Absurd Airbnb Guest Stories: Encounters Of The Mad Kind

 

I am not sure what happens over Christmas and New Year. Silly season. It’s supposed to be a happy season. Holidaymakers pay three times more for accommodation. That’s their choice. And a few guests seem to like to keep us on our toes. Let me share a few Airbnb Guest Stories. 

Lady of Black Bags and Mysterious Crashes

The first Airbnb guest story is about one interesting guest; the lady guest starts “demanding” extras at the beach home before arrival.

She will be staying with small kids, a full-time nanny and hubby. He will arrive later. And we can see trouble from a distance. It started way before arrival. Praying and crossing our fingers is of no use.

One of our team pops in to say hi and she asks for more black bags. Odd? 

She has covered the room windows with black bags. This European lady hates Cape Town’s beautiful early mornings.

The owner agrees to blackout curtains. (Not a small gesture to keep a guest happy by the way.)

We think we are in the clear now.

Oh boy, are we wrong!

We Inconvenienced Her When She Mysteriously Crashing The Garage

She comes home and somehow hits the garage door. She has various reasons; the car just rolled, her young kids playing in the car then it changes and changes and changes. I’ll let you decide for yourself. The car hits the garage door, which in turn hits the van parked inside the garage, which in turn crashes into the storage cupboards in front of the garage. (I’ll just mention there was word she had a minor fender bender a day prior).

We immediately fix it all at R32000. And send her the account to pay. She pays but makes it very clear that we are inconveniencing her. Yes, please read that again. We are inconveniencing her.

Her husband finally arrives and things settle down. Thankfully. Let’s look at another of the Airbnb guest stories…

Nature is a Joy Destroyer Blame Cecil John Rhodes

Who would ever consider Old (In)famous Cecil will feature in one of our Airbnb guest stories.

A few years prior, over this period, guests stayed near the greenbelt in Constantia. The playground of various indigenous animals and the exotic squirrel. 

Seeing as we are a culture of blaming our issues on former figures we can blame Cecile John Rhodes for importing squirrels to South Africa. And therefore he is the ultimate cause for unhappy guests 😉

At this home, the squirrels have no direct way to get from one tree to the next so they use the roof as an intermediate launch pad. 

The longer the guests stay the more difficult they become; the squirrels keep bombing their conversations as they jump around. Oh, nature, you destroyer of happiness.

Exotic “Burglars” Throwing Acorns At Guests

This year at the very same house a small European family spends their first night hearing the loud crashes of a “burglar” as acorns plummet onto the roof. 

Luckily upon seeing the cute little critters the next day they had a good laugh and slept easy for the rest of their holiday. Well, being worried they kept us going till 12 at night. 😳 

Airbnb Guest Stories Continues When Enemies Become Friends

 

One homeowner has 3 properties that she hosts on her estate, so she has her hands full.

And as we have mentioned guests over the silly season can be silly themselves. 

Two groups have to share a large parking area. 

There is shaded parking but only for 2 cars and between 2 of the homes, we can accommodate up to 12 guests. 

So this becomes a battle for the best parking, up to a point where the guests start telling each other off and parking each other in. Egos clashing? 

It’s getting serious. How do you intervene? Who will be the winner? 

The only solution the homeowner/host can think of is to try to find peace by means of merriment and booze. 

She invited the warring guests to have drinks at her house. By the end of the evening they are best buddies, they have a lot in common, they holiday together and is planning to go into business together. 

I wonder if Abraham got the above quote from our lovely host?

Why Are You Only Wearing Underwear In The Garden On Christmas? 

This is one of the Airbnb guest stories you may have read previously.

Let us recap: Steve’s wife was in the hospital. They are from the UK and love Cape Town. Alone, that Christmas eve night, he went out to feed the dogs. The door closed behind him – locked out. And Steve was in his underwear, and a pair of Italian shoes and short socks.

We received a call from the neighbour. Our funny looking guest told him the story. 

Steve said he will stay the night at the neighbour. We disagreed but he insisted. 

At six am on Christmas we arrived with a hammer to break the window and open the door. As we cracked the window there Stanley appeared behind a tree. 

Well, Steve slept with the dogs under a towel. 

We decided to leave a spare key in the garden. Just in case. Yes, Stanley did it a second time. More here. 

A Silly Season Is Past Tense

It’s such a pleasure to know this festive season is history. Now we can breathe again. It was not too silly. 

Hundreds of guests staying at our homes over this period had a festive time. 

We thank those who stayed with us and the homeowners who trust us to manage and market these lovely places.

Now we can breathe and look forward to better or is it less serious Airbnb guest stories for the next silly season – now 12 months away. 

Have Fun

Johan And Nandi

At CapeHolidays where we always try to never create expectations, we cannot deliver.