- A guest felt so unsafe in her Airbnb that she ended up sleeping in her car.
- She shared footage of the property on TikTok, showing bugs in the bathroom and stained sheets.
A woman said she spent the night in her car after discovering her Airbnb had stained bedsheets, a bedbug on the wall, and "eerie vibes."
Tiana Taylor, who shares content about her travels on Instagram and TikTok, posted a video on November 18 in which she showed the property she was supposed to be staying at in Hollywood, Florida.
She described it as "the world's worst Airbnb."
"I'm convinced I actually stayed at the world's worst Airbnb," Taylor said in the video. "I had to sleep in my car because there's no way I was staying in there."
@tianatravelss worst airbnb experience ever!!! would you stay here?? should i do a part 2?? #worstairbnb #airbnb #hollowoodflorida #floridaairbnb #airbnbsupport #airbnbhorrorstory #airbnbhost
♬ original sound - TianaTravelss
Taylor said she arrived at the property at around 11:30 p.m. and felt uneasy straight away.
She told Business Insider that as soon as she parked her car, she was "immediately scared."
"I was on FaceTime with a friend, and I said, 'This is so scary, stay on the phone with me until I get inside,'" she said.
"Upon walking up to the building, I still felt scared and skeptical, especially when I saw the crooked door handle and large screw sticking out the door. It looked as if someone had tried to break in."
She felt unsettled walking down the long, dark hallway, too.
"There was an eerie vibe inside the place," she told BI. "At no point did I feel safe and secure in the area or building."
Taylor's TikTok amassed more than 700,000 views, in which she described the lack of a door handle, a bedbug on the wall, bugs and spiders in the bathroom, and no body wash or shampoo in the shower.
She said in the video that she also saw a stain on the bedsheets.
Overall, she said her impression of the Airbnb was that it had "creepy, weird, eerie vibes," and she didn't want to stay somewhere with inadequate locks and no peephole while traveling alone. She said the neighborhood felt too unsafe to stay somewhere she thought could be broken into.
"Sleeping in my car was a much safer option," she told BI.
Taylor said in her video that she texted the host, but he was "immediately defensive and rude," so she reported him to Airbnb.
"I wasn't going to if the host was nice, but because he was rude, I reported it," she said.
Taylor posted another TikTok where she attached screenshots of the Airbnb listing. It had a 3.91-star average from 11 reviews, though she said this rating had gone down significantly since she left her own review. Before that, she said, it sat at about four out of five stars.
@tianatravelss Replying to @Kiara here it is. #worstairbnb #airbnb #airbnbsupport #airbnbhorrorstory #floridaairbnb #hollywoodflorida #airbnbhost #tianatravelss
♬ original sound - TianaTravelss
Taylor told BI there were no significant red flags when she was booking the property, except that the listing did mention that there would be spiders. There were no bad reviews that she could see, so walking in, she felt "completely blindsided."
"It did not mention bedbugs or stained sheets or no door handle in the unit," she said. "In the description of the property on Airbnb, it did not mention anything about the building being old and not taken care of. In fact, it claimed to be renovated."
The only example of renovation she could see, she said, was the cabinets in the kitchen.
"It was an absolute safety and cleanliness hazard," she said.
Airbnb was "extremely helpful" in sorting out the situation after she sent over video proof, Taylor said. The company couldn't provide a refund as that was up to the discretion of the host, but she was given credit for the amount she paid, she said.
The listing appears to have been taken down from Airbnb since Taylor posted her video. Similar properties with almost identical decor are available on the rental site Kopa. One room is available for $2,500 a month.
The host is also still active on Airbnb with multiple other properties — many of which appear to be in the same building.
BI reached out to the host through Kopa and Airbnb but did not hear back immediately.
Airbnb could not confirm whether the listing had been removed by the platform.
Taylor said she'd learned a lesson from her experience — book only with superhosts on Airbnb. She said she also wouldn't recommend anyone stay in the neighborhood she visited.
"From my TikTok comments, it seems like everyone who has stayed in an Airbnb in Hollywood, Florida, has had a negative experience," she said.