Most of us have stayed in a vacation rental of some sort, but how many of us can say we run one? For most of us, the sorts of stories hosts must have never really occur to us... til now.
Reddit user Redscouts asked:
AirBnB hosts of Reddit, what's your most interesting story about a guest?
We're not even going to lie to you, some of these are incredibly disgusting, brutal, and illegal. But the "most interesting" story isn't always the worst. Some people's responses were actually kind of adorable and sweet! Not the one about the gang fight, though. That one's pretty solidly in the "brutal, bloody and illegal" category...
The Gift of Art
My wife and I used to rent out our upstairs when AirBnb first hit our region of the country. Back then, all of the guests were amazing. One of our favorites was a German couple and their daughter. The husband and daughter spoke English well enough, but the wife never said a word. They stayed for 3 days or so and were very polite. When they left, the wife left behind a sheet of cardstock for us where she drew a replica of one of our wedding photographs that was hanging on the wall. It was amazing and we framed it and now it hangs on our wall as well.
Doorknobs
Not me but a friend. She rented out a 100 year old house that had been renovated but still had its original doorknobs. When the guests moved out it turned out they had taken the door knobs.
Apparently the AirBnB guests were renovating their own house in California and thought that the doorknobs would look really nice in their home. Nine of them. They stole nine door knobs! So then insurance gets involved, my friend refused to settle because she wanted the original door knobs back, insurance offered her $27,000 – that's $3000 per door knob – but she still refused and threatened to file a lawsuit etc. Finally she got her doorknobs back but it was a lot of trouble.
Mid-Breakfast Rapture
My worst guest left a dirty nappy (diaper) sitting on the couch for me to dispose of. They generally left things in a state. The bedding had all been removed and put on the floor so they could sleep on the floors. Breakfast looked like they had been raptured half way through. I remember thinking it was really odd that a big family breakfast had just been abandoned... toast... coffee.. half full bowls of cereal.
And they just stood up and walked away from that. I wouldn't be able to not tidy that up for my host at least a bit. But to some extent they pay enough money I don't get annoyed when I get in to find a mess. The nappy though, I was not happy about that.
The most annoying thing that guests did was show up early to be honest. I was inevitably cleaning the place from the last guest and didn't want them to see it in a state. And they just wanted to get in and start enjoying their trip. I just found that way more stressful than I would imagine from the other side.
- aw356
Chicken Murdering Drug Thieves
My in-laws run an Air BnB with a farm and they also do drugs. They let tenants stay for free for long periods of time as long as they help with house work. A particular couple came to stay with them for several months and brought their dog. Their dog killed a couple of the chickens, and the couple stole my FIL's prescribed pain killers and weed, and then they bounced. But my in-laws had copies of their driver's licenses so they were caught.
Dreaming Of A Wine Christmas
My parents have Airbnb Wine Barrel Pods that people can sleep in right smack in the middle of Mexican Wine Country (about 90min south of San Diego). Last Christmas, a British couple that had been traveling around wine country rented out one of the wine barrels. My parents and the rest of my visiting family invited the British couple to experience a real Mexican Christmas in their house and ranch with Piñatas, games, amazing food, and plenty of wine and tequila.
The couple had the best vibes, and my family loved having outsiders experience a traditional, jovial Mexican holiday party and they all ended up having such a wonderful time together. So much so, that they all have stayed in touch since, and are planning on coming to visit again this holiday season. Airbnb has brought my parents so many memorable experiences and positive connections with people from all over, it makes me so happy to see them get so excited over meeting so many different people that enjoy being their guests.
The Paint Job
We have a vacation rental that is mainly families and couples so it's pretty rare the property manager needs to call me for anything. He called me an was like: "Are all the rooms in the house supposed to be white?"
I was like: "Yeah, the previous owners painted all the bedrooms dorm room white to sell it. We've wanted to change it for a while."
He said, "Yeah, well, one of the rooms is definitely changed."
A couple stayed there for 3 weeks and apparently got bored and repainted one of the rooms a nice robin's egg blue with some very pro trimming that went perfectly with the artwork and the comforter. I didn't know whether to be mad or not. Like, it was really really well done color wash that would take a long time to do and was way better than something we would've been willing to pay for.
We told them they want to stay another time and do another room will give you one week for free. 4 more years and we'll have all of the rooms done.
