16 Airbnb Horror Stories You Won’t Believe Are True

When you’re renting out your property for the first time, there’s a seemingly never-ending list of things to do. From automating check-in to sorting your vacation rental agreement, you’ll spend plenty of time perfecting each and every detail for your incoming guests.

But what happens when these guests aren’t what they seem? What happens if it’s a downright nightmare?

That’s right—while we tend to hear about Airbnb horror stories for guests, some hosts have their own terrifying tales to tell. The majority of Airbnb hosts and vacation rental owners will only have fantastic guest experiences to share, but there are some very rare occasions when things don’t go exactly to plan.

The most terrifying Airbnb horror stories

Although we’re not trying to scare you, we’ve scoured the internet to collect some of the most utterly disastrous Airbnb horror stories for hosts of the last few years.

Hopefully, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief reading these tales, knowing that it’s highly unlikely it’ll happen to you. And remember: if you want to reduce the risks to a minimum, setting up some house rules beforehand may save you many headaches down the road. You can download our free Airbnb house rules template here or in the form at the end of the article.

Without further ado, here are some of the worst Airbnb host horror stories we could find!

Do you have goosebumps yet? If not, here are some additional Airbnb horror stories for you!

1. The flat that became a pop-up brothel

In a time-old tale of trusting your gut instincts, Colin found out the hard way that an Airbnb guest who wanted to pay cash (rather than through the website’s secure system) should’ve been a red flag from the beginning. A quick Google of the guests’ names led Colin to discover they were actually high-profile escorts who had been using the property with their clients.

Upon arrival, he found empty wine and Prosecco bottles, along with used condoms and wrappers overflowing from the trash. He suspects the escorts made a grand total of more than £5,000 during their two-night stay in his £85/night rental.

2. The “should have known” New Year’s disaster

When Rikki Campbell booked Christina McQuillian’s London apartment for “New Year’s celebrations,” the host didn’t think twice before accepting. A few hours and a few thousand pounds worth of damage later, neighbours called McQuillian to warn her of a 100-person-strong party that was happening at her London home. In addition to leaving a stench of cannabis behind, the partygoers also managed to rip floorboards and pull a television off the wall.

3. The Airbnb apartment turned “junkie den”

In Sydney, host Holly rented out her apartment for 10 days, hoping the money she earned would help pay off some credit card debt. After check-out, Holly went home to check on her property and do a bit of cleaning. That’s when she found out the guest had lied about the purpose of her visit.

In addition to finding drug paraphernalia, drugs, and other unidentifiable substances strewn across the apartment, Holly saw that her home had been completely ransacked. Valuable items had been stolen, expensive rugs were used as ashtrays, and the only towels left behind were blood-soaked. The guest and her visitors caused more than $10,000 AUD worth of damage in total. Yikes!

4. The Airbnb Experience gone wrong

The idea behind Airbnb’s music Experiences was to bring people together for intimate, exclusive gigs. It did not, however, expect tourists to take advantage of this and hold all-night raves in locals’ apartments.

The party in question was fully equipped with a professional sound system and even a bouncer to approve tickets, squeezing an apparent 200 or so people into a one-bedroom apartment and partying until 6 a.m. And all this happened while the Airbnb host was away in Vietnam and couldn’t do anything to help…

5. The Airbnb guests that refused to leave the apartment

Cory Tshcogl rented her vacation rental apartment in Palm Springs to two brothers for six weeks. The booking process went smoothly and everything seemed normal. However, they refused to check out. They cited California’s tenant rights which makes it difficult to evict guests/tenants after 30 days without having to pay relocation fee.

Fortunately, the Pashanin brothers left quietly in the night after two months without any damages thanks to a firestorm of publicity and the help of couple of lawyers. (Airbnb offered to pick up the legal fees.)

6. Getting a bad review from a guest that never stayed at the vacation rental

A woman with 5-star reviews on Airbnb booked a vacation rental for the MotoGP weekend. The owner had instant booking activated on her account so she was automatically accepted. The problem is that she never stayed at her property. Her fiancé and guy friends trashed the Airbnb and left bags of trash and food everywhere. They even stole bottles of liquor that were hidden around the house.

The woman who booked never complained while her fiancé and friends were trashing the house, but after they checked out, she left a nasty review about the rental.

7. The Hangover movie set

Looking to make a few dollars during the Ryder Cup, Heather Harnell decided to rent her condo using Airbnb. Her first-ever guests? They left her apartment making The Hangover movie set look tame.

