OUR WORST AIRBnB EXPERIENCE.. ever

So, today... we wanna share a short story with you.

Before we start, we want to make something clear. Our intent is, in no way, to bash anybody in any way. For that reason, we aren't going to mention the city we were in, but only the state. We simply want to share this story so you can be sure it doesn't happen to you!

STORYLINE:

We landed in Salt Lake City, Utah. 6 of us. When we touched down, it was already after 9:00pm local time and our morning had begun before 7:00am. So, after church, a 2 hour drive to the airport, and 2 flights, we were getting pretty tired. By the time we got through baggage claim, finalized the paperwork on the rental car, and got out of the parking garage, it was nearly 10:30pm.

We had a 6 hour drive to Jackson, Wyoming - our plan was to drive a few hours and just get what sleep we could in the car.

2.5 hours into the drive, the adrenaline and excitement began to wear off, and was quickly replaced with flat out exhaustion - to the point where we pulled over on the side of the road & ran up and down the dark highway in the middle of nowhere Wyoming (it was 30 degrees) just to wake ourselves up. true story.

That bought us another 25-30 minutes, but eventually, we pulled into a Flying J Truck Stop, found a spot over to the side and closed our eyes for about 3 hours.

Once the sun began to rise, we brushed our teeth and freshened up in the Flying J bathroom, then took off towards the Tetons, somewhat refreshed. Alright.. let me fast forward a little.

After spending the entire day exploring Grand Teton National Park & Yellowstone National Park, we had a few hours of driving to our AirBnB in Montana. On the app, it looked decent. in person... well...

We pulled up around midnight. First off, it was 88 degrees outside and we were nasty from hiking all day, sweaty, smelly, hungry, and flat out tired. We had our eyes set on a niceeee shower, a comfortable bed, and a great night's rest in a 65 degree home.

We typed in the password and got into the home, bumped the AC unit down, threw our suitcases in the floor, and began taking showers. After 15-20 minutes had gone by, it was only getting hotter in the house. Nearly 90 now.

The host had 3 standing fans in the house - so, we cranked those up, but it was just blowing hot air at this point. So, we opened up some windows, hoping for some relief. But, that didn't do any good. Then, one of the fans literally burnt up and started smelling like smoke and didn't work anymore.

To make matters worse, the exterior doors didn't lock.. so we barricaded them using a few chairs. Figured it would at least buy us a few seconds in a worst case scenario lol.

We bumped the unit down again, but again... nothing kicked on. It's probably 1am at this point - I contacted the host to see what was going on and I got this response:

"There is no A/C."

oh.

that would've been great to know, ya know... about a month ago when WE BOOKED THE PLACE.

The guy was actually a nice guy. But, it was just a crappy situation. He said that if we wanted to have A/C, we'd have to go get a hotel. AND the night couldn't be refunded because we had already used the showers.

snapped this pic right before we packed up and headed out. had to document the moment.

So, I stepped into one of the rooms and called the Holiday Inn down the road - they had a room available that would sleep all 6 of us. We made the quick decision to just lose the $180 and stay at the Holiday Inn. Let me tell ya.. it was, HANDS DOWN, the best decision of the trip.

Rejuvenated, we woke up the next morning and took off towards Glacier National Park.

All in all, it could've been much worse I guess.

But, in the moment, we were exhausted after getting hardly any rest in the past 48 hours, 2 flights, exploring 2 national parks, 13+ hours on the road... we were just really ready for a good night's rest.

Moral of the story:

Remember when you're booking a rental whether through AirBnB, VRBO, or direct - read the fine print! be sure there is A/C, and also, it's an added bonus if the exterior doors lock.