You probably know the drill with Airbnb so I won’t insult you by describing it again... OK, fine, it’s where people advertise rooms/apartments/flatsany kind of property for others to rent. So basically like a hotel, but not.
This, in most cases, goes extremely well, I’m sure. But if you’re letting your place out to a virtual stranger, that’s definitely room for error. And sometimes these errors are larger than others. Like say, if the person staying in your house decides to go all rockstar on your ass and throw your TV out of the window for the lols, or decides that your priceless collection Charles Dickens would work better as toilet paper. That would suck, wouldn't it?
We've pulled together some of the worst horror stories that the net has to offer to show what people might do during their stay, because forewarned is forearmed.
NB: I’m not implying that Airbnb is a bad idea. Loads of Team Debrief use it regularly – just what can happen when you don’t get the best guest ever. Oh and if you don’t own the property you live in, but you’re thinking of renting it out, check your contract and with your landlord first, lest you get whalloped with a fine/chucked out if they find out.
They might be really into meth and run an identity theft operation
When Troy Dayton rented out his home in Oakland, he returned to find that the rentee was a meth addict identity thief. Far from ideal, am I right? They left meth pipes everywhere, damaged many of the doors (possibly with an axe), stole his computer, cash, birth certificate, shredded some of his clothes and stole others, and he found one of his sweaters in a freezer. On top of that, they left behind a cat (yes, a real life meowing cat) and a knife with a man’s name on it. Terrifying.
They might have an orgy
Ari Teman rented out his apartment to a guy on Airbnb but, after realising he’d forgotten something, returned to the flat only to find ‘Big Beauty Women’ sex party in full swing (pun intended, probably).
Teman spoke about his experience saying that ‘the worst part of the internet right there was in my apartment.’
The guy renting the place denies the whole thing, but afterwards Teman searched the guy’s number on the internet and found an advertisement for an event called ‘Turn Up Part 2: The Pantie Raid’. At his house.
Think the jig’s up, mate.
They might turn it into a brothel
This actually seems to be a reoccuring theme, because Airbnb is cheaper than a hotel. For example, two girls from Stockholm rented out their place only to return four weeks later and find pubic hair, a bag of used condoms and a note from the Stockholm County police letting them know they’d raided the apartment the night before and found two girls doing sexy stuff.
Apparently, the police had been watching the sex workers since they’d entered the country from Dublin.
Then there was Jessica Penzari who found out that the person staying at hers was operating a sex business, and had actually been knifed during an altercation with a client. Terrifying.
They might leave poo behind
Seriously. Rachel Bassini rented out her New York penthouse to a man she believed was travelling with his family but it turns out that wasn’t the case. When she got back, the place was trashed with used condoms everywhere, chewing gum all over the place and even faeces covering the bathroom and couch.
When Bassini looked into it, she even found pictures of the party that had happened there on Instagram. Poo, though.
They might really like Paris
When ‘EJ’, as she calls herself, rented out her apartment, the results were awful. Powdered bleach covered her counters and much of her furniture, they stole valuables and personal items including photos and journals, went through her clothes (and wore them) and that’s not all of it.
What’s even weirder is that they moved stuff around and sort of… redecorated. They even hung up a painting of Paris that hadn’t been there before. Right.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.