In addition to reports of there having been around 60 people in the apartment, the host found cigarette burns throughout the bedrooms and living room, trash tossed everywhere, the TV had been stolen, and just about everything else was broken or gone. Total damage price tag? A whopping $14,000!

8. The smell of death

Owners who rented out their cabin to five young adults came back to a disgusting smell of death. The only thing they found to explain the special smell was six dead deer underneath the house.

9. The hosts who would’ve preferred their house had burned down

As many of these stories go, people who throw parties in Airbnbs do this for a reason: They don’t want to ruin their own homes. Which is, unfortunately, exactly what happened to Star and Mark King’s Calgary home when they rented it on Airbnb.

Police said they’d never seen a house which had been trashed so badly, and the owners themselves wished the house had burned down, rather than the total destruction that took place: food everywhere, occupants had urinated everywhere, and furniture such as sofas and tables were completely broken beyond repair. Police described the episode as a “drug-induced orgy” and an estimated $50-75,000 worth of damage was caused.

10. The house that actually burned down

While most of these tales come from the point of view of the host of the Airbnb, guest horror stories exist too. That’s the case with this cautionary tale, which comes from a former employee who shared their experience on reddit.

“I used to work Customer Service for Airbnb. One night at around 4 am, I got a call from a guest saying that the place they rented was burning down. Twenty minutes later, I got a call from a host saying that a guest had burned their place down. It wasn’t really my job to figure out who was at fault, or even what actually happened, but one thing was certain. That place did burn down.”

(Note to any guests reading: Airbnb customer help is not the fire department. Always call the emergency services before anyone else if the rental you are staying in starts to burn down.)

11. Guest busts through the window after a double booking mishap

Sometimes guests take matters into their own hands when they’re unsatisfied with a situation. We want our guests to feel at home, but only to a certain extent. Climbing through the window to enter the property? Well, yeah, that’s probably past the line.

This happened to one host who accidentally double-booked his property. When the door was locked, despite having a reservation, the guest climbed through the window to enter the home only to find another guest already enjoying the stay.

Busted window Airbnb

Oh, the joys of not having a channel manager, huh? You can avoid nightmares like this one by using channel manager software and never have a double booking-induced break-in again!

12. The Airbnb that’s not an Airbnb

Being an Airbnb host and owning a vacation rental can be rewarding, despite the occasional horror. Meeting and sharing stories with people from all across the globe makes the job worth it, but what if you never signed up to be an Airbnb host? Or worse yet, your house isn’t even for rent!

Horror stories Airbnb

This is exactly what happened to one host…who’s not actually a host. A property owner noticed that his home was on Airbnb…but he had never signed up nor hosted anyone even once! This was a regular, run-of-the-mill homeowner who saw his primary residence listed on Airbnb by someone else. Imagine coming home to find guests waiting for you with suitcases in tow for an Airbnb you never were aware of? A definite nightmare!

13. Forced entry and forgiveness

After a long and exhausting journey, all you want to do is have a smooth check-in without any waiting. It’s happened to all of us from time to time: You’re ridden with luggage, exhausted, and you have to wait to enter your Airbnb. For some, it’s annoying, for others, it’s unbearable.

On a particularly dreadful and rainy day in Washington, one guest arrived at the property only to find the key was missing. After some back and forth with the owner to find a solution, the guest insisted he’d find a way to enter the property and hung up. Not exactly what a vacation rental owner wants to hear.

Airbnb nightmare stories

The guest decided to throw a rock directly through the glass of the back door to enter the property. After entering and, perhaps, thinking over his decision to bust through the door, he offered to pay for the replacement and went to cover it with insulating plastic the next day until the new glass arrived. A horror story with a happy ending!

Guests can find some clever (yet costly) ways to enter a property when keys aren’t readily available. Traditional keys are on the way out and automated entry is the latest trend (for reasons like this one!). Luckily, Lodgify integrates with technology like Chekin that allows you to automate your check-ins and pass off a “virtual key” to guests for entry from their mobile devices. No more lost keys or broken windows.

14. The paranoid patron

From a host’s perspective, you’re allowing multiple strangers to enter your home and sleep at your property without really knowing much about them. There’s a level of assumed trust and maybe suspicion, but what about for guests?

Airbnb horror stories reddit

One guest, in particular, was extremely paranoid that her Airbnb had hidden cameras throughout the unit. Despite the hosts being live-in, her fears couldn’t be swayed. According to Reddit user HTwatter:

“She dismantled the lighting fixtures, picture frames, medicine cabinets, remote controls, etc. Edit: They were live-in hosts renting out the main part of their home. She also de-potted plants, removed smoke detectors, hid all of the refrigerator magnets, and destroyed her cell phone.”