Student/Teacher Relations
My wife rented out our spare room to earn extra cash and I didn't get involved with it at all. She met me for dinner one night after work and casually mentioned that we had a couple from Germany staying with us.
No big deal, we had dinner then came home. When we got home they were sitting on the couch and I immediately recognized one as my student at the university I teach at. We said an awkward hello and my wife and I went to our bedroom.
We heard the door slam and the guests were gone. They had rented our place to get out of the dorms for the night and thought they were renting the whole apartment, not just one room. I think we may have arrived home just before they started having sex on the couch. We live far enough away from the university that the students assumed they'd be staying with total strangers.
I saw the female student in class the next week and she was pretty embarrassed. It was difficult because I wanted to convey to her that my wife and I didn't care and that is what being young is all about. Instead we just chose to pretend that it never happened.
Gone Country
GiphyA guy used our guitar to write a country song, apparently inspired by the view of the city. A few months later, he emailed me the recording he'd made in our apartment, as well as the finished product as it played on the radio. That was pretty cool.
Couldn't Find The Trash Bags
My friend is a host who travels a lot so when he's not in town I help him out by cleaning rooms and setting things up for the next guests. He has a 2 bedroom spot where each room is on opposite sides with the kitchen and living room in the middle. He typically has both rooms rented out by different people at all times.
The worst encounter I've had was when he asked me to go clean and prep a room that he said only had 1-2 guests. I had to go specifically at that time because the new guests were coming in soon to check in.
When I arrived to clean the room I found out that it wasn't just 1-2 guests staying in the room. It was 7-8 college kids who trashed the place and all crashed there. All of them were still there getting ready to leave. They had left an UNGODLY amount of trash. I mean literally boxes and boxes of garbage.
They had finished a 64 pack of coke and several 6 packs of different beers. They left empty pizza boxes, ramen cups, take out leftovers, all the cans/bottles were dispersed around the counters and on the floor. There was decomposing food left everywhere from the bathroom to the bedroom to the living room, kitchen counter, floor, etc.
They had used 7-8 towels which they left around the bathroom floor with water spilled everywhere. They left their shoes on the whole time and the dirt from the shoes mixed with the water on the floor to create mud streaks on the bathroom tile, kitchen tile, living room wood, and carpet in the bedroom. Someone had thrown up in the living room on the floor because there was randomly a dirty stinky mop just right next to an area.
I cannot overstate how nasty the entire place was.
When I arrived I asked if they were going to clean up the place or at least help collect their trash which they just left everywhere. They barely spoke English and one guy (who I'm assuming was the person who booked the room) asked if it was okay if they could just leave all their trash everywhere for me to pick up. I was shocked.
I'm only one college student, not a professional maid service! I didn't even know what to say to that.
The guy's excuse was "We didn't know where the trash bags were to clean our stuff up." That was complete bullsh*t because the bags were underneath the sink right next to the trash can they had overstuffed with maybe 1/16th of their total trash!
I didn't even say anything to him and just took out the trash bags and placed them on the counter next to him. He looked at me worried and told his friends to start cleaning up. I went in to the bathroom and closed the door so I could call my friend and tell him how badly they trashed the place.
When I came out they had all scurried out of the place after only putting a few bottles and cans in a trash bag. They left a f*ckton of trash for me to clean up. It took me so long to clean all of that up, mop the floors they stained with dirt and vomit, wipe the counters (they had left out ramen which spilled on the kitchen counter and had hardened over night), soak up the water spilled in the bathroom floor, scrub the toilet which they blew up (I won't tell you how gross that was), change all the sheets, vacuum the floor, etc. I was fuming. How can people have so little respect and not care at all about the mess they leave?
Lonely, Clingy and Rich
My house was an Air b&b for about a year, and we had all sorts of strange guests but this was probably the oddest. This old guy, I forget his name, started staying with us about 4 days out of the week and did so for 3 months. Very rich guy, had his own plane, estate fancy cars and all, and a young daughter who he missed very much as he worked very far from home during the week.
After a couple weeks he sort of expected us to eat together, sometimes taking us to dinner. Me and my mum didn't mind as he was nice company and shared our taste for food and wine. He started to get a little more clingy around the two month mark, which fell around Christmas time. He offered to take us on rides to his estate on his plane to holiday for Christmas and spend time with his daughter.
We began to feel very uncomfortable, and graciously declined to spend time elsewhere for the holidays. He understood but was disappointed.
