Airbnb has — with no hyperbole — changed the way we vacation. For those few of you who don’t know, Airbnb is a peer-to-peer website which connects people with extra space to rent with travelers who will soon be visiting the area. These accommodations range from extra rooms to guest houses to complete apartments or homes. For the first time in history, tourists can stay in homey to luxurious accommodations often for a fraction of the price of a hotel suite. And the system works great for the most part. Sure, you have to be cautious as there are tricksters and a-holes on both sides of the equation. Honestly, minor complaints are so rampant, there’s even a site dedicated to the day-in, day-out trials of Airbnb. Most of them don’t rate very high on the “nightmare” scale. Every so often, though, there comes along someone who really goes out of their way to get creative in the way they disrespect their fellow human beings. This is in no way meant to dissuade you from trying the service as a host or guest, but here are and handful of Airbnb horror stories you should be aware of.
1. The Palaiseau Murder
Let’s start on the more horrific side of the scale. When a group of 20-somethings spent a mere $435 at a 7-bedroom mansion (complete with swimming pool), they were most likely anticipating an evening of wine-soaked revelry in a swanky Parisian neighborhood. Unfortunately, what they got was a body, decomposing on the edge of the property. The corpse had been there for the better part of a month, though no identification was made at the time of the discovery. An Airbnb spokesman pledged to help in any way possible, adding, “Over 80 million people have traveled on Airbnb and problems for hosts and guests are extremely rare.” Nobody wants to stumble upon a corpse while on vacation, but you can’t blame this one on either host or guest.
2. Tourist Cubbyholes
Looking to spend a night in Brooklyn for a mere $31? So cheap it sounds illegal, right? Yeah, it was, which is why New York’s Office of Special Enforcement (aka, the illegal hotel raiding squad) shut down a 950 square foot apartment that had been divided into 8 separate rooms. The apartment was shut down because there was, “no natural light and ventilation.” In addition, the OSE stated that the apartment had inadequate means of egress (which is building talk for “it’s hard to leave quickly,” which is bad when, you know, fires happen). Sure, travelers may have only gotten a single, cheap Ikea bed and the opportunity to share 2 bathrooms with seven strangers, but they did get free WiFi, which is almost worth the thirty bucks. The moral is, do your homework before making your Airbnb arrangements, especially if it sounds too good to be true.
3. The New Year’s Bash
Anyone who’s ever used Airbnb can tell you that part of the initiation process is communicating with the proprietor of the place you intend to rent (or the person who’ll be staying with you, depending on which side you’re on). Most of the time, it’s a pretty painless process; you exchange names, pleasantries, payment info, times and dates to exchange the house key, that kind of thing. Of course, that all depends on whether or not both sides are being honest. Reshma Vasanwala and Jim Santi Owen thought they were renting their place out to an aging man from Chicago. Unfortunately, what they were getting was a local kid who just wanted to throw a kickass New Year’s Eve party. And throw he did, leaving thousands of dollars in damages. Airbnb issued a statement saying it had “reached out to the host to work with them under our $1 million host guarantee” and had banned the guest from ever renting from the site again.
