Fairy tales inadvertently teach children that entering a stranger's home can lead to amazing
discoveries.
Belle trespassed into the Beast's bachelor pad, then found herself a hairy new boyfriend.
And Hansel and Gretel learned that houses can be made of magical diabetes.
Given the popularity of such stories, you might expect most kids to become thrill-seeking
cat burglars in adulthood.
Thankfully, the majority of grown-ups find less questionable ways to explore unfamiliar
abodes.
One of those ways is Airbnb.
But unlike children's stories, Airbnb stays don't include golden eggs or edible rooftops.
Nevertheless, the surprises people find, both renters and hosts, can seem just as grim and
ridiculous as anything you've read in fairy tales.
Invitation of the body snatcher
In 2017, French tourist Carole Escaliere learned firsthand how sketchy Airbnb users can be.
While searching for work in Silicon Valley, she rented a house in nearby Daly City, California.
Her host, Zameer Azam, assured her that she'd share the space with "one other woman."
Obviously Azam needed math and biology tutors, because that second female was actually several
dudes.
"Carole called the police after some male guests made advances to her in her bedroom
and walked in on her in the shower."
After doing some digging, reporters for KPIX CBS in the Bay Area uncovered the sketchy
truth about the host:
"Who lives in the basement served 10 years in state prison for kidnapping and beating
the mother of his child."
Worse yet, despite Airbnb's claims to the contrary, "the most basic background check"
would have exposed this dark past.
The story has an incredibly happy ending though:
"Airbnb refunded Carole right away."
See that?
If you're almost assaulted by a bunch of strangers, you'll definitely get your money back!
Err-bnb
According to Colorado Fox affiliate KDVR, in 2017 Marissa Fox and some friends arranged
to spend a week at a house in Broomfield, Colorado.
Not long into their stay, however, it dawned on them that something was amiss.
Specifically, their personal belongings had gone missing and unfamiliar items had appeared.
"There was like a bunch of needles, and then they had this little tray thing and I don't
know if they were, like, snorting stuff, too."
Turns out, there was a pretty good reason why the rental turned into a house-sized Lost
and Found for illicit substances.
When police arrived, they delivered the news:
"They were surprised that air bnb um let them rent from or let us rent from them because
it was a known crack house in town"
Sadly for the corporation that rented a woman and her friends a literal crackhouse, Airbnb
seems to have lost a customer as a result of the incident:
"Will you be using air bnb ever again?"
"No, absolutely not."
A blown-up opportunity
In 2017, various Windy City news outlets reported that Airbnb host Mike Duckworth rented out
a single-room in his Chicago home.
When the renter, Michael Debrown, asked about where to buy drugs, why his door didn't have
a lock, then left the house, Duckworth got suspicious.
That's when he looked inside the room and discovered his guest had installed some security
cameras...and that's not all:
"And on the bed was like a huge brown tube with like a huge like green wick sticking
out of it.
Then there was a bunch of like soldering tools, like a heat gun"
Duckworth evacuated his home and called the cops.
Police initially identified Debrown's device as "a box of old wires," per The Chicago Tribune.
They later realized those old wires were part of a new 10-inch pipe bomb that contained
nearly half a pound of explosive powder.
Authorities subsequently detained Debrown.
Duckworth, meanwhile, couldn't help himself and declared his Airbnb was, quote, "the Bomb."
The Trojan horde
According to reporting by Cleveland.com and NBC affiliate WKYC, Isaiah Shahid rented a
room in the Ohio home of Airbnb host Sangmyung Lee over New Year's Eve weekend in 2017.
The terms of the rental were crystal clear:
"$40 per room, five people maximum"
At some point Lee gave his renter permission to throw "a small party."
Big mistake:
Turns out that Shahid had advertised a New Year's Eve party on Twitter and charged each
attendee $5.
The resulting crowd was purportedly, quote, "packed so tightly in each of the rooms and
up the stairwell, it did not appear there was space for anyone to extend their arms."
Cops were called to disperse the partygoers, many of whom drunkenly jumped through, and
broke, windows while fleeing.
Trashed revelers completely trashed Lee's house, a truly garbage way to start the year.
"Oh my god this..."
And of course, this story has another trademark happy ending that you've come to expect by
now:
"Now Lee was charged with a noise complaint and he will have to appear in court later
this month."