15. The spiritual crime scene

Most hosts get into the Airbnb game to make a little extra cash. But what if guests have the same idea for your Airbnb?

But let’s back up. When this host rented out their Airbnb, apparently to a woman in her 60s looking for some rest and relaxation, they didn’t think twice about it. But what turned out to be a fake Airbnb profile was the least of the host’s worries after the guest checked out:

“When I arrived home, I found the bathtub with disgusting dirt in it. There were burn marks throughout my home where they had been burning sage throughout the house. I had burn holes in my tile, bathtub and carpet. There were symbols drawn on my mirrors in the house and weird stuff burning in a pot on the stove. They left money on the counter and empty boxes of spirit bathing oils in the bathroom. Needless to say, I felt very uncomfortable in my home after that.”

A little digging, and the host found out that their guest was not a woman in her 60s, but a man who gets paid to conduct rituals—in Airbnbs, apparently. Yikes.

16. The peanut butter crime scene

It’s not out of the norm for guests to leave things behind. Be it restaurant leftovers, stray socks, or sunscreen, travelers often forget their belongings causing, at most, a minor inconvenience to hosts.

One host found that a guest took this to the extreme. It was clear that the guest had been a peanut butter and jelly fanatic, as illustrated by the “gifts” he left behind.

Airbnb guest personal food

“I get home, open the door, and as I go to close it I realize it’s a little sticky. I don’t really think anything of it at this point. I walk over to the sink and wash my hands and as I grab the knob I realize it’s covered in peanut butter. I turn around looking for additional clues and find two jars: peanut butter, jelly, each covered in their respective contents. Yes, there is some peanut butter all over the floor.”

And later, “about a day after he leaves I grab a bottle of vodka from our little wet bar area. Sticky. I look at the bottle cap. Peanut butter. I look around at the other bottles, lift up the near-empty cognac bottle and look at the neck of the bottle. Peanut butter. At this point, I nearly laughed out loud because I felt like I was in a Scooby-Doo cartoon putting together clues to find the culprit.”

Talk about a sticky situation!

Have an Airbnb horror story of your own?

Owners, don’t let these Airbnb horror stories put you off renting out your vacation home: Just a very small percentage of hosts have been unfortunate enough to have a bad experience like this. After all, over 5 million hosts can’t be wrong about the platform!

Happy hosting and, if you have any horror Airbnb stories to share, we’d love to hear them.

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  1. You got most of the story right except for the part about it happens ‘rarely’.
    As a host that was damaged by the ‘wild ones’ – We encountered cleaning fees (2 days- 16 hours – 8 trash bags of garbage alone removed from the home – and NOT from the trash cans- though those sat overflowing onto the floors in every room) – food on walls, upholstered furniture, empty wine bottles stuffed under beds, a one foot diameter of hot candle wax burned & smeared around the wood dining room table, candle wax on wood floors, cd player, laptop, printer, wood desk top. Broken game room equipment & rattan outdoor furniture. The home turned completely ‘upside down’ – nothing returned to it’s original location.

    In addition they blew out all the power to the home and the electric co had to be called to reset main breakers outside – neighbors stated they were surprised planes were not landing on the lawn mistaking the home for the airport runway.

    And excerpts of exact wording of a letter from the caretaker to Airbnb:
    “After the xxxx group departed I did my usual checkout – I cannot begin to tell you what a despicable, deplorable condition in which I found the home”
    “Pictures will not properly display the disgusting condition in which these guests left the home.”
    “Unfortunately this group disregarded all rules and requests”
    “This was unconscionable and with total disregard to the property and the property owner”

    Guests damaged/destroyed and were charged for a dining room table, 2 suede dining room chairs, a fabric rocker, an office desk, 2 outdoor patio rattan chairs, a laptop, printer, CD player, an electronic basketball game, as well as other asst smaller items.

    And the guests you might presume were nothing short of ‘spring breakers’?? Wrong – 11 women ranging from 35-80 and 5 assorted children.

    Couple all that with it taking 41 days to get Airbnb to ‘admit’ we had a problem – 21 times I had to submit requests for damages to various ‘Team Members” – Contacting BBB & writing a letter to my Governor (who is forming a ‘task force’ to handle Airbnb complaints), daily beatings on Social Media and AirBnbHell.com – I finally recouped a percentage of my ‘losses’ and after that I promptly closed my account. NEVER again will I deal with such an ‘operation’ as Airbnb.

