[Music] in november of 2021 i was traveling from philly to las vegas to compete in a jujitsu tournament i traveled the country a fair amount and i would normally stay with whichever teams were also competing as a way to save money this time though for various reasons i had to stay alone i booked an airbnb not far from the vegas strip i did so kind of hastily and didn't realize that the neighborhood wasn't the greatest i thought of cancelling and booking something else but went against my instincts and rationalized that it was close to everything
i needed and i wouldn't be spending much time there anyway i got to the location and didn't see the host i wouldn't know who to look for anyway since the airbnb profile picture was of a flower the host gave me the key code to the room i was staying in a small studio apartment that shared a wall with the host's house there was only one door in and out of the studio the first red flag was that the key code for the lock on the door was one two three four five six seven i thought
that was weird but the password for the wi-fi was password so i figured that the host was just an older person who wasn't tech savvy and the reviews for the room were pretty good around 9 30 pm is when things got creepy i was close to falling asleep when i heard it tapping on the window in front of my bed where i was laying down there were drapes covering the window so i couldn't see who was making the noise i responded by saying huh loud enough for whoever it was to hear me a minute or
two went by in silence before i heard the tapping on the window once again i said hello pretty loud and it went away i was pretty on edge at this point and immediately wrote a message to the host asking if it was them tapping on the window about an hour went by before they finally responded saying i was going to bring you some water but it seems like you were asleep so i left i was still very much on edge and i knew i wasn't going to be able to sleep i contemplated going for a
walk to the store or taking a shower just to clear my mind but something told me to just sit tight and wait to see what happens about 45 minutes went by it's about midnight at this point and i heard some noise outside i then heard the distinct sound of someone trying the key code on my door the attempt failed but i could hear them trying again this time i heard the sound of the lock disengaging the door was unlocked i threw the blankets off of me and ran to the door as it was opening up
towards me and slammed it shut in this person's face i was yelling this is my room get out of here leave they responded in a deep voice from the other side of the door madel said this is my room madel was the name of the host i kept responding with what i said before and called the cops i spoke loud enough so they knew i was on the phone with the police police eventually came and were not surprised at all by the story i told them they said they would hang around until i called an
uber to leave the host was very combative and unapologetic their alibi for who that person was changed multiple times when the uber arrived i jumped in and felt relieved to be getting out of there it still creeps me out that i never saw the person who was opening my door i have a feeling that it was some kind of setup if the host knew i was flying in from the east coast the 9 30 pm tapping on the window would have been equivalent to my 12 30 am and the invasion would be about 3 am
maybe it would have just been a robbery but it could have been much worse my boyfriend sean and i went on a trip to vermont in the summer of 2016. i booked us a stay in an airbnb that was listed as off-grid cabin it had a few hundred reviews with a five-star rating so i didn't think it looked sketchy the cabin was an old one-room cabin with a pot belly stove and a loft area there was no electricity and it was in a remote part of vermont down an old dirt road there was one house
about half a mile away that was owned by the host and she was away so we were alone we got there around 4 pm and had a really nice evening cooking dinner and playing board games by candlelight we had hiked all day and were exhausted by 10. so i went up to the loft to sleep while my boyfriend decided to sit outside and smoke about 20 minutes later while i was in that space between deep sleep and consciousness i was jolted awake by a large banging sound on the side of the cabin before i could
yell down sean yelled up to me asking if that was me confused and feeling like i must be dreaming i groggily yelled no was that you he said no but didn't seem too worried since he was sitting outside and didn't see anyone we go camping frequently so it takes a lot for us to get freaked out by random noises in the night we figured it was probably a tree branch that broke off and fell against the cabin i started to fall asleep again when there was another loud bang like a thwacking sound from another part
of the cabin at this i jumped out of bed and climbed down from the loft i met sean as he was coming through the door he told me to grab all the sharp things that i could find and go back into the loft he was putting on a calm demeanor but i could tell he was a little freaked out i asked him what he thought it was and he cautiously said that he didn't know he said he didn't see anything when he was outside but he thought he might have heard footsteps as we were whispering
we heard a small slow scraping noise that trailed for about three feet against the wall of the cabin then silence again i was pretty scared at this point and didn't know what to do our car was parked about 100 feet away from the cabin so we would have to face whatever was out there in the dark in order to get to it which is probably what they wanted i was also afraid that if this was a human that they might have done something like slash the tires or block our ability to get back down the
driveway sean told me to stay very quiet and go back up to the loft while he sat downstairs and waited he had a hunting knife and a large stick and i had a few steak knives but otherwise we were sitting ducks the downstairs of the cabin had huge windows on three walls half of which were just screens so if someone was outside they could easily be watching us or could slash through the screen to get inside i wanted to stay downstairs but sean ordered me to go upstairs saying that it would be easier to fight
this guy without me there if it came to that i went up and sat in the middle of the bed clutching an array of knives in my fists i don't think i ever listened so intently before sean yelled out hello to see if he could get any response or perhaps scared away if it was an animal we heard nothing for what felt like 20 minutes then the scraping sound came back much louder like someone was dragging a rake or a hoe across the side of the cabin i heard clear methodical footsteps trailing off around the
