Are taxi driver then pulls up to the side of the road and says “this is your destination”. We were a bit confused because all the buildings around us didn’t look anything like the pictures so we got out the car and sat on the edge of the pavement since we were absolutely drained and had no energy. 

 
We then started phoning the Airbnb owner so he could help us out and show us where we’re staying but after two hours of consecutively ringing his phone we got no answer so we sat there thinking how dumb we were to try out Airbnb for the first time and for it to be just the two of us on our own. By now it was very dark outside and we couldn’t see a single thing so we started to get worried and started to make assumptions about how we might get kidnapped, however finally one of the street lights turned on so we could see a lot clearly. We look over to our right and see a mattress, dresser and table and immediately thought a homeless person lived there and thought how creative because it looked exactly like a little room.

We thought that enough was enough we needed somewhere to sleep and we also need a refund of our £1000 that just went down the drain, so we called Airbnb so they could at least report this host and try and get a refund. However, they then proceeded to say that it wasn’t their problem and said it was a personal problem. This left us absolutely furious because, it was not our fault at all that we were sitting on the side of the street for about three hours now. Until, we get a call from a unknown number so we opened it and it turned out to be the Airbnb owner my friend was on the phone, she then began to scream her lungs out at him and believe it or not he started laughing which just infuriated us even more he then said “your room was there the whole time” we were a bit confused we didn’t know what he meant we couldn’t see any room around us except for that little room that we assumed someone homeless owned as though we thought. He then began to say “the MATRESSSSS” and when I tell you my heart really sank to the booth of my body being shocked wasn’t even the word to describe how my friend and I were feeling. 

 
I don’t know if I forgot to mention but we got there at 01:00 in the morning it was now 04:30. The sun began to rise, we were absolutely knackered since we got not a minute to even shut our eyes and sleep because, we were to paranoid that we might get kidnapped. By now the sun had risen and that’s when we took this picture to report this person and to refrain him from trying to ever do this to anyone else, since the experience was so traumatic and horrifying.

We then immediately booked a flight home because we just had enough of all this so once we had that sorted we called our credit card company to see if they could do anything about the refund and they managed to get out money back thankfully. 

This will be the last time I will ever mention this experience since it had mentally scarred me for life.

A complete nightmare.

You can’t blame me for wanting some extra money.  Work wasn’t going so well, and my friend’s birthday was coming up soon. I was in a rut. I was cornered. Well, it doesn’t matter now. I did it. I rented out a room to a college student and will regret it every day for the rest of my life.

The signs showed themselves way early on; From talking to the guy online to when he actually got here. He was so eager to rent the room that he didn’t even look it twice over. I thought at least he didn’t seem that bad, well dressed and might be ok company if we avoided each other enough; but of course, just like anything else in this stupid world he just had to go and surprise me.

First, it was the clicking. Now you might not think it’s annoying on paper, and sure, it isn’t unless you hear it all the time. It followed me everywhere! From the early morning to when I was trying to sleep at night, all I could hear was the inherent clicking coming from his room. I’m not very imaginative, I thought maybe he was writing some stupid college essay but it Never. Stopped. I even hear it now as I am writing this and he’s not even here.

Being the good roommate I am, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And as if to reward me for my efforts he started screaming. He would blubber indecipherably as if these were cavemen times and everyone didn’t have google. I was almost joyous when he started to form his first words, it was like I was a happy parent hearing my child speak for the first time, except I wasn’t a parent, and the ‘child’ was a grown man. When he started forming full sentences, he’d shout god awful things that I definitely cannot write on this review. That mixed with his occasional war cries, I was getting quite concerned.

I thought maybe he needed company. All this time here and not a single visitor came over, and I’m not counting the pizza man, he’s probably memorized my address by now. I stopped outside his door and knocked. 

No answer, just clicking. I knocked a few more times, without getting a response.

At this point, I was just frustrated it took me this long. I was not waiting any longer. 

“That’s it, I’m going in.”

I was speechless, he was vulgar enough when we had a wall in between us; I had no idea how bad it would get once I was inside too. Now he’d gone back to screaming, I could see he was screaming into a microphone, and the clicking was his mouse and keyboard. Part of his pizza came shooting out of his mouth and right onto the microphone when he spoke, to which he glanced at and then ignored as it slowly slid off the mic. He hadn’t noticed me in the room yet, he reached out for this long stick that binmen use to pick up the trash and picked up another slice of pizza with it. Opening my mouth in shock was a mistake. The smell was so horrid you could taste it, and I gagged. Alerting him to me standing in the doorway.

 He kind of just stared at me, like a deer caught in the headlights. One hand on the keyboard and one hand holding the stick, head halfway turned towards me and his mouth hanging open. I slowly looked around now, to all the trash in the room, the week old pizza boxes and dirty underwear on top of it. 

I couldn’t bring myself to say much, I mumbled “Your week stay is over” and backed out of the room into the comfort of the corridor. 

Overall, I rate the experience a 0/10. It took me a long time to get to where I am now and the journey was, well, a journey.

Have fun renting your next Air bnb.

653 words ^