Did you factor theft, house damage, vet bills, and insurance deductible in to your breakdown?
This can't be serious right? Nobody would possibly let some random person from Craigslist stay in their house for 2 weeks while they are out of town... right?
By the way, when my sister in law let an AirBNB guest stay in her apartment for a week while she was out on vacation, the call from the police sure was interesting. Apparently, sis was the proud new owner of a brothel. And replacing the bed/furniture sure was fun and not cheap.
100% serious. Would it be better if it were from AirBNB or vbro?
With AirBnB and VRBO, you can at least vet your visitors a little better. See what their rating is from other renters, for example.
I mean, I hope this works out for you meatgrinder. But personally, I don't think I'd be at all comfortable letting total strangers who may or may not be who they say they are stay in my house. At the very least, please make sure you have all valuables out of it and any information regarding account numbers, passwords, billing info, credit card statements, etc. locked up very solidly.
I don't think I could leave my pets with people I hadn't more fully vetted, either. At the very least they could come in, steal your stuff, and leave without ever feeding or watering your animals.
May I ask, how you know for sure this is a parent and two younger kids with a service dog? If I had criminal intent, that is exactly the kind of scenario I would invent to lower someone's defenses.