side of the cabin shawn then came up to the loft and pulled the ladder up he said he didn't like how they could see him but he couldn't see them and if they came in the cabin he could at least get the jump on them from up here we sat on the bed in silence i was looking at him in terror it was probably around midnight at this point and i realized that we were going to be stuck in that cabin until morning the noises continued and intensified there was more banging that seemed to be
coming from all different sides of the cabin intermittently the scraping returned this could not have been an animal the sounds were too methodical we didn't hear any grunting like there was a bear or bobcat and there were constant footsteps pacing footsteps there was a clear crunch crunch of one foot going in front of the other all around the sides of the cabin there would be pauses of 10 to 20 minute intervals then it would all start up again at one point there was a strange rattling sound on the outside like someone was trying to shake
or climb the pipe on the outside of the cabin that fed into the pot belly stove this carried on for hours shawn and i just laid in that bed paralyzed in silent fear staring into each other's terrified faces i kept waiting to hear the front door burst open or the screen window rip i was convinced that we were both about to be murdered and every gruesome possibility kept playing in my head i have never been that terrified but no one ever came into the cabin we never heard any voices whispers deranged giggling or anything just
the loud scraping banging rattling and footsteps finally around five in the morning we started to hear roosters in the distance and the loft was slowly lit by early dawn light the sounds finally stopped i got about two hours of sleep because we had to drive him to pennsylvania later that day my car was thankfully fine and we packed everything up as quickly as possible to get the heck out of there sean looked around the cabin trying to find scraping marks or clear footprints but there was nothing i messaged the airbnb host to tell her about
her experience and she said it must have been a porcupine if you could find a porcupine that makes loud banging noises and can walk like a human let me know to this day we debate about what it could have been sean thinks it was a crazy local trying to scare us away either way i'm really glad i was not murdered that night [Music] i once booked an airbnb by myself in an area in arizona that i had a job interview since it was so far from home i made a short trip out of it i
went with this one specific airbnb because it was much cheaper than any hotels i could find it was about half an hour away from where i'd be interviewing for which was fine with me it was off some dead end secluded road and had a nice view of the desert in the backyard i brought my laptop with me to get work done at my at the time current job during the day so that kept me busy most of the days i was there i stayed for three days my interview was on the second day that i
was there which was a tuesday i would be leaving friday so on monday the night before my interview i was practicing interview questions for this specific company and just generally getting some last minute knowledge on their firm i was doing this on my laptop in the living room of the little house probably around 9 p.m and there was a tap at the window i say tap because it wasn't exactly a knock it sounded more like it could have been someone's finger my head of course swung to the left to look at the window in reaction
i didn't see anyone but it was also pitch black outside i was kind of scared to look out the window but i had to be a man and just do it and there was no one as far as the eye could see just darkness of course maybe it could have been a bug hitting the window we've got some pretty nasty bugs here after all the next day i got through my interview and thought i did pretty well so for the rest of my little trip there i explored different parts of the town in my car
ate at different restaurants and sat in the backyard and relaxed in the sun little did i know i was likely being watched while i was in the backyard at night i was inside watching breaking bad on netflix when it happened again a single tap at the window now it was obvious it wasn't a bug i was even more disturbed now but once again rushed to the window even though i saw no one that didn't mean someone wasn't out there i checked the windows by the front door then opened the door and looked outside for a
second since there was no one there i went back inside and then went to the back door i stepped outside onto the back porch and looked out to the desert behind the house silence and darkness and then i heard a click a sound someone made like clicking their tongue at the roof of their mouth it was off in the distance beyond the light from the house it was out somewhere in that cold desert i felt as though someone could be hiding behind any number of those bushes watching me and toying with me i yelled out
and almost as if they did it in response there was another click i pinpointed the direction it came from and looked that way i could see someone now standing not too far away dressed in dark clothes blending into the darkness of the desert i started walking a little closer than stopped realizing i didn't want to get any closer to that person i called out you're on private property i'm going to call the cops if you don't leave and i saw the person eerily quickly walk away i theorized it was the airbnb owner but obviously that
was a stretch and i didn't really know what to actually think the night following i was in my bed on my laptop watching breaking bad again before going to bed i think i watched two episodes so i was doing this for about an hour and a half i didn't hear any noises in the house though i was definitely giving thought to that encounter from earlier while watching the show when i finally turned off the light in the room and tried to fall asleep within 10 seconds there was a click sound again muffled from the inside
of the closet i looked at the closet door which was open just a crack then a pretty natural response i sprang off the bed still in my pjs and ran to the car i sat in the driveway with the car running and i called i stared at the house as i spoke to the dispatcher waiting to see if someone would come out because all of my stuff was still in there a police car arrived and upon entering the house we did a quick investigation of the house together it was very small with not many places
to hide conclusively i still packed my stuff and left that place that night for a nearby hotel i contacted both airbnb and the host and i was only able to get a partial refund for my stay i still think it may have been the host of the airbnb i mean who else would have access to the house there were no signs of forced entry which leads me to believe whoever it was may have had a key but maybe i'm wrong maybe it was a stranger who snuck in at an opportune time [Music] [Music] you
