A Villeray man who came home one night to find his apartment ransacked and a dozen strangers throwing a party in inside said he suspects it is connected to Booking.com.

Adam Mongrain and his wife came home at 2 a.m. a couple of weeks ago a party in full swing.

“I immediately felt like dreaming,” said the tenant. “Nothing was familiar because everything was torn apart. There are pictures, but it's hard to convey the extent to which things were trashed.”

Marijuana and cigarette smoke filled the apartment – people even cooked his food.

“I say, ‘Who are you, what are you doing here?’ And they say, ‘I'm here with Booking.com.’ And I say, ‘You can't be, I'm not on Booking.com’” he explained.

The apartment downstairs was recently put on the short-term rental website by the landlord.

Mongrain thought the renters could have just walked into the wrong unit. Then he saw how many things were missing.

“They took the passports. They took all the cash we had. They took cash from my wife's daughter that she had saved up from babysitting for Christmas presents,” he said.

He estimates $6,000-worth of his possessions are gone. The apartment had to be professionally cleaned for $3,500.

Mongrain filed a police report, but there were no signs of forced entry.

In a statement Booking.com said:

“In the very rare instance that a customer engages in unlawful behaviour, we encourage our partners to reach out to local authorities.”

Housing lawyer Ted Wright of the Westmount Legal Clinic said that it's the landlord who could legally be at fault.

“The landlord has an obligation to give safety and security, and if anything compromises that because of the landlord's actions, then the landlord is liable, and the tenants can sue,” he said.

Landlords need to have a permit if they want to offer short-term rentals and tenants can check at city hall if their building is on the market.

“If you think the landlord is even thinking about it, you send a legal letter saying if you do this, this is what I'll do. You have to protect yourself, and you might even have to change the locks,” said Wright.

Montreal has cracked down on the number of short-term rental permits downtown, but as far as Mongrain knows, the downstairs unit is still up for rent.

“I believe it is,” he said.

Montreal police are investigating.