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Message
Worst Travel Experience
Posted on 6/21/17 at 10:54 pm
Posted on 6/21/17 at 10:54 pm
So my most recent trip...
Stayed at an Airbnb for the trip...
Day 1 arrived late due to delays, had to book a hotel, landed in Portland, hotel had overbooked and cancelled me. Spent 40 minutes trying to find another.
Day 2- Perfect no complaint
Day 3- Airbnb host shows back up, owns two Newfoundland dogs. I'm in the crouched position petting one, other comes up quickly knocking me off balance. I grab a deal that is rigged and pull it down. Owner and I agree on a price for the items broke.
Day 4- I arrive back at Airbnb at 10 PM they have people over and continue to part till 2am. Talking isn't the issue but the yelling, up and down the stairs is.
Day 5- talk with Airbnb host about the previous night. Arrive back at 11pm again party this time 3am and they are running up and down the stairs (I'm in a basement apartment) I decided to leave and check into a hot
Day 6- I e-mail Airbnb host about me leaving and my reasoning, the host now says the stuff I the broke was valued at 1k after agreeing on a previous price.
Day 7- I co tact Airbnb with screen shots of everything they assure me I'm covered. Host then emails me asking for 1500 because she misvalued things.
Now Portland is an awesome city with a lot to do. I went hiking, did a lot of drinking, saw a lot of the mountains but my experience with my Airbnb host ruined it. I felt bad about what happened and offered a fair amount (double what I was paying for a week) and they agreed now it is a cluster frick.
Stayed at an Airbnb for the trip...
Day 1 arrived late due to delays, had to book a hotel, landed in Portland, hotel had overbooked and cancelled me. Spent 40 minutes trying to find another.
Day 2- Perfect no complaint
Day 3- Airbnb host shows back up, owns two Newfoundland dogs. I'm in the crouched position petting one, other comes up quickly knocking me off balance. I grab a deal that is rigged and pull it down. Owner and I agree on a price for the items broke.
Day 4- I arrive back at Airbnb at 10 PM they have people over and continue to part till 2am. Talking isn't the issue but the yelling, up and down the stairs is.
Day 5- talk with Airbnb host about the previous night. Arrive back at 11pm again party this time 3am and they are running up and down the stairs (I'm in a basement apartment) I decided to leave and check into a hot
Day 6- I e-mail Airbnb host about me leaving and my reasoning, the host now says the stuff I the broke was valued at 1k after agreeing on a previous price.
Day 7- I co tact Airbnb with screen shots of everything they assure me I'm covered. Host then emails me asking for 1500 because she misvalued things.
Now Portland is an awesome city with a lot to do. I went hiking, did a lot of drinking, saw a lot of the mountains but my experience with my Airbnb host ruined it. I felt bad about what happened and offered a fair amount (double what I was paying for a week) and they agreed now it is a cluster frick.
9
Posted on 6/21/17 at 11:17 pm to tduecen
Give a very clear review and rating on the site. This is part of what makes AirBNB work. It sucks that you're the canary in the coalmine, but that's part of the cost of using a crowdsource site like that.
My worst travel experience is really, really insane and hard to share.
Edit: I'm posting this in the vein of an author. I don't condone drug use. I have children now and I hope they don't do the stupid shite I did. That being said: stories need to be told. And this is one of mine.
I was visiting friends in DFW who I knew from church camp (haha). This was in the mid 90s. We went down to hang out with them and score some drugs, specifically psychedelics (LSD and MDMA). They had assured me that it would be no problem to score said drugs and return to our cozy abode in Fayetteville. But they also wanted us to party with them for an evening. So we did... by ingesting a few hits of LSD a piece. They, then, proceeded to ask their "friends" to come over, who were all clearly affiliated with the Mexican Mafia in some way. We ate more LSD and went to watch this great new movie that had come out in the theaters called, "True Romance." I don't know if you've seen this gem before... but Romance doesn't really figure into the actual script... but it was all too TRUE for me at that LSD-riddled moment. Basically, I construe an entire delusion that my friends are hooked up with the Mexican mafia and trying to set me up as a conduit for them. It gets worse when the movie is over (yes.. reality was actually worse than True Romance) because they start trying to convince us to do cocaine with them. Now.. I'm no prude and now consider cocaine to be sort of... mundane... but at the time it was verboten in my scene as we were all about the mind enhancing powers of psychedelics.
So in my drug addled state, the hispanic dudes make several comments that were probably completely innocuous. At the time, though, I was convinced that they were communicating to me that my friend from Dallas who I had gone on vacation to see (and amittedly procure drugs from) was a male prostitute for them (please god don't go Freudian and read too much into this... because I have already done it) and that these Mexican dudes were offering me cocaine to try to get me hooked on it as well and turn me into a prostitute.
