Entitled Airbnb guests burned two handmade Amish chairs during a fire ban — the fire department made them cough up $1,300 in charges
Despite warnings from their host, Airbnb guests burned two handmade chairs as firewood and were hit with a $1,300 bill.
Hosting an Airbnb can mean more than simply handing over the keys. Hosts often spend time and money preparing their properties for guests, from stocking the kitchen to maintaining the furniture and outdoor spaces. But all that effort can quickly go up in smoke when visitors treat someone else's home carelessly. An Airbnb host, Charles Lamplough (@charleslamplough), learned that the hard way after guests staying at his property burned two handcrafted wooden Adirondack chairs. He ended up charging them more than $800 for the damage, according to a July 21, 2026 Instagram post.
Rampage of recklessness
The chairs were not ordinary outdoor furniture. They had been handcrafted by Amish craftsmen and specially delivered to Lamplough's property. The host had also warned the guests not to bring their own firewood because a fire ban was in effect. A sign near the fire pit reportedly made the restriction clear. But the guests ignored the warnings and used the chairs as firewood instead.
Lamplough did not discover what had happened himself. A neighbor called to tell him about the fire. The guests were later fined $500 by the fire department, while Lamplough sought $800 in compensation for the damage to the two chairs, bringing the total cost of their reckless decision to $1,300.
Guests or goons?
Lamplough's experience may sound extreme, but property damage is a recurring headache for vacation-rental hosts. Avada Properties analyzed more than 20,000 Airbnb and Vrbo bookings and found that hosts recovered 56.75% of the damage amounts they claimed on Airbnb and 68.29% on Vrbo. Meanwhile, Truvi's vacation resolution team reviewed 977 damage reports and found that stained linens, pet damage, broken locks, indoor smoking, wrecked beds and smashed TVs were among the most common problems. Burning two handcrafted chairs, however, takes the idea of vacation-rental damage to another level.
What kind of people...
Viewers sided with the host and expressed annoyance over guests who cause reckless ruin to someone else’s property without a thought. @thekwaltman commented, “What kind of people burn the host's furniture at an Airbnb?” @micky.nanix3 speculated, “Do people just leave their brains at home when they go on vacation?” @coffee.and.chapter.chaser said, “I would charge them double because they should pay for the ones they burnt and pay to replace them.”
You can follow Charles Lamplough (@charleslamplough) on Instagram for Airbnb-related videos.
More on Scoop Upworthy
Tourists expecting a sea-view room gets horrible surprise from Airbnb, cracking up the internet
Share on Facebook
