here. The difference is that Farrell will not face the same criticism because, eight years on, it is now clear that he had no other choice but to bring temporary cover in this way. In other words, the problem is not of his own making, just as it wasn't Gatland's either. The problem is that of a touring schedule that doesn't work. Both Gatland and, now, Farrell have been asked to play fixtures that are completely counter-productive to their mission of winning the Test series. The First Nations game comes on the Tuesday between the first and second Test matches. For that Tuesday game, Farrell cannot afford to risk any of his Test squad being injured. He therefore needs complete cover which means that he requires two players in each of the front row positions who won't play in the second Test. At tight-head, for instance, the Test starting prop will probably be Tadhg Furlong with Will Stuart on the bench. 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Note that the England team are currently a long way away, in the United States, and there are no Englishmen in this group. When Dalziel was asked if geography had anything to do with choosing The First Nations Four, he first said 'No, not at all' and then: 'Geographically, we're getting people here if they do need to play.' Either way, the problem is with the fixture. The Lions should never have agreed to it. A midweek game in a Test week is a distraction and a headache for the coaches (comparatively minor issues) and a personnel problem (a major one). There used to be a midweek game before the first Test but that has disappeared from the schedule. Why, then, keep the second? The answer is money. One more game. One more event to sell to the broadcasters and sponsors. One more day to sell tickets to punters. The First Nations game is a glorified fund-raiser. So do not blame Farrell for making his decision regarding the late call-ups. 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