A woman shared that she had a rather unusual Airbnb experience after the host entered their rental without permission or a prior warning.
Posting to the subreddit r/Airbnb, she questioned if she should take action against the Airbnb host after feeling a bit weirded out about certain events that had happened during her stay.
The woman said she felt ‘extremely uncomfortable’ after the Airbnb host invaded her privacy to turn off a fan.
“I’m hoping to receive some advice about a situation that I am actively dealing with. I’m staying in an Airbnb with my boyfriend in Hawaii and we are from Iowa,” she began in her Reddit post.
“It is a studio room with a private entrance attached to a house where the host and their family live.”
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She explained that upon arriving at the Airbnb, she and her boyfriend were provided a key for their private entrance.
Everything started off fine until they returned to their room after a day out and found the fan they had left on to keep their bedroom cool was turned off.
The Airbnb host admitted that she turned the fan off while they were gone.
Since the couple intentionally left the fan on, they were immediately on alert that someone had been in their room when they noticed that it was turned off.
She wrote, “this came off to us as a huge invasion of privacy and made us extremely uncomfortable knowing someone entered our space.”
It didn’t take long to realize that it had been the Airbnb host who’d come in to turn the fan off.
“Later, I received a message a few hours later from them asking us to turn off fans after we leave, proving it was her turning off our fan and entering our personal space,” she wrote.
Adding, “What do we do? We still have a few more nights here and are worried about stirring something up while still being in the space, but more concerned about our privacy being invaded.”
There should be no reason for an Airbnb host to enter a guest’s space, especially if they’re doing it without permission or warning.
If there are any issues or things that need to be turned off, including a fan or lights around the property, then Airbnb hosts should message their guests to remind them of the rules.
It’s also important for hosts to include any information that guests need to know in the property listing before they book with them.
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Entering a guest’s space without warning or consent is troubling, especially considering this woman and her boyfriend had all of their personal items lying around and were unaware that the host would be coming and going freely in and around the space.
While some could argue that an Airbnb host has the right to enter their property without question, if they’re renting it out to people, then they should respect the boundaries and privacy that their guests have once they book with that host.
Just like in any other rental agreement, the guest deserves to feel safe in the environment in which they’re staying. On top of that, Airbnb has a strict policy that hosts shouldn’t enter the guest’s rental space without consent.
There are exceptions in the event of an emergency, but this situation clearly didn’t require or need that.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
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