Your safety is no joke when you’re traveling anywhere, whether you’re heading to the next town over for some sightseeing or going on a massive continent-hopping vacation with your family. Obviously, when you pay for your lodgings, you want them to be clean and comfortable so you can relax. The last thing you want to do is to worry about safety because of some glaring issues that nobody mentioned when you booked the place.
UK-based TikToker Emma Watkins, aka _emma_watkins, shared her horrible experience renting out a place via Airbnb while she was holidaying in Southern France with her mom earlier this year. What started out as a headache quickly turned into a nightmare.
In a series of videos, Emma detailed exactly what happened when they got to the apartment, how they tried to solve the issue, and how the Airbnb reps reacted to the entire situation. The TikToker claims that Airbnb left her and her mother stranded in France. Internet users were pretty divided by what they thought about everything.
Scroll down for the full story, Pandas, and let us know in the comments what your experience booking on Airbnb has been like, and how you make sure you’re safe while traveling. Meanwhile, make sure to check out Bored Panda's interview with Emma herself. She was kind enough to answer our questions.
Traveling abroad is stressful enough as it is. The last thing that you want weighing on your mind is accommodation
Image credits: Ryan KLAUS (not the actual photo)
TikToker Emma, from the UK, went viral after she shared a horrible experience with Airbnb while on holiday in France with her mom
Image credits: _emma_watkins
She said that after what happened, she doesn't plan on using Airbnb ever again. Her videos were a way to warn others
Image credits: Czapp Árpád (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Ryan KLAUS (not the actual photo)
Here's Emma's first viral TikTok about her experience with Airbnb abroad
Image credits: Paul Hanaoka (not the actual photo)
Image credits: _emma_watkins
She continued the story in a second video
Image credits: cottonbro (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Wikimedia
Image credits: _emma_watkins
And here's part 3 that wraps the story up
TikToker Emma told Bored Panda that there's been a "mix of reactions" to her videos about Airbnb. She noted that a lot of people said that they'd have done the exact same thing in her position. However, "there’s also been a lot of people saying it was an overreaction."
"I suppose it’s to each their own when it comes to accommodation, but for me I’d expect a certain level of safety especially when you pay that much for an apartment," she stressed that there are certain expectations that come with a high price for rent.
"I’ve heard nothing more from Airbnb, but I suppose that wasn’t the point of making the video, it was just to raise awareness. I think that Airbnb should take more responsibility for ensure their hosts properties meet certain regulations, and their communication overall just needs to be much better, especially when a visitor has expressed they don’t feel safe," she said.
"Airbnb should be ultimately accountable for both their hosts' properties and their guests' experiences."
According to Emma, anyone using Airbnb in the future should always, always, always read the reviews. However, this might not weed out all the problems.
"I did, and the reviews were all positive! So I suppose if you’re booking with Airbnb, don’t rely on them to make amends if anything goes wrong," she shared her opinion with Bored Panda.
Emma’s initial video got 1.3 million views while her follow-ups got an additional 170.2k and 136.7k each. Overall, the TikToker has 88.4k followers and has amassed 4.9 million views across all of her videos on the platform.
Her message was simple: she had such an awful experience with Airbnb that she no longer plans to use their services ever again. And she hoped the videos hoping to warn others about what might happen.
When she and her mom arrived in France, they got a tour of the apartment they booked from a representative of the host. Emma spotted a major security flaw, though: the balcony door didn’t just lock, it couldn’t close! Even though the apartment was on the second floor, it was right next to a busy street. She wasn’t going to be taking any chances.
When she tried to resolve the issue, getting in touch with the owner of the apartment and then Airbnb reps, she found that they weren’t as helpful as she would’ve liked. She claims that she and her mom were essentially left stranded abroad, without alternative accommodation, even though Airbnb had given them a coupon to allow them to book another place. Emma believes that Airbnb ignored her when she tried to follow-up and make sure that she’d be reimbursed for the price difference when booking other suitable accommodation.
She and her mom then decided to stay at a hotel while waiting for a proper response from Airbnb. Feeling that the entire vacation was utterly ruined by this whole experience, Emma and her mom decided to fly back home, to the UK, and paid massive prices when booking the new tickets. The TikToker felt like nobody really cared to help her and that everyone was passing along the responsibility from one person to another.
However, the responses to the videos weren’t as clear-cut as you’d think. Some people definitely had the same concerns as Emma did about safety: they’ve had people break in through the balcony. Again: safety is no joke. However, others pointed out that they’ve never had major problems with Airbnb. Still, others thought that Emma might want to consider legal action to get back at least some of the money she lost during the trip.
Airbnb states on their website that they score each reservation for risk before it’s confirmed. “We use predictive analytics and machine learning to instantly evaluate hundreds of signals that help us flag and investigate suspicious activity before it happens,” they explain.
“While no screening system is perfect, globally we run hosts and guests against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists. For hosts and guests in the United States, we also conduct background checks.”
They continue: “We run safety workshops with hosts and leading local experts and encourage hosts to provide guests with important local information. We also give any host who wants one a free smoke and carbon monoxide detector for their home.” What’s more, Airbnb states that they do their best to secure payments, protect users’ accounts, and fight scams using their “multi-layer defense strategy.”
People had a variety of different reactions to the video. Here's what some TikTok users thought
Other TikTokers shared their own similar Airbnb stories
