Airbnb Horror Stories: What Happens When Shared Lodging Goes Wrong?

Sure, renting your home out to an absolute strange is bound to bring in some horror stories. From living with nudists to finding puke all over the place, things can get pretty memorable to say the least. And while guests are often the ones seen as high maintenance, inconvenient or just interesting … let’s not let the hosts off the hook.

Here are some of unforgettable rbnb

rbnb horror stories that guests have shared exclusively with ENTITY.

1 Overcharge, much? – C.Z.

“I had an Airbnb in Berkeley once which was already kinda.. iffy. We stayed there for 3 nights, and when we left, she messaged us that we didn’t leave the key (even though we definitely did).

“She kept messaging us with that she had to change her locks and that that was going to cost over a 150 dollars and that we had to pay for it. We kept refusing that we didn’t return the key and after a week she ‘suddenly’ found it.”

2 You can’t hate something you never stayed in… – E.M.

“I never ended up staying in an Airbnb, but when I was trying to find a place in LA, 2 separate people tried to scam me. They kept asking for money to “lock down” a spot in the house, but they refused to talk on the phone or meet up with me at the location.

“Both times we stopped responding to the person so we didn’t actually lose the money, but they were both 100% scams.”

3 Rude, much? -C.D.

“I used Airbnb several times while traveling after graduation. At our first stop in Portugal, we asked him about checkout procedures, he just said to leave the key on the table and gave no other instructions. On the morning we checked out, I was trying to get the girls out the door into our cab to the airport. The last girl out apparently did not close the door behind her.

“I had no idea until the owner left a scathing review on my account about the door situation and how he could’ve been robbed. He was also not pleased with how we left the apt. We had gathered trash bags and left them by the door (he did not tell us where we could take the trash out) and put used linens together but did not start the wash. The review was so bad/angry, I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to use Airbnb again.”

4 Porn magazines on the coffee table? Um, what? – A.P.

“My friends and I stayed at an Airbnb in Paris, when we got to the location (after hours of traveling by train, plane, then bus), nobody was at the door to let us into the building. The security guard got there and opened the door. He told us the person we were looking for was out of town, in Budapest. The security guard had to make a long-distance call to reach him & the language barrier wasn’t the greatest either.

“After finally speaking to the Airbnb owner, he said that his friend is the one who put that listing up, he had no idea we were coming, and that his home wasn’t ready. He was very apologetic at this point and didn’t know what to do. The guard ended up letting us into the room — which, by the way, looked nothing like the photos posted. The living room had dirty clothes everywhere, the bathroom toilets were stained with poop-colored-I-don’t-knows, the shower had dirty underwear and clothes piled next to it and the bedroom had porn magazines laid everywhere.

“Also, it was advertised as 5 person space, but three of us had to sleep on the dirty carpet. We had nowhere else to stay. We contacted Airbnb and they contacted the owner. The owner refused to refund us any portion of our payment, saying it’s fair that he take our money because we stayed in his home. While I do partly agree, I think we should’ve gotten at least some of our payment back. Airbnb agreed and gave us a full refund along with $100 credit towards our next stay.”