Anyway... I didn't peddle my arse that night. We all went to sleep. I woke up and drove back to Arkansas. Problem resolved. But that was probably my worst traveling misadventure.
My worst travel experience is really, really insane and hard to share.
Edit: I'm posting this in the vein of an author. I don't condone drug use. I have children now and I hope they don't do the stupid shite I did. That being said: stories need to be told. And this is one of mine.
I was visiting friends in DFW who I knew from church camp (haha). This was in the mid 90s. We went down to hang out with them and score some drugs, specifically psychedelics (LSD and MDMA). They had assured me that it would be no problem to score said drugs and return to our cozy abode in Fayetteville. But they also wanted us to party with them for an evening. So we did... by ingesting a few hits of LSD a piece. They, then, proceeded to ask their "friends" to come over, who were all clearly affiliated with the Mexican Mafia in some way. We ate more LSD and went to watch this great new movie that had come out in the theaters called, "True Romance." I don't know if you've seen this gem before... but Romance doesn't really figure into the actual script... but it was all too TRUE for me at that LSD-riddled moment. Basically, I construe an entire delusion that my friends are hooked up with the Mexican mafia and trying to set me up as a conduit for them. It gets worse when the movie is over (yes.. reality was actually worse than True Romance) because they start trying to convince us to do cocaine with them. Now.. I'm no prude and now consider cocaine to be sort of... mundane... but at the time it was verboten in my scene as we were all about the mind enhancing powers of psychedelics.
So in my drug addled state, the hispanic dudes make several comments that were probably completely innocuous. At the time, though, I was convinced that they were communicating to me that my friend from Dallas who I had gone on vacation to see (and amittedly procure drugs from) was a male prostitute for them (please god don't go Freudian and read too much into this... because I have already done it) and that these Mexican dudes were offering me cocaine to try to get me hooked on it as well and turn me into a prostitute.
Anyway... I didn't peddle my arse that night. We all went to sleep. I woke up and drove back to Arkansas. Problem resolved. But that was probably my worst traveling misadventure.
This post was edited on 6/22/17 at 11:31 pm
Posted on 6/22/17 at 12:09 am to hogfly
one hit of acid per day.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 8:21 am to tduecen
quote:
Day 3- Airbnb host shows back up, owns two Newfoundland dogs. I'm in the crouched position petting one, other comes up quickly knocking me off balance. I grab a deal that is rigged and pull it down. Owner and I agree on a price for the items broke.
I'm sorry but if the owner's dog knocked you over and you were trying to catch yourself from falling and broke something you don't owe them a thing, the cause was an animal that the owner owns.
End of story for me
Posted on 6/22/17 at 8:31 am to tduecen
Were you drunk when you wrote that?
Posted on 6/22/17 at 8:34 am to Barneyrb
quote:
I'm sorry but if the owner's dog knocked you over and you were trying to catch yourself from falling and broke something you don't owe them a thing, the cause was an animal that the owner owns.
For real. I'd have told the host to kick rocks and found somewhere else to stay.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 9:16 am to tduecen
quote:
Airbnb host shows back up, owns two Newfoundland dogs. I'm in the crouched position petting one, other comes up quickly knocking me off balance. I grab a deal that is rigged and pull it down. Owner and I agree on a price for the items broke.
wait...why would you pay for something that was caused by his own dog pushing you over?
and this is why you always book airBnBs as "entire house"
This post was edited on 6/22/17 at 9:17 am
Posted on 6/22/17 at 9:26 am to Salmon
quote:
and this is why you always book airBnBs as "entire house"
I'm surprised how many people rent rooms in people's homes that they're also in. That gives me the creeps. I don't even stay with family when I visit out of town relatives. I need my own space to decompress.
Another issue I have with AirBnb is that they can call something "entire house" even if it is their basement or garage apartment or something. It would take some very special circumstances for me to rent again after the last time when they had us in their renovated garage storage room with no AC. No AC isn't a big deal in San Francisco, except since this was in the garage, the windows didn't open to the outdoors. Miserable.
My worst travel experience wasn't really that bad compared to most, but was just a whole lot of doing things I have zero desire to do because we were with another couple and they kinda dictated the trip. Lesson learned to always take our own transportation. It would have fixed most of the issues.
This post was edited on 6/22/17 at 9:31 am
Posted on 6/22/17 at 9:58 am to LouisianaLady
I don't rent an AirBnB without plenty of pictures and reviews. It's easy to find a good one that way.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 10:27 am to LouisianaLady
quote:
I'm surprised how many people rent rooms in people's homes that they're also in.
Price. Can be super cheap. Travelers by themselves can find a room in a shared place for $25-50 a night.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 10:46 am to baldona
quote:
Price. Can be super cheap. Travelers by themselves can find a room in a shared place for $25-50 a night.
