Renting out your home on AirBnB might seem like an easy way to make some extra cash. But it's always a risk letting a complete stranger crash at your place. Even if they are technically "vetted" in advance, there's no way to tell for sure that someone isn't a total wack job, or a terrible tenant. These 24 AirBnB hosts, who shared their AirBnB horror stories on Reddit, learned that lesson the hard way:
1.) From PMMeParkingTickets:
Found a web cam in the bathroom. Not well hidden, can't really prove which guest it was, but it scared the **** out of me because I'd probably be liable if a guest found it.
2.) From Robotmurloc14:
Not me but my sister.
She was visiting her boyfriend who lived in France at the time, and figured it was a good idea to put her apartment on air b&b.
There were 2 guys that ended up renting it for 9 days of the 3ish weeks she would be gone. Day 2 she got complaints from neighbours about garbage being thrown out the window, she lives on the 5th floor. She tried getting them to stop, when that didn't work she tried getting them to leave, didn't work either ofc. She ended up calling our parents to get them to help with calling the police as she was still in another country. When the officer showed up they spit in his face and tried punching him. He got reinforcements and got them removed, idk what happened to them afterwards sadly.
As a side note: Air b&b was surprisingly helpful, and even handled all the legal things with the guys still paying for the full 9 day stay, without more than a quick call to describe what was happening.
3.) From dantooine1977:
Pre-AirBnB, my grandparents would rent out their house for the Winter while they were in Florida. The last time they did this the tenant turned out to be a drug dealer and escort and let's just say that Grandma's bed was never the same
4.) From cookingwithsmitty:
My friend has an Air BnB and told me one time this lady took a massive toilet clogging shit in the bathroom connected to his room because she didn't feel comfortable in the guest bathroom.
5.) From Snuffleupagus03:
Steal the cable for the tv. The next guests asked about the tv not working, and upon inspection we found that the physical cable from the tv to the cable was missing - taken by the previous guests.
wtf?
6.) From WhiskTheCouch:
Only rented a few times. Nothing rude, but I had a no-show once. They never cancelled and I kept their money. I would have refunded had they messaged me with even the slightest excuse... but nope, just never heard from them at all. It was weird.
Edit: To everyone speculating - In my case, my Air BnB was a unique space. I’m talking, clearly not for everyone. It’s highly unlikely it was a company or client situation due to the space and the location. I suspect the guest got cold feet about it and backed out at the last minute.
Edit 2: Not BDSM. Not even close. hahahaha omg
7.) From gunbunnycb:
1st time was my last time.
But, rented to a young lady and her 5 year old son. Was supposed to be an overnight then she would return in a week for a second night.
We met the lady and her son, showed her around, she told us she would likely be gone by noon at the latest.
Wife and I showed up at house around 1:30 to clean up. Her car was still in the driveway, we knocked on the door, the little boy answers. Tells us his mommy wont wake up.
We found her lying on the floor next to the bed.
Apparently she had a heart attack in the night and tried to get to her cell phone.
The cops contacted her family, they came and got the little boy.
Lots of tears and emotion.
Wife and I decided that we didn't want that ever again. So, we took it off the site.
8.) From ckp010:
When I used to work for Airbnb, my job was to meet hosts and talk to them in person about their experience. One guy told me how some dude locked himself in the room he was renting and wouldn't come out for days. The host eventually called the cops to have the guy removed because he overstayed his visit and wasn't opening the door. When he finally was removed, the host found feathers everywhere. He couldn't figure out where they were coming from until he opened the closet door and saw blood and more feathers smeared all over the wall. Dude had been practicing voodoo or santeria or something in the closet, sacrificing chickens.
9.) From rostoffario:
Had a guest from NYC stay in our VRBO apt for a week. She was a bit snooty and bragged that she was coming to sell high end seafood to high end restaurants. She asked me to make sure and accept a large package of frozen seafood that was being overnighted to the house prior to her arrival. I did and put it in her apartment. She arrived and we didn't see her until the day she left. She told told all went well and she got several new clients. Then she presented us with a HUGE fillet of Tuna as a gift.
Once she left we went in to the unit to start cleaning and prepping for new guests arriving a few days later. The place was FILTHY! She threw her trash on the floor rather than in the trash cans. All of the washcloths were missing from the linen closet but none were in the laundry pile. I found three bloody wash clothes under a paper towel in the bathroom trash. It was the only thing in it. There was this bad smell and we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. After a thorough search we found it. She had been broiling seafood in the oven. That new oven was disgusting! The inside was caked in grease, fish scales and god knows what else. It took me one entire afternoon to get it clean.