When we returned from Christmas and went back to the regular routine of him staying during the week, he basically treated us like he would a house wife and child. He insisted on driving me to class, and would bring back pieces of meat easily worth £200 per hunk after work. My mother and I are both busy and it took two weeks to explain that we wouldn't have time to make such a large supper every day and we weren't used to all this expensive treatment. He eventually got the message about the meat but started buying us gifts, he seemed to be the type to show his affection through material things.
I will remind you that we were just his air b&b hosts, WE GOT FREAKED OUT!!! He bought us huge (sadly not very pretty) glass sculptures and ornaments to fill the house, flowers and new kitchenware... and if he didn't see them out or see anyone using them he'd get upset. At this point we decided to just block the days on Air b&b that he usually booked and said we were booked up.
I think he got the message and after a few tearful calls to the house he backed off.
Gang Wars
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 traveled 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.
We were left to clean this mess up on our own, so we just re-carpeted the whole place rather than try and salvage what was there.
- L1A1
Counter Tops
I had one guy ruin my counter tops. He set a super hot cast iron on them and they burnt into the cheap material. When I was asking him why he did that he said "Well, you didn't have any rules saying not to..."
Aaaaannnnddd THAT was the final person to stay in my place and the last time I did AirBnB.
Bath Bomb
Not a host but a tenant:
I was on my honeymoon with my husband and we decided to use a bath bomb in our AirBnB (bad idea). All was well until we emptied the tub and it was pitch black from the bath bomb - of course.
We tried cleaning it up as best as we could and had used one of the towels to try to clean up some of the mess but there was still some staining.
I ended up having to pay for them to buy a new shower liner and a new towel. I still feel bad for the guy but we both gave each other a great rating so it all worked out, also I'm never using a bath bomb in an AirBnB again.
This Parting Gift
I hosted my college apartment for 3 months a few summers ago. I had a couple from Spain staying and we ended up talking for a while when they were checking out. Cool people. After they left I went to clean the bedroom and they left a used condom on the nightstand...
Tornado Sirens
My landlord recently listed a unit in our building as an aBnB. One day last month, the weather turned, and I heard tornado sirens outside. My upstairs neighbor came flying down the stairs to the basement and I let her in.
My husband just got home from work, and I thought it was weird his car was just sitting out there - why wasn't he coming inside? There was a tornado coming!
I asked my neighbor, who said, "he's talking to the Air BnB people - they don't speak English, and he's trying to explain what's going on." My husband speaks some Spanish, and he apparently got the point across, as we could hear them in the other side of the basement.
I'm sure that's not what the visiting family were expecting when they booked their stay, but at least the storm passed without incident in our region.
Moths
I had a guest contact me in the middle of the night FURIOUS about an insect problem. The house was built in the 20s and despite new windows and improved insulation the occasional bug managed to find its way in. I was deeply apologetic and psyching myself up to murder a spider or something... until I realized that the bugs were moths and and they weren't so much in the house as outside, attracted the the front porch light. The guest was horrified because she wanted to go out to her car but the moths were in the way.
Suggestions to turn off the porch light for a bit (rejected, did not want to "encourage crime") or use the side door (rejected, too far from the car) were rejected. And these weren't giant bat-sized moths, they were no bigger than a quarter and there were maybe a half dozen of them.
This was in Nashville, Tennessee in August. She's lucky she missed the 17 year cicada cycle, she would have probably died.
A Bad Rating
We have a 9.8 overall rating. I'm the reason we don't have a 10. I was home alone and didn't know we had tourists in the other apartment. I had a girl come over and we had some craaaaaaazy wild sex.
We get a 7.5 and the review said "Sounded like a weird sex party was going on."
My parents were not happy.
Bags of Evidence
I had a lady stay for one night. The next day I came to clean the place after she left and she had 3-4 garbage bags that were full sitting in my living room. They were those stretching garbage bags. So when I went to pick them up I saw that every bag was slap full of sex toy boxes, feathers, empty containers for leather items. Seems my condo was abused in all sorts of dirty ways.
Took my time making sure to give everything an extra scrub while wearing thick gloves!
Bear Suit
GiphyMy brother rented his apartment out via air BnB. One of their guests left some kind of bear suite/onesie in his house. He never understood what happened and what it was used for. The group staying were 4 Chinese girls....
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.