    But the MOST surprising of all this was the shear number of Hosts that I have since encountered that have been damaged by Guests and wronged by Airbnb.
    May all current and prospective Hosts ~Beware~

  2. Just wanted to confirm something that David points out – actually getting AirBnB to acknowledge complaints takes a LONG time. I’m a guest (a very considerate guest), and the couple of times I had to turn to AirBnB for help – they just avoided it, passed it off, claimed they’d call back and didn’t, and you have to harass them like it’s your full-time job to get anything done about it.

    At least with something like Craigslist you know you’re on your own. Working with AirBnB customer service is really frustrating, and there’s this expectation that they’ll have your back in the case of scams or misrepresentation or abusive hosts. I think they actually just see themselves as mediators. Problem is – if the host and guest are both reasonable people, they don’t need AirBnB’s mediation at all. They just cause one additional problem in getting their fees refunded. If host or guest or both are not acting reasonably – it just goes back and forth to whoever makes the bigger fuss, until one of you gives up.

    1. Agree totally! Despite these horrific stories they don’t seem to have the
      Guest’s interest at hand. Pictures cannot capture smell!!! So many can look good on camera!

  3. I’ve been considering using Airbnb to save on hotels and to live like a local but now I’m not so sure. And I definitely won’t use the site as a host, even though it seemed like a great passive income opportunity.

  4. Airbnb consistently refuses to uphold the terms of its agreements with hosts and guest which leaves many wondering… what are we paying them to administer for??? They provide an advertising service but are entirely incompetant when it comes to fulfilling legal obligations. Been hosting and guesting for 5 years. Never gets any better which is why the IPO never happened. #epicfail

  5. Whereas these horror stories are true ‘horror’ stories, they don’t completely give a good expectation of what most hosts will actually experience. Our home was purchased as a retirement property in 2017, even though we were no where near retiring (right property, wrong timing). Being 2 states away, it took some time to get it furnished and dialed in to what we wanted it to be. We were planning on doing VRBO in 2020,then Covid happened. We did not rent it until 2021. Our first season we had 12 guest reservations booking 91 days. For the most part, they were good, but 2 of the long term guests were the piggiest humans I have ever encountered. Floors looked like they were sprayed with soda pop then lived on for 2 weeks…black sticky yuck everywhere. Ink pen all over bed linens, upholstery used as napkins and nose tissue. Pizza under cushions, tape and staples all over the log home walls, fruit leather ground into the wood, trash crammed in log cracks, chicken wing in toaster, indoor furniture taken out of doors, outdoor furniture brought in, furniture moved around, furniture broken, beautiful hand knit throws taken outside and used as picnic blankets, refrigerated food left opened in cupboards, pots, pans, dishes and glasses put away dirty…literally dirty and unwashed. Broken wash machine from overloading, broken pull chains on ceiling fans from pulling too hard, completely scratched nonstick cookware, burnt stainless cookware, chipped kitchen knife which was probably because someone sat there ‘chopping’ the wood cutting board like firewood. We even had to have bat remediation people come in because they left the door open at dusk and one flew in.

    It has changed our opinion of thinking that 14 day and 18 day reservations were a good thing. Though, we did have an excellent 21 day guest that left the home perfectly clean too. Yes…they can damage things in 3 days, but it seems like these 2 groups got a little too comfy in our gorgeous home and did whatever they wanted. I don’t get it, I never will.

    Our damages were all able to be fixed and cleaned without replacing the items except plastic wares melted in the dishwasher, white towels washed with darks and colors, knife, cut board and cookware. Our total $ loss was under $500 for the season but still makes me mad. Just expect the unexpected and prepare to become far more judgmental of other humans.

  6. These are not horror stories, this is nothing compared to what my Airbnb has been through. One of my damage claims was over $30,000. One of them. I have cameras up all over the outside of the house, my home has an indoor pool so it attracts porn stars who want to film in the pool room, wannabes that want to film music videos, and people wanting to throw bachelor parties. We’ve had piss and shit on the walls, Red Bull sprayed on the ceiling, Dollar bills and feather boas at the bottom of the pool, tVs ripped off walls, holes in walls, our lawn ripped up from hundreds of vehicles driving over it for parties, strippers showing up doing drugs and then driving too fast and smashing into neighbors houses and trees, I could literally go on for days. And in my case, it’s not rare unfortunately.

  7. Why not publish more good stories.
    I am an ex Airbnb host and I got mostly very nice guests in my short time doing it.
    (it was voted against going it at A.G.M. in apartment block)
    .

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