Airbnb host alleges $12k in damages after SF startup tested a robot in his house

Sean Donovan has rented his childhood home in San Francisco on Airbnb for years. Tech workers in town for conferences, and families coming for graduations are common customers, but last month he had a new guest: a robot that he said left a mess.

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Donovan alleges that a San Francisco startup booked his home on Airbnb last month under “false pretenses” to conduct tests on the “robotic prototype,” and left the place in shambles, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco County Superior Court. He’s seeking more than $12,000 for a laundry list of damages from the Bot Company, (identified in court records as “Botco”) for personal property damage and unauthorized entry into a locked closet.

Donovan told SFGATE that he and his partner had never put more hours into fixing the house after an Airbnb rental.

“We had a ton of work to do when we got back,” Donovan told SFGATE. “Way more than we’ve ever had before.”

‘Everyone has to start somewhere’

Donovan started renting out the four-bedroom, three-bathroom Portola home on Silliman Street in 2022. Workers coming to town for a conference tend to be his favorite customers: They’re typically out all day and just come back to sleep, he said.

Last month, he said a group with little rental history claiming to be remote workers from Thailand inquired about the house. (The lawsuit notes a May date range for the booking, which Donovan said was an error in an interview with SFGATE.) Airbnb allows renters to check rating histories of potential guests to assess any potential risk, but this booker had no reviews.

“Hosts are pretty careful about zero,” Donovan said, but “everyone has to start somewhere.”

Donovan said he realized it wasn’t a normal rental when he came to the house to take care of the guests’ trash. While moving a bin, he said he could see bundles of wires strung along the house’s interior. Following the wires to the dining room table, he said he could see something that looked like “the borg,” a nod to a cyborg-like species from the “Star Trek” franchise. Next to it, he said, a man typed on a laptop.

The lawsuit calls the alleged machine a “robotic prototype,” but in a Wednesday interview, Donovan likened the bot to an estimated six-foot “Roomba with treads,” affixed with “square-shaped” poles and belts. Donovan didn’t claim in his lawsuit to have seen the device in action, nor are there cameras inside the home in accordance with Airbnb policies, he said.

After reviewing outdoor Ring camera footage and audio, he told SFGATE that he suspected his house was temporarily flipped into a makeshift research-and-development lab. According to the suit, more than 30 individuals came to and from the house during the April 12-25 booking. Donavon also told SFGATE that he heard audio from the Ring camera of a woman outside the house talking about shifts, and that she could potentially stay to work through the night, but opted not to.

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“After they left, we could hear what is going on,” Donovan said. “You can hear them talk about catching the BART or going to the East Bay or riding their bike.”

‘They completely moved everything’

The Bot Company, which aims to make robots for household chores, is the latest startup of Kyle Vogt, the former CEO and founder of failed robotaxi company Cruise. Last year, the Bot Company reportedly was set to raise $250 million at a more than $4 billion valuation. 

The alleged property damage includes two heirlooms, a dining room table that had been in his family for 70 years and a Franciscan pottery set that had a piece missing, Donovan said. Other items listed in the complaint include chipped bathroom tile, stained sheets, a damaged coffee table and credenza, a scratched washing machine and even a broken mug with a handle glued on. Donovan also alleges that his shoes and a shoe rack were missing from a locked closet.

“Imagine you go into your house, and everything in every drawer is gone and there’s new stuff there,” Donovan said. “They came in and put everything back in a new place. Silverware in a new drawer or a different room. It was like they completely moved everything.”

The Bot Company did not respond to a request for comment.

Donovan did not file a police report, though he stated in his civil filing that the missing shoe rack was potentially “criminal.” He said he believes that with all the people allegedly coming in and out of the house, that some individuals potentially took things by mistake.

Though he alleges he could have filed for more, he arrived at his total claim of $12,383.50 by subtracting the Airbnb rental cost from potential filming costs, and then reducing the figure slightly to remain within the $12,500 ceiling for filing in small-claims court.

In his court filing, he called it a “good faith” reduction of the more than $22,000 that he believes he’s owed, though he maintained he’s not waiving his right to collect more if his case is bumped to a higher court.