Ya, my old boss here rents out like this. He has a 3/4 bedroom house to himself, so he has installed electronic security locks/handles on all the interior doors and exterior. Gives the renter the code for their room.
Keeps his stuff secure and they have their privacy.
I've been mostly fortunate on the travel front so far. A couple interesting instances but nothing that ruined a trip that I can recall.
This post was edited on 6/22/17 at 10:48 am
Posted on 6/22/17 at 11:08 am to tduecen
I only do whole place rentals on AirBnB. (Side note: I really like ABB descriptions that emphasis that guests should be quiet, that a given building is quiet & unsuitable for parties. Those are always listings I consider.)
My worst was a trip to Guatemala a few years ago. It started on the United flight, where I ordered a ginger ale....and 20 minutes after drinking it, I began to develop a migraine. So I ordered another one....unbeknownst to me at the time, Seagram's took out some of the sugar in its non-diet ginger ale & replaced it with sucralose, yet did not label said soda as "diet". I drank two on the plane, leading to a full scale migraine. By the time we landed, I could barely walk, had visual distortions, and was in abject misery. (You don't realize how brightly lighted airports are until you stagger through one with a light-sensitive headache.)
So my friends pick us up at the airport & all I can do is lie down in the back seat. I manage to sit upright at dinner in a quaint open air restaurant....then I have to go back to their apt and lie down in the dark. We get up the next day & I still have about 25% of the headache from the day before, so we cancel our van ride to Chichicastenango and go to Antigua instead....piloted by a driver in a van that can't get out of second gear. We stop on the side of the road on the outskirts of Guatemala City so he can poke around under the hood, he calls his boss. Boss tells him to finish the trip and go see cousin Hector after he gets us to Antigua. The weather was nice, I was feeling a bit better, and the driver told interesting stories, so I'm thinking things are looking up, despite the snail's pace through the countryside.
Arrive in Antigua, check into the very pretty Quintana de las Flores, go out to lunch, go sightseeing, have a nice afternoon/evening. Day two is also fun, until I start feeling terribly dizzy from the altitude & faint in the courtyard of a hipster coffee house. Later that same day, we walk across town for dinner. I start feeling nauseous during the walk, flee to the restroom immediately upon arrival, and then must schlep back across town on foot while trying not to barf every three blocks. My better half decides I need to ride in a tuk-tuk.....with shot suspension over cobblestones, adding motion sickness to my traveler's stomach.
I spent the next two days lying on a chaise by the pool, with side trips to the toilet, while my fellow travelers hiked the volcanoes, visited a coffee plantation, etc. I just tried not to die of dehydration and admired the pretty flowers growing on the hotel grounds.
And my friends couldn't understand why we wouldn't return to see the Santa Semana celebrations....no thanks. No more Guatemala for me. Granted, the migraine wasn't brought on by Guate, but the altitude and unclean water nearly did me in. So I've scratched trekking thru Nepal off my list.
My worst was a trip to Guatemala a few years ago. It started on the United flight, where I ordered a ginger ale....and 20 minutes after drinking it, I began to develop a migraine. So I ordered another one....unbeknownst to me at the time, Seagram's took out some of the sugar in its non-diet ginger ale & replaced it with sucralose, yet did not label said soda as "diet". I drank two on the plane, leading to a full scale migraine. By the time we landed, I could barely walk, had visual distortions, and was in abject misery. (You don't realize how brightly lighted airports are until you stagger through one with a light-sensitive headache.)
So my friends pick us up at the airport & all I can do is lie down in the back seat. I manage to sit upright at dinner in a quaint open air restaurant....then I have to go back to their apt and lie down in the dark. We get up the next day & I still have about 25% of the headache from the day before, so we cancel our van ride to Chichicastenango and go to Antigua instead....piloted by a driver in a van that can't get out of second gear. We stop on the side of the road on the outskirts of Guatemala City so he can poke around under the hood, he calls his boss. Boss tells him to finish the trip and go see cousin Hector after he gets us to Antigua. The weather was nice, I was feeling a bit better, and the driver told interesting stories, so I'm thinking things are looking up, despite the snail's pace through the countryside.
Arrive in Antigua, check into the very pretty Quintana de las Flores, go out to lunch, go sightseeing, have a nice afternoon/evening. Day two is also fun, until I start feeling terribly dizzy from the altitude & faint in the courtyard of a hipster coffee house. Later that same day, we walk across town for dinner. I start feeling nauseous during the walk, flee to the restroom immediately upon arrival, and then must schlep back across town on foot while trying not to barf every three blocks. My better half decides I need to ride in a tuk-tuk.....with shot suspension over cobblestones, adding motion sickness to my traveler's stomach.
I spent the next two days lying on a chaise by the pool, with side trips to the toilet, while my fellow travelers hiked the volcanoes, visited a coffee plantation, etc. I just tried not to die of dehydration and admired the pretty flowers growing on the hotel grounds.
