Airbnb guests sue over their 'house of horror' rental, saying it was full of bats that attacked them in bed

31.10.2023 - 12:05 / insider.com

A group of women guests sued AirBnb after claiming their Michigan rental was full of bats that attacked them in bed, a lawsuit seen by Insider said.

The elderly women, who were celebrating their 50th high school reunion in July, rented out a Victorian-style house that was nicknamed "The Castle."

But a few days into their stay — on the evening of July 26 — they discovered that the five-bedroom property was infested with screeching bats that began "pouring out of the attic into the bedrooms and hallway," the lawsuit stated.

When the women tried to escape the house, they said they found the stairwell "consumed with bats" and were forced to retreat into their bedrooms, according to the lawsuit.

They attempted to block the doors with towels and pillows, the lawsuit said, but the bats still managed to find their way in through the old lath walls and gaps in the baseboards.

The women, who were "cowered underneath their covers," were hit by the bats, with one of them suffering a bat bite and one having the animals "entangled in their hair," the lawsuit said.

The women eventually had to get rabies shots as a result of the incident, according to the lawsuit.

In a review of the property believed to be from one of the women in the group, she wrote that the bats had "emerged through the walls."

"The bats were flying throughout the upstairs and in the stairwells, so we could not get out of the house. The host did not respond to our 11 calls during our terrifying night with the bats, beginning at 12:08 a.m.," she added.

The nocturnal animals eventually retreated when the sun began to rise.

An exterminator eventually found a large colony of Michigan Brown Bats living in the attic as well as "inches upon inches" of bat excrement and urine that was running down the basement walls, the lawsuit said

In response to the Airbnb review, the owner identified only as Thomas, wrote that the incident was "incredibly random and unfortunate," adding: "I'm very sorry that this occurred and interrupted your stay with us."

Thomas also wrote that he "immediately provided the refund as requested," and offered to pay for a hotel and dinner.

However, in his response, he also claimed that the exterminator was only able "to find one (likely transient) bat."

Thomas and a spokesperson for Airbnb did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The women accused Airbnb of "negligently allowing the bat-infested home to be advertised on the platform."

"This is every renter's worst nightmare. What was supposed to be a fun vacation turned into a house of horror for my clients," attorney Jon Marko told the Detroit Free Press. "This played out like a scene from a Halloween horror movie."