An Airbnb owner has spent over $200,000 on repairs for water damage at her property after guests allegedly left the tap running, causing severe flooding.

Grace Mattei, 35, had four guests staying at her rental in Joshua Tree, Ca, earlier this March.

During their stay, the property's water supply was temporarily shut off due to an emergency main line repair in the city.

According to Mattei, the guests had accidentally left several faucets turned on while the water was off, and then left the home for the evening.

When the water service was restored, the running taps flooded the single-story house with an estimated 1,000 gallons of water.

Grace, a content creator

in Los Angeles, California, said: "At first it was just so shocking."

"I had never dealt with anything like this before."

"This is the only property I have ever owned."

"I just remember getting a call from my neighbour in the evening saying my house was flooded."

"But I still had no idea how bad it was going to get."

Grace bought the property in 2022 with her ex-husband and the pair spent a year renovating it for Airbnb use.

She had a clear vision for the home and worked hard to bring it to life.

She said: ""It was a big strain on my finances and on my marriage to work so hard on a project."

"We could have put it on Airbnb right away but I wanted to make it one of a kind."

Grace and her ex-husband spent $30,000 on the renovations which took about a year to complete.

Grace wanted the space to be in keeping with a colorful, retro, Palm Springs vibe, like if Polly Pocket and Barbie were roommates.

She added new wallpapers, a custom-painted hot tub and ping pong table and reupholstered a 1970s conversation pit style sectional in pink velvet.

The property had been listed on Airbnb since the end of 2023 and was steadily booked through March 2025, with very few issues.

In February, Grace received a two-night booking for four women celebrating one of the guests' 23rd birthday.

She accepted the reservation and the guests arrived on March 15.

On March 16, the women messaged Grace after the water went off, as they were unsure what was happening.

Grace later learned through the city's local Facebook group that an emergency main line repair had caused the water shutoff.

She said: "It was a bit nerve-wracking at first because I didn't know why the water was turned off."

"But once I figured it out, I let the women know, but I had no idea that they had turned all the faucets on."

The women went out later that afternoon and evening, during which time the water was turned back on.

Grace said: "The bath tub tap was left on, so when the water got switched back on, the tap just started running."

"I'm not sure why the bath was plugged, but clearly it was, because within a couple of hours over 1000 gallons of water was dispersed across my home."

"I had never dealt with anything like this before, so I called my cleaning lady over so she could start getting the water out."

"I honestly had no idea how much damage 2-3 inches of water could cause, which is why I didn't head over until the next day."

"I thought it would need about a week to dry out and it would be sorted, but I was so wrong."

Grace called her insurance as soon as she heard about the flood.

They sent a flood remediation team out to the property with moisture readers.

Almost every area of the property came back as 'soaked', so they had to bring in industrial dehumidifiers for a few weeks to dry it out.

Grace said: "I really started to understand the extent of the damages at this point."

"Seeing the moisture meter results from my insurance agents made me realise that this wasn't going to be a quick fix."

"And it began to hit financially here as well, as the dehumidifiers were plugged into my property, running 24/7 for nearly a month."

"To give an idea of how this affected the electricity bill, my bill for March 2024 was $50 and my bill for March 2025 was $500."

After the dehumidifiers were removed, the walls of Grace's property were still so damaged that the bottom two feet of every wall had to be removed to allow them to dry properly.

Grace said: "Even cutting into a wall was an issue because my house was built in 1959, they had to test for asbestos and led."

"They ended up finding asbestos in the walls and a team had to come in to get rid of the it carefully."

"Now every wall in my house has been taken out."

The house is currently down to its studs with every wall removed due to water damage.

Grace is hoping reconstruction can begin at the end of October 2025 and she can start to move forward.

She said: "It's been a nightmare trying to find a contractor and at this stage I'm on my third insurance adjuster."

"This project is so expensive and has been going on so long. I just want it to be over and sorted."

"Not only was the property destroyed, but all my belongings were as well."

"One of a kind vintage Moroccan rugs were totally destroyed, so the cost of damages were already in the $15,000 region before any serious construction started."

Grace has said that she is going through her insurance with the claim to cover the damager.

Grace said: "I went through the initial damages report process with Airbnb, but it was such a large claim, they had to divert me to their third-party claims administrator for larger claims."

"I ended up trusting my insurance adjusters more, as I've worked with them previously."

"I can't really say much about my insurance claim, but I will be going by my policy on this one."