Woman gets antsy about 'extra guests' in Airbnb condo she rented in JB

All one woman wanted was a nice family trip to Johor Bahru. But she found some extra 'guests' during her stay instead.

Pests, to be exact. 

The Singaporean, who goes by the username Chellewmx on TikTok, shared her horrific Airbnb experience on Wednesday (Sept 7) to warn future guests.

The accommodation in question is located at a condominium in KSL mall, about a 10-minute drive from the Causeway. 

Chellewmx thought she had scored a good find after chancing upon the "nice Airbnb", which cost $145 a night for the whole apartment. 

However, her experience quickly turned sour after discovering the place was infested with insects. 

In some of the clips, the bugs could be seen crawling on the walls, the floor and the doors of the apartment she rented. They also appeared to gather in small corners such as the door frame. 

The woman said the insects looked like red ants, but she also agreed with another netizen's suggestion that they could be termites. 

"Freaking gross Airbnb experience in JB. Please avoid at all cost if you can," she wrote in the video's caption.

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@chellewmx/video/7140627145079934209?_r=1&_t=8VUqxQiwher&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7140627145079934209[/embed]

After she reported the incident to the Airbnb host, they came down to clean the apartment. 

However, that wasn't the end of her troubles.

The pests came crawling back and Chellewmx said there were "more encounters". 

Eventually, the host decided to refund her $30 including the cleaning fee. However, the woman said she suspects they might not have offered to do so if she didn't ask for a refund. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Chellewmx for more information. 

Apparently, she isn't this rental apartment's only unlucky guest. 

One netizen commented on the video, saying she had stayed at the same apartment in July and found it "very dirty" — the towels appeared to be unwashed and even had hair in them.

Chellewmx chimed in to say that apart from the pests, she faced other issues like water running out mid-shower when two people tried to use different bathrooms at the same time. 

Another netizen shared that she had almost booked the same Airbnb apartment, but she changed her mind after seeing all the bad reviews. 

However, such unfortunate scenarios don't happen all the time. 

Case in point, one netizen who shared that she too had recently booked an Airbnb accommodation in the area and everything was "smooth".

"I think it really depends on the owner [and] how they maintain the apartment," the netizen said. 

So, what do you do if you have a bad experience with your Airbnb booking?

The company has a measure called AirCover, which is meant to protect guests during their stay. 

If guests find issues during their stay that "isn't as advertised" and the host can't fix it, guests have three days to report it. 

Once reported, Airbnb will find them a new place to stay or provide a refund. 

There is also a 24-hour safety line that guests can call if they feel unsafe. 

Pests aren't the only things that irk guests during their stay — an unkempt home is a turn-off too. 

In July, another Singaporean family who booked an apartment in Genting got a rude shock after noticing that the place was not cleaned after the previous guest's use. 

Apart from unmade beds, they also discovered used cigarette butts, q-tips and sweet wrappers strewn around the house. 

To make matters worse, a representative from the rental apartment tried to turn the situation on the family by accusing them of causing the mess instead. 

He also threatened to forfeit the family's RM400 ($125) deposit if they leave a negative review. 

ALSO READ: The good, bad and ugly sides to Airbnb

melissateo@asiaone.com