When choosing to stay at an Airbnb, even an innocuous listing can turn into a frustrating experience.
One guest of the platform says her host not only delayed her check-in and entered the unit in the middle of the night to do her laundry, but the host’s child looked into the room through windows and entered it while she was staying there.
An uncomfortable Airbnb experience
In the video, TikTok content creator @Thejuicywizard says the host of the Airbnb was still in the guest unit with her children and dogs over three hours after what was supposed to be her check-in time.
When she arrived at the basement unit that she had rented, she found that the host allowed her toddler daughter to roam the property unattended. While staying at the property and utilizing amenities that had drawn her to it in the first place, like a fire pit, she says she was essentially used as a free babysitting opportunity for at least an hour while she and her friend were making s’mores.
“She has silly string so we’re keeping an eye on her to make sure she’s not pointing it at the fire,” she says in the video. “Her mom, the host, does eventually text us to be like, ‘Oh, sorry that she invited herself to your party,’ and I’m like, ‘You know, it’s fine,’ and at first it was fine, but my friend and I basically ended up babysitting this kid for almost an hour.”
Later in her stay, she says she found the homeowner doing laundry in the guest space well into the middle of the night, despite having rented it for private use. She says this was an issue cited by other guests on the Airbnb platform, and she feels it was on her for not scouring reviews for issues other guests had.
After her stay, she says she contacted Airbnb support to let them know she found the stay to be uncomfortable, between the host continuing to do laundry in the space and being expected to essentially babysit the host’s child.
“Not to state the obvious, but like, if we wanted to or if the situation happens again, she could have very easily gotten hurt or we could have kidnapped her or something worse,” she says of the toddler.
As for the host’s response, the creator says the mom replied saying she thought it was OK as she had made sure to ask her first about the laundry and the child.
“Yeah, it was fine at first for you to do the laundry, I didn’t think it would take you over an hour to get to it and for you to switch it in the middle of the night,” the TikToker says. “It was fine at first for your kid to run around in the backyard but I wasn’t anticipating having to babysit a toddler. It’s hard in the best of circumstances to tell someone to come get their kid.”
“I feel like when I’m a paying guest I shouldn’t be in that situation in the first place,” she concludes.
@thejuicywizard Part 2 is up now! #airbnbexperience ♬ original sound – The Juicy Wizard
Airbnb responds
In a follow-up to the original video, the TikToker says she received a full refund from Airbnb, and that the host actually denied that her child ever entered the unit. This is despite telling the guest that they had installed a child lock on the door separating the main house from the basement because she had a history of letting herself into the unit, which she did again to wash her hands while the TikToker was making s’mores.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @thejuicywizard via TikTok direct message and comment on the video, as well as to Airbnb via email.
Per Airbnb’s policy, guests and hosts are not allowed to spy on one another, such as the intrusion of the host’s child who looked in through the window while the guest was airing out the room, but they do allow a host to re-enter a rented space in an emergency or if the guest gives the host permission to do so.
Viewers weigh in
Some viewers shared that this is why they will only ever rent an entire property, as sharing a property with a host makes them uncomfortable for the reasons the poster shared.
“I never do the ‘guest houses’ or ‘room’, only entire apartment or condo,” one commenter wrote. “Too awkward.”
“This is why I never rent a shared space,” another echoed.
“I always hear awful stories about Airbnb,” one said. “I’m glad I’ve never had any and I travel multiple times a year. But I do ‘full house’ only. Tiny homes are my go-to options.”
Others shared that they had been put off the short-term rental service altogether by a combination of host behavior and similarity in price to hotels.
“I stopped using Airbnb after the owner used a key and walked into the room while he thought I was sleeping to get something out of the closet,” one commenter wrote.
“This is why I exclusively book hotel rooms. too many weird experiences with airbnb,” another said.
“I’m a hotel girlie,” a commenter wrote. “All I hear are AirBnB nightmares. I stayed at one once with a group of friends. I wasn’t crazy about the situation. Nope for me!”
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