10.) From soysaucepapi:
My sister rents out a unit that's attached to 2 other units. She told me about a guy who was a first time renter on the app. He seemed nice enough, but she got complaints from the neighbors about partying and loud music late at night. She spoke to him the next day, he was super chill about it, but when he left, she found a mess. Beer cans and food everywhere and on top of that he spilled beer all over the mattress so she had to get a new one. She charged him for it and wasn't sure if he was gonna pay up, but he did. Wasn't super bad, but it was incredibly stressful for her.
11.) From saamii_xx:
Not me personally but there was an article in the newspaper of my hometown about an Air B&B that was turned into a brothel for about two weeks. When the owner returned home he still had men show up at his door looking for the girls.
12.) From i_fuckin_luv_it_mate:
I had Family that put up their second place as Airbnb. They we're pretty remote so they catered mainly to families and groups. They recently stopped doing Bachelor and Bachelorettes as they've noticed they get too wild and they always leave the place a mess for check out. One time a woman brought their tiny dog to a bachelorette party, which is fine - they're dog friendly, but the owner had passed out early and no one let the dog out so it just pissed and shit all over the hardwood and no one cleaned it up before leaving. They got charged extra, but the thing is with Airbnb, this isn't a hotel where staff don't care personally and one mess out of 100 rooms isn't necessarily a significant deal. This is someone's house
13.) From NitnoYT:
Relative of mine has an AirBnb - Tenant decided they didn't like the place for some reason and took a can of emergency bear mace and sprayed all over the AirBnB before leaving.
Relative had to clean the place, eyes stinging the whole time, before a new AirBnb Tenant was to show up the next day.
14.) From L1A1:
Organised a massive drug deal and got raided by a rival gang. My partner currently manages about 15 AirBnB's, we occasionally get assorted crazies, but the most recent incident was a doozy. Basically, from what we can work out, it was booked by a gang (about 7-10 of them, apparently) of drug dealers from another major city, who travelled over to distribute product to local dealers.
At some point after lots of coming and going, a rival gang turned up, kicked the front door in and attacked them all, and I can only assume stole the drugs in question. Blood everywhere, smashed furniture, ambulances and a hell of a lot of police then ensued. Even though the police went through the place and searched it, we still ended up with some free weed, so it wasn't all bad.
15.) From cliffy348801:
The longer term rental. I hate them. Once they went past the $500 security deposit line, they stopped caring.
Two broken picture frames
The kids used my lightbulbs as targets for their airsoft guns
The kids went through my attic and dumped every box upside down looking for drugs? Money? porn?
The kids broke the lock into my storage room and
Took my toolkits outside into the woods, left the tools
opened a pack of roofing shingles to make a mat under the hammock from the storage room
used my plastic windows from the jeep as a door mat for the broken storage room entrance
removed the metal doggie door and pounded it into a metal bowl to burn things from my storage room
removed the concrete stones from my walkway and made a path in the woods
Left their fish hooks in the carpet
Threw their trash behind my televisions
used my televisions as targets for their airsoft guns
Ran the AC with the windows open; left the windows open with the AC running while they were out of town for the week
Took family heirlooms locked in a storage room into the woods to use as targets for their BB guns
Used my white towels and kitchen knives to clean their baseball cleats
Did not take their trash to the street for removal but rather, left it in the garbage cans outside the house with concrete blocks to keep raccoons out of the trash
Took the toilet paper, detergent, and paper towels left for cleaning
Brought a dog with fleas when they said no pets
Broke a coffee table
Broke an end table
Broke a hammock
Broke a bed frame and propped it up with books
Cursed at my neighbors
Left their penis extension device in the bathroom closet covered in poo, beside their container of Horny Goat Weed sex pills
Left their penis extension device in the bathroom closet covered in poo, beside their container of Horny Goat Weed sex pills
Left their penis extension device in the bathroom closet covered in poo, beside their container of Horny Goat Weed sex pills
Left their penis extension device in the bathroom closet covered in poo, beside their container of Horny Goat Weed sex pills
LEFT A PENIS EXTENSION DEVICE IN THE BATHROOM CLOSET
EDIT: forgot to mention they moved the fire pit from the concrete pad to the wooden porch and got pissed when I asked them not to have a fire on the wooden deck.
