"2 Different Hidden Cameras": 35 Airbnb Horror Stories That Are Not For The Fainthearted

I was staying in an Airbnb apartment in Paris looking for a room to rent somewhere in the city.

The apartment wasn't very good; creaky floors, cr**py bathroom etc. What made it worse was the apartment next door was being renovated throughout the day from 7AM to 6:30PM. Non stop drilling and hammering all day, everyday. On top of that was the couple upstairs had a newborn baby, and the ceiling was paper thin so during the early hours of the morning I would hear this screaming child hour after hour.

So the worst part was after I'd returned to the Airbnb from interviewing for a room to rent that afternoon, I'd noticed that my clothing in my suitcase had been rifled through. Immediately I check my secret compartment where I'd kept my extra cash and of course everything was gone!

300€ Stolen from my belongings

But here's the thing; my $2000 laptop was on the table right next to it as well as other expensive belongings and nothing else was touched in the apartment. I'd also made sure I locked the apartment everytime I left and it was locked when I returned.

I'm sure by now you've put it together that someone with a key let themselves in.

Immediately I call the host to discuss the problem and her response arranged from "That's not possible" to "Maybe you put the money somewhere else". Naturally I was furious but I restrained myself and didn't accuse. She said she'd come in the morning to inspect the apartment because I'd decided to rent the room I'd found in the city.

All she did was look around, checked the lock on the door and never said she was sorry or offered to refund my money for the stay.

I left that place so angry I still think about it and clench my fists. At least the people I moved in with after weren't total d**ks.

Stayed in a ground floor flat in Paris with a few friends. On the first night there, we sat at the kitchen table having drinks, and I kept seeing movement in the corner of the room in my peripherals. I thought it was just the alcohol, so I ignored it.

Turns out, the flat was crawling with mice, which we realised when we opened a kitchen cupboard and saw a whole family making their home among the bowls.

We got in contact with the owner, who said "oh yeah, sometimes when it rains outside, the mice flock inside. You'll find this with every Airbnb in Paris". Uhhh no thanks

My family and I were on a road trip to San Francisco. On the way we booked this cute little cottage in a very historic town. It was perfect, white picket fence and all.

The second day I was eating breakfast in the kitchen and noticed a weird smell. I couldn’t place it and figured it was just something in the garbage.

After breakfast I showered and got myself ready for the day. Once I was out of the bathroom my husband hopped in the shower and a few minutes into it all I heard was some jumbled words and “OH S**T”.

Apparently the place had a septic problem and there was literally human waste coming up through the drain in the shower.

My husband jumped out and turned on the sinks faucet, it was brown. I can’t remember how it all unfolded exactly but if I remember correctly the toilet started overflowing at this point as well. It felt like we were in a movie or something.

We got out of there as fast as possible and later I realized that’s what I was smelling when I was eating my breakfast!!

All in all it was a pretty sh**ty experience.

"Pls no anal sex on the bed" is the title of my worst AirBnB experience. There were these lovely notes from the host all around the property, about their life struggles and how they didn't want us to have anal sex or period sex on the bed.
The wall to the bedroom (booked as a "private room") was paper thin and didn't go all the way up to the ceiling - and there were several bunk beds in the living room and another bedroom, and we all got to share 1 bathroom. The bedroom itself was a small space with two thin mattresses (smaller than normal single beds in size). The room was so small the door could only open when the mattresses were on top of each other. My partner at the time was unable to lie down fully stretched. The AC was so loud we had to choose between lack of sleep due to heat or due to noise.

It was in DC a couple of years ago. Since they had a rule of not leaving reviews (and thus also not getting reviews) they managed to stay on AirBnB for about half a year before they were removed.

While staying in Colombia, around 700usd cash were stolen from my airbnb. It was a private house, and after looking at a hotels camera across the street, a man came with keys, open the door, and took my stuff. The owners said it was a handyman that used to work for them. Neither owners nor airbnb did anything at all

Staying in Spain heavy rainfall caused the ceiling the fall in meaning we had to run out of the building in the middle of the night after grabbing as much of our stuff as we could and alerting all the neighbours in the building.

Was staying in a mini house in someone's backyard with my gf. Heard a helicopter a couple times fly overhead and just assumed a hospital was nearby. Was watching TV before bed and heard a loud knock on the door. It was a cop telling us there was a suicidal man running around the neighborhood with a gun that had already threatened multiple people and broken into a house. Thank god it was the cop and not the guy as the door was (stupidity) left unlocked. The helicopter was part of the search.

Booked a houseboat in Belgrade. Looked amazing in the pictures, near the river clubs etc.

When we got there we found it to be on a 30 degree slant since the river was lower and so was half beached. Also after waiting for several hours we found that the owner had lent it to their family instead that weekend and so wasn't even available.

Hilarious now, back then was not impressed.

a place in ikebukuro, tokyo was advertised as an apartment. Photos looked pretty decent. Small, but just enough for one person.

Arrived there on the day of, realised it was a love hotel (charged rooms by the hour), room was smaller than I thought with absolutely no floor space (you walk in and the bed and sink were right there, no space to put any luggage), and a musky stench. The wallpaper had stains from god knows what. Read some reviews that weren't on Airbnb and people mentioned having dried up bodily fluids on their mattresses and blankets.

Final straw was the fact that they had no hot water in the middle of a winter night.

Left there pretty fast, contacted the owner, and she was nice enough to give me a refund.

Host lied and tried to get my friends and I to pay a $250 cleaning fee, even though we did everything he asked before we left. I declined the payment, reported him to AirBnB, and never contacted him after that. We rented his house for spring break (we're in college) and did not throw any parties or trash the place, cleaned it pretty well before we left. I have a feeling he pulls that s**t every time he rents to college students and just pockets the extra cash because most groups are probably afraid of getting in trouble

Host lied about air conditioning. It was August in Barcelona. Also the ceiling, which was purposely not pictured, was covered in dry mold.

My work wanted to go cheap so instead of putting me up somewhere in new york city they got me an airbnb in east Rutherford, NJ. It was some guys art studio, the walls were paper thin, so I heard the host yelling at possible art dealers or whatever all night while trying to sleep on a cot which had one dirty pillow on it (also for some reason it had a single rose on it).

Staying in New Orleans in July with no AC probably tops my list. There were roaches everywhere as well. The worst thing we found was some super faulty wiring. One day it rained and water was leaking out of the electrical socket. Staying at this place totally ruined New Orleans for me.

Stayed with a dude and his wife when I went to Singapore. The guy was super friendly, he took me around town, and even let me hang with his dogs. I got home and decided to send him a friend request on Facebook. The picture on Facebook was with his wife and two dogs. I was planning on returning to Singapore that summer and wanted to stay with him again because of his hospitality. When I tried to message him I saw that he no longer had Facebook. I typed his name in on google to try to find him again and was met with a news article that the guy was currently wanted for sexually abusing two minors and used roofies to sedate them while he attacked them. The article said he was on the run from the authorities. I have never been so disgusted and frightened in my life. I haven’t used Airbnb since especially because they refused to refund me and didn’t conduct a background check on that monster.

Tl;dr: Nice guy I stayed with turned out to be a sexual predator. Airbnb sucks because they refused to refund me and did not do a background check.

Rented a cabin in the middle of nowhere for my birthday a couple of years back.

Everything is going fine, until the creepy neighbor showed up and started to hit on the ladies we brought. When I say creepy, I am talking Hills Have Eyes creepy.

Had to finally tell him to go f**k off after we caught him stealing beer and cigarettes and bringing them back to his house.