‘Why was he in there?’: Group of friends seek source of weird noise in their Airbnb only to find the host hiding in the closet

When you think about it, an Airbnb is kind of like a box of chocolates, you never really know what you’re going to get. Sure, you get pictures and a general description that gives you an idea of what you’re in for but you don’t want to make the wrong choice. A group of friends on TikTok realized they had made a very wrong choice when they discovered their host hiding in a closet.

In a viral clip shared by TikToker Ciara, the group of friends can be seen opening a closet door. Audio from the hit horror, Obsession, has been added to increase the creep factor, but honestly the whole situation is creepy enough as it is. 

As one of the people in the video peers into the room past the door they seem to talk to somebody. Then, through the open door, a man can be seen standing in the darkness, with his phone in his hand.

The caption of the video explains that it is apparently the host of the bnb, hiding in the closet for some reason. Ciara questions how long the stranger was standing in there before being discovered.

Is this normal for Airbnb?

There have been plenty of bizarre Airbnb experiences shared on TikTok, from creepy basements that look like the home of a serial killer to horrifying statues behind locked doors. The truth is you never quite know what you’re letting yourself in for with an Airbnb.

Commenters on TikTok claimed that it’s not entirely uncommon for hosts to occupy the same property as guests while they are there. “People don’t realize how many AirBNB host stay in their house the entire time you’re there and just have a part of it blocked off,” one viewer explained. 

This is technically true although hosts are supposed to accurately describe the level of privacy guests can expect while staying at the property. Hiding in a closet hardly seems in-keeping with the rules set up by Airbnb itself.

In a second video Ciara gave a brief timeline of what happened, explaining that they had gone out for the night and went to a friend’s bnb. The next day they came back to find a closet that looked like it had been tampered with. The host, who didn’t speak English, spoke to the group through a translator app on his phone, telling them, “nothing like this has ever happened, I didn’t think you would find me.”

Viewers shared similar experiences to Ciara, with one viewer claiming that they stayed at an Airbnb with two floors with the host being downstairs. However, there was only a foldable changing screen between the host’s section and the guests section which prompted them to get a refund and book a hotel instead. 

Surprisingly the group actually ended up making the best of a bad situation as they made friends with the host and learnt that he didn’t mean any harm, he just had nowhere else to go.