I'm still finding random things hidden in the house, like firecrackers in coffee mugs... drinking glasses were found in the woods where they were used for target practice. The house is back to shape but my new AirBnB renters complain about my strict fee schedule.
16.) From McFeely_Smackup:
A friend of mine rented out his condo to a family for 3 months solid. When the rental period was up, they refused to leave and he had to call the police out to get them to go.
Then he found out they had ruined the flooring in the kitchen by keeping a dog water bowl on the floor and letting water just get trapped under it until it soaked in day after day, week after week.
He said the kitchen looked like they'd been running a commercial restaurant because there was no way normal family meals could have accounted for the amount of grease and curry staining the walls.
They'd also left rotting food on the counters that had maggots crawling on it.
the kicker was he filed a complaint with AirBNB demanding a full refund of his 3 months rent because he wasn't happy with the rental.
17.) From Desideratta:
A guest once rearranged all the furniture to suit them, including putting our suede dining chairs in the very roomy shower.
In doing so, they broke our 300lb glass coffee table too.
All the books they moved into the mud room.
Just weird.
18.) From shmatt19:
My girlfriend and I went backpacking through South America for 3 weeks over the summer and we Air B&B'ed our apartment to a super nice Greek couple. I guess in Greece their plumbing system isn't that great, so they weren't accustomed to flushing toilet paper down the drain. The smell hit us the second we walked through the door and we just ended up throwing away the bathroom trash can and all its contents. I wouldn't necessarily call it rude/f*cked up, but just one of those weird cultural differences.
19.) From Akiwuffle:
I can't get into specifics, but my job had to step out of a file where we had booked an Airbnb for someone. This lady went from the usual terrible person behavior- trashing the property, letting her animals and kids run the place into ruin- to full on Single White Female. She started impersonating the owner to install new security equipment, file renovations with the city, basically trying to get everything involving this property under her name. Last I heard before we cut our ties, she was inviting her entire family to move in so someone would be there at all times to chase the owner off every time they came by to talk or assess things. I feel so bad for that owner, and I hope she finally took legal action to get her life back.
20.) From LadimJaja:
We rent apartments in our house, we live upstairs. It's a pretty big house so there isn't any privacy issue.
One night, my mom and I fell asleep watching the TV - nothing unusual. At 6 am I am woken up by a dude (guest, cca 20yo) just standing in the middle of the living room. Completely freaked out I just say "MOM!" she turns also completely shook, dude is still just standing, finally he tells us their taxi never showed up and they are late to the bus station. Mom tells him to go back to the apt and she'll drive them in 5 mins.
So it was quite innocent, but shit man, how do you even think of coming into someones House like that? From then on, we made sure to double check every night if all the doors are locked.
21.) From trina-cria:
I had a friend who used to AirBnb her one bedroom apartment. One day when she returned the place was a mess like there had been a rager. There were a bunch of full garbage bags left so she peaked inside one to see what kind of party there had been. She found a Costco-sized box of enemas all used.
She never used AirBnb again. Her poor cat was a witness to the butt s&x @rgy.
22.) From PintsizedPachyderm:
My parent's rent out their villa in mainland Europe to friends and family.
Mum's beginning to rethink after coming back and finding: ALL her forks in the outside flowerbed; the dishwasher broken as it's full of fishbones; missing bedsheets and towels; broken decorations; broken crockery and glasses; missing items that we've had since childhood, sometimes her childhood; much more but I can't remember right now.
They charge a really low relative amount and no deposit, so maybe they're asking for it, but last time she was out, she was almost in tears about it all. She doesn't know who's done it, but isn't keen on letting it out any more, particularly as fixing the dishwasher cost almost as much as a week's stay.
As someone said above, some guests seem to not realise it's someone's home, not just an impersonal hotel.
23.) From excti2:
I had a guest get so drunk at a wedding that he lost control of his bladder while sleeping. Then, after 100% ruining a $2000 mattress refused to cover the damages beyond his $100 security deposit. He thought that absolved him of any responsibility.
He said, “I had an accident.”
“No,” I replied, “Five year olds have accidents. You’re a grown man with a drinking problem.”
24.) From Houned:
Asked me to shoot a porno with them...... can’t say I refused.