If you’re going to be headed on vacation soon, you might want to thoroughly inspect the property before settling in for your stay at rental homes. A TikToker by the name Malayiah K. learned this the hard way after she discovered someone else had been living in her Airbnb while she was transitioning from Philadelphia to Atlanta.
The young woman inquired about the home as a temporary place to stay with her daughter while they looked for a home in Atlanta. She’d planned on staying there for two months and made arrangements with the host to reside there until they got settled.
During her stay, Malayiah was back and forth between multiple states. Some days she would spend house hunting in Atlanta, and other weeks she’d fly to Memphis to visit her girlfriend. At one point, she even flew back home to Philly for her grandmother’s funeral service, so she was never in the rental home full-time.
Over time, Malayiah started to notice subtle changes in the home whenever she would leave and return. Items left on the counter would be in a completely different location when she got back. Also, one of her iPhones went missing as well as her credit card.
The TikToker, who mentioned multiple times in her 12-part story that she is bad with keys, would intentionally leave the bottom lock of the house unlocked when she left so she only needed the keypad code to enter. However, upon arriving back at the home, both locks would be locked.
Additionally, her snacks and bottled water were disappearing at a faster rate than usual, and she would often hear odd noises in the house even though she was in the home alone. One day, after returning from Memphis, every light in the house was turned off despite Malayiah having left them on before she departed.
Everything came to a head one morning when she was washing her hair in the kitchen sink and heard a loud boom from upstairs.
Terrified and home alone, Malayiah started calling her friends and family, who advised her to call the police. When the authorities arrived, they didn’t find anyone else in the house. But what Malayiah experienced was enough for her to pack up and move out.
Her father met her at the house to help her move her things, and during that time she began communicating with the Airbnb host to let her know what had occurred. The host appeared understanding of Malayiah’s situation and was concerned for her safety. She stated that she had no knowledge of anyone else residing in the home and that no one, aside from the cleaning lady, had the entry code.
Malayiah posted screenshots of her conversation with the host to her TikTok story. The host had been out of town but sent her cleaning lady to get more details about what happened. Before leaving the house for good, Malayiah did a walkthrough of the home with the cleaning lady and explained what she’d experienced.
Remembering the home had a Ring camera, the cleaning lady pulled up the front door footage with Malayiah and the host on FaceTime to see who exactly had been staying at the house without their knowledge.
Sure enough, on multiple occasions when Malayiah was out of town, there was a strange woman entering and exiting the front of the home. Each time she was avoiding the camera so she wasn’t fully visible, but it wasn’t Malayiah! The cleaning lady even noted in the video that she’d seen the woman on the front door camera in the past before the young woman even checked in.
Although she couldn’t give more details due to a forthcoming court case, Malayiah’s story may definitely make you think twice about renting an Airbnb for your next getaway.
Related: Woman Catfished By NYC Airbnb After Finding Room Window Opened To Restaurant