‘I know a haunted house when I see one’: Eerie AirBnB experience in the middle of the night leaves visitors sleepless

Here’s an idea for the next Ghosbusters movie: send the team to a haunted AirBnB as there are apparently a lot of them out there. Overnight rentals are becoming increasingly popular locales for horror films — see The Rental and Barbarian — because sleeping in a strange home for a night is a situation that’s ripe to go wrong. As a family staying in a creepy, century-old house found out when they were woken up by a theme tune pulled straight from a scary movie.

In scenes that could come from a contemporary revival of the found-footage horror craze, one TikToker documented the terrifying surprise their family received at 3am in the morning when the doorbell rang out of nowhere. As explained, the house was 100 years old and there were no neighbors around for miles. Likewise, the TikToker’s grandpa investigated the property and its surroundings and found no signs of life. The really freaky thing, though, is the sound of the doorbell itself. Why does it sound like the doorbell the Addams Family would have?!

Needless to say, we are in classic Parnormal Activity territory here. As one supernatural-savvy commenter wrote, “The bell, the door creaking…. I know a haunted house when I see it.” And, hey, you know how every haunted house in a movie has some dark backstory that explains the restless spirits? Well, this AirBnB even has one of those. As the TikToker explained, “The other half of the house is a cabin that was originally built in 1805 and taken down from the mountains.”

Thankfully, I am happy to report that this family made it out of the place alive, but the TikToker has revealed further “hauntings” that happened over the course of their stay. “The doorbell didn’t ring again like that the rest of the week…however on the last night a loud sound like tires on gravel woke me up,” they explained in the comments. “In the middle of the night. The driveway is paved and there isn’t any gravel in the front yard. I’m not sure what it was.”

Unfortunately, AirBnB’s Experience Refund Policy doesn’t include any stipulations about hauntings. That said, one of the situations that does allow for a refund is when the experience “presents or entails a safety or health hazard that would reasonably be expected to adversely affect a guest’s participation.” Being faced with bare-faced proof of the existence of the spirit world has got to count for something right?