In a viral TikTok video, an Airbnb guest shares how disgusted she was after seeing the stained mattresses she and her guests had slept on the past two nights.
In the clip, Latavia (@red_kutie) explains that she and her guests rented an Airbnb for the weekend in Fort Walton Beach, a small beach city in the Florida Panhandle.
But it wasn’t until they had to strip their beds at the end of the trip, per the Airbnb host’s request, that they discovered what they’d been sleeping on for the past two days—mattresses covered in unsightly brown spots.
Latavia proceeds to show the bed she was sleeping on, which was about half covered in light to dark brown spots of varying sizes from the corner of the bed to the middle of it. She walks over to the other bedrooms and shows how the bottom of the bunk beds had general brown staining all over them, while the other large bed had visible yellow stains underneath the mattress protector.
“This one looks like it’s got urine stains,” Latavia says of the last bed she showed.
@red_kutie #airbnb #fortwaltonbeach #nasty ♬ original sound – Latavia
Latavia adds that she contacted the Airbnb host but was disappointed with their response.
“Well, that’s why we use mattress covers,” the host allegedly responded.
The video has more than 210,000 views and over 1,500 comments as of Monday morning.
“Yall please look at your beds prior to laying down at these Airbnb. Unfortunately we didn’t and we slept in these beds for 2 nights!” Latavia wrote in the caption.
According to the mattress blog Room Mattress, there are several reasons why a mattress would be stained in this manner. On one end, it is possible that the mattress springs came into contact with water in some form, and this caused them to rust and stain the bed. If a home has experienced bed bugs, they can also stain a mattress through their feces (which contains blood) and their egg-laying.
On the more human side is the possibility that liquid was spilled on the mattresses and that the stains are from sweat or other bodily fluids like urine or feces.
The site offers two ways to clean the mattresses, one involves a lemon and salt solution for rust marks, and the other calls for hydrogen peroxide to remove blood stains.
Commenters were appalled by Latavia’s experience and shared their own points of view.
“I’ve never and will never. At a hotel I take my own sheets, put a blanket between my sheet and theirs. $1 flip flops to walk on floor, and in the [shower],” a top comment read.
“That’s why I stay at hotels I’m not saying they’re better but I check beds before I lay down and if it’s a problem switch my room or give me my money,” a person said.
“Omg this happened to me in Philly! I could cry! Got 100% refund and after that I never did Airbnb again,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot has previously covered other Airbnb horror stories like one in which a guest found out there was a man living under their rental property. Another guest claimed to have discovered fake walls and security cameras in the home.
The Daily Dot reached out to Latavia via TikTok comment and to Airbnb via email.
Update 1:23pm CT Sept. 14: In an email to the Daily Dot, an Airbnb spokesperson shared the following:
“We have no way of identifying if this is actually related to Airbnb in any way, but if an Airbnb guest has safety concerns during their reservation our 24 hour Safety Line is available and connects them directly with our specialized Safety team for support.”