And my friends couldn't understand why we wouldn't return to see the Santa Semana celebrations....no thanks. No more Guatemala for me. Granted, the migraine wasn't brought on by Guate, but the altitude and unclean water nearly did me in. So I've scratched trekking thru Nepal off my list.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 11:23 am to hungryone
man that's awful. You did remind me of a trip to Vegas I did with my wife's family.
Whatever I had, would basically make me feel terrible every time I ate. So once I had this figured out the trip wasn't so bad, but puking at 5AM before heading to the Grand Canyon isn't a blast. Essentially I'd have a few hours where I was fine, 5 bites into a meal feel terrible, rinse repeat. Just stopped eating.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 11:46 am to LouisianaLady
quote:
I don't even stay with family when I visit out of town relatives.
wow. sounds like you or your family has issues. Only time i do not stay with family is if their is no room which has happened once!
Posted on 6/22/17 at 12:24 pm to baldona
quote:
Price. Can be super cheap. Travelers by themselves can find a room in a shared place for $25-50 a night.
I figured it was cheap - but I guess I just value my privacy a lot more than $100. I wouldn't be able to settle in and get comfortable in a stranger's home.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 12:32 pm to Teddy Ruxpin
quote:
Essentially I'd have a few hours where I was fine, 5 bites into a meal feel terrible, rinse repeat. Just stopped eating.
Do you ever have anxiety issues? When I was a kid, I got sick on almost every vacation. Even now, I don't necessarily get sick but I'm in bed much earlier each night and my appetite is very small.. which sucks because I plan vacations around eating/drinking.
quote:
sounds like you or your family has issues.
I'm just private.
Some people will travel to other cities where acquaintances live so that it's a "free" vacation, but I just can't get comfortable that way. I don't like imposing on others, I don't like having to ask people in the comforts of their home to accommodate me, etc. I want to come in at whatever time of night I want and wake up the next morning and poop in peace
Posted on 6/22/17 at 2:08 pm to LouisianaLady
quote:
Do you ever have anxiety issues? When I was a kid, I got sick on almost every vacation. Even now, I don't necessarily get sick but I'm in bed much earlier each night and my appetite is very small.. which sucks because I plan vacations around eating/drinking.
Nope, quite opposite. I pretty much believe every thing is going to work out. I've gone to some pretty rough places in the world, though the one time I was under a bridge with my wife at 3AM in Delhi surrounded by 30 dudes kinda had me on edge.
This post was edited on 6/22/17 at 2:09 pm
Posted on 6/22/17 at 2:52 pm to tduecen
So what was it you broke? I'm trying to remember if Airbnb includes insurance? I know vrbo offers it as an added expense. I'm trying to figure out why some shiteheads renting out a room would have something easily breakable worth $1000+?
Also, and I'm not saying this is right, but I've stayed in plenty of rentals with thin walls or otherwise crappy situations that were mostly out of the owners control. Pretty absurd for owners to do that though, what was their ratings? Was there any other complaints about that?
Also, and I'm not saying this is right, but I've stayed in plenty of rentals with thin walls or otherwise crappy situations that were mostly out of the owners control. Pretty absurd for owners to do that though, what was their ratings? Was there any other complaints about that?
Posted on 6/22/17 at 4:26 pm to Teddy Ruxpin
quote:
I pretty much believe every thing is going to work out. I've gone to some pretty rough places in the world
Same here. It kinda freaks my wife out that I don't ever stress about something happening or getting lost.
Posted on 6/22/17 at 4:29 pm to baldona
I was in Alaska visiting some relatives with a friend of mine. We were drift fishing for Salmon on the Kasilof river, and when we put in, my cousin, met us and told us to get into the car, IMMEDIATELY, because Mt. Spur had just erupted and we were going to try to beat the ash plume back to Anchorage.
We didn't beat it. It was about 6:00 PM (in Alaska, where it stays light until after midnight), and the sky turned pitch black. We had to drive on the Turnigan Arm, where the road basically skirted a cliff, with zero visibility.
We were flying standby on my friend's buddy passes, and our flight got cancelled. It took us 5 days to find a flight home. I missed 4 days of work, ended up catching a bunch more salmon, drinking a lot of beer, and hiking at Denali.
Maybe I'm getting this confused with my best travel experience...
We didn't beat it. It was about 6:00 PM (in Alaska, where it stays light until after midnight), and the sky turned pitch black. We had to drive on the Turnigan Arm, where the road basically skirted a cliff, with zero visibility.
We were flying standby on my friend's buddy passes, and our flight got cancelled. It took us 5 days to find a flight home. I missed 4 days of work, ended up catching a bunch more salmon, drinking a lot of beer, and hiking at Denali.
Maybe I'm getting this confused with my best travel experience...
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