Airbnb suspends listing as guest exposes roach-infested house literally falling apart
X/SureAsMelAn Airbnb guest’s nightmare is going viral after the rental platform originally refused to give her a refund despite having to contend with cockroaches, mice, and the house literally falling apart.
Traveling can be quite expensive, and for those looking for something cheaper than a hotel, an Airbnb can normally offer a cheaper alternative – but one woman got more than she bargained for.
In a viral thread on X, writer M. L. Rio documented her time at a house she had the luxury of paying a total $2,500 for a month’s stay.
While this may have seemed like a decent deal at the time, things quickly went to hell when the unit’s flaws were revealed… and were only made worse by lack of support by Airbnb staff.
Airbnb guest exposes filthy nightmare house with leaks, roaches and rodents
As shown in a series of photos through a massive thread, Rio explained how the location she was staying at looked different from the photos.
The red flags continued when she discovered multiple cockroaches in the house, and then stumbled across mouse droppings.
Not only that, but the guest also started experiencing hot water issues when trying to wash a roach down the drain. When she contacted Airbnb for help, she was baffled when they asked if she could send “documentation” to support the claim.
To make matters worse, on a night when it was raining, the ceiling began to leak – and when she ended up contacting Airbnb again, she was thrown another curveball.
Guest forced to return to Airbnb after refund fiasco
“So I get on the phone again and finally, FINALLY! Someone seems prepared to help. She makes all the right sympathetic noises and says she can offer me a refund, but only if I check out by 11 per the host’s policy,” she said.
After packing a month’s worth of belongings and getting her partner to drive an hour to come get her, the Airbnb rep who offered the refund vanished before another staff member called and hung up on her.
“I spend two hours on the phone, with different reps who are not any of the first five reps I spoke to, telling me that they have no idea who promised me a refund even though they recorded the call and I gave them a timestamp,” she added, revealing she had no choice but to move back in. “I’ve messaged the host but they’re not responding, and calling support is worse than useless, so here we are!”
So far, Rio’s stay has gone ultra viral, amassing over 27M views on X alone – and she’s not done with the updates yet, although she ended up deciding enough was enough and just headed home once more.
“They’re talking refunds now, but still trying to make me pay 70% of the cost of the nights I spent in the unit after they FORCED ME TO MOVE BACK IN by refusing me a refund in the first place!” she exclaimed.
Luckily, Airbnb has since refunded the guest after the incident spread across the internet.
“We were sorry to hear about our guest’s experience, and our team has fully refunded them and offered further support through our AirCover protection for guests. We enforce quality standards for listings, and have suspended this listing from the platform,” an Airbnb spokesperson told Dexerto.
Despite all of these shenanigans, the writer at least found comfort in one part of her stay, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
“If it discourages any one of you from ever booking with Airbnb, then at least I achieved something.”
For more wild stories like this, keep it locked to Dexerto.
