Like with everything else in life, when it comes to hotels and Airbnb, what you pay for is what you get. But every once in a while, travelers come across places to stay that exceed expectations in all the wrong ways.

So we’ve gathered some of the worst hotel and Airbnb experiences and failures that netizens simply had to shame online. We also got in touch with veteran traveler Monica Stott to learn a bit more. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the worst fails, and be sure to share your own ideas and stories in the comments section below. 

#1 The Running Hot Water At My $550/Night Hotel Room In Paris

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#2 View From The Hotel Room. They Claimed We Would Get City Views

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#3 They Said That Hotel Includes A “Private Balcony”. It’s Just A View Of The Wall Of The Next Building

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Bored Panda got in touch with veteran traveler Monica Stott and she was kind enough to share some of her experience with us. First and foremost, we wanted to hear what advice she would give her younger self in regards to traveling. 

“You don’t need all that stuff! Find your favorite travel outfit and stick with it and forget about all the ‘just in case’ items. You never need them. But pay for extra cloud storage and backup your photos and videos. Those photos are priceless, look after them,” she added, and for good reason, every single country in the world has something beautiful to capture. 

#4 The Staircase At My Hotel Room Just Drops Off

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#5 My Hotel Made The Walls Of The Bathroom Fully Transparent

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#6 First Day Of Vacation And Our Half Of The Hotel Doesn’t Have Power. Guess Who Might Be Going Home Early

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When it comes to hotels, everyone has their own philosophy. Some prefer to rough it out and save their money for tickets and activities, while others enjoy living in the lap of luxury. Naturally, given Monica’s experience, we wanted to hear her opinion on when to splurge and when to save. 

#7 I Tried To Open The AC Vent At The Airbnb I’m Staying At On Vacation And Found This

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#8 This Bathroom Mirror In My Hotel Room. I’m 5’2″ And Can’t Use The Bathroom Mirror. No Step Stool Provided

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#9 I Stayed At Made Hotel In NYC, And This Was My View From The Bed

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“If we lived in a perfect world then we’d all have plenty of time and plenty of money and we’d be free to make the choice about which is most important to us. But we don’t live in a perfect world and it’s not normally a choice. Some of us have one or the other, most of us don’t have enough of either!”

#10 My Hotel Window On The 8th Floor Has A Window That Opens From The Bottom And Opens Up Far Enough To Fall Through The Frame

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#11 You Won’t Be Getting Any Sleep There. Even With The Blinds Closed, You’ll Know It’s Watching

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#12 My Airbnb Host Said: “The Lock Box Is Near The White Door. It Is Silver With Black Plastic”

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“Just remember that nothing has to be forever. You might prioritize time at one stage of your life (perhaps when your children are little) and then prioritize money for a while (perhaps in your 50s so you can retire young). There’s no right or wrong, we all just do what feels right at the time,” she shared with Bored Panda. 

#13 My Hotel View. It’s Actually Nice To Have Quiet Neighbors

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#14 That Went From Horrifying To Unexpected Perk Rather Quickly

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#15 This Hotel Provides Hair Dryers But Tells Their Guests Not To Use Them

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“I definitely prefer traveling slowly and paying less to do so. But do I have 10 weeks to slowly travel around Europe by train? No, no I don’t. So, at the moment, I’ll be taking a quick flight every other weekend to European cities for a 2-night break!” After all, as this article shows, not all hotels are made equal, so it’s best to know what to look out for. 

#16 I Found This Camera In My Vacation Rental

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#17 My Airbnb Assured Me They Have A “Very Safe” Baby Gate

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#18 I Found This Gem At A Hotel In Wisconsin

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We also asked Monica to share her own tips on how to prepare for a trip. “I don’t like to over-prepare because it can take the joy out of stumbling upon things and enjoying the moment. There are a few things I like to do though: Book my accommodation, know how I’m getting from the airport/train station to my accommodation, and roughly know how much things will cost.”

#19 This Has Made Me Laugh

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#20 I Found A Pair Of Handcuffs Attached To A Leg Of The Bed In My Airbnb In Tijuana

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#21 I Saw The Full Mirror In My Hotel Room Randomly Shake And Discovered This Space In The Wall Behind It

Apparently, the hotel tried covering up damage done by a previous guest.

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“Have a short list of things I want to see, a few restaurants I’d like to try and plot these places on Google Maps so I don’t get lost.” If you want to learn more travel tips, check out Monica’s Instagram as well as her blog. For those who weren’t turned off hotels and Airbnb from this article, check out some travel ideas for 2024. 

#22 The Airbnb I’m At Has The Toilet So Close To The Sink That I Can Wash My Hands And Poop At The Same Time

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#23 Why Hotels Do This

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#24 AC Wasn’t Cooling Effectively In My New Hostel Room. Maintenance People Didn’t Respond, So I Decided To Take A Look Myself. This Is The Filter

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#25 Got An Airbnb Just For The Tub

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#26 At The Hotel I’m Staying At. Definitely Not Suspicious

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#27 Welcome To The Underground

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#28 Sometimes, Hotels Make The Weirdest Design Choices

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#29 TV In My Hotel Room

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#30 Hotel Manager Decided To Come Into My Room While I Was Still In There To Paint The Door That Didn’t Even Need Painting, In My Opinion

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#31 While My Family With Young Kids Were Staying At This Airbnb, An Old Man Walked Into The Backyard And Started Draining The Pool

The pool was included in our stay. We also rented the whole house which in my mind should include privacy and no interruptions from the homeowner.

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#32 I Arrived At My Airbnb In Sao Paulo At 3 AM And Found This Mess

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#33 Salad In The Italian Restaurant In Egypt Hotel

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#34 They Said There Was A Sea View At Our Airbnb

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#35 I Was Staying At A Hotel In Canada. They Were Doing Construction And Didn’t Bother To Put Any Signs, So This Morning, I Fell Down 3 Feet

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#36 Notice To Airbnb Guests

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#37 The Airbnb I’m Staying In Says It’s A Laundry Room, So I’ll Be Wearing Dirty Clothes All Week Because I For Sure Won’t Be Going There

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#38 The Charcuterie Board At My Hotel

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#39 Safety Precautions Inside A Hotel I Was Staying At In Bali

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#40 The Men’s Restroom At My Hotel

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#41 The Hotel Advertised Having A Balcony. This Is The Balcony

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#42 Hotels Should Make Blinds Useful Again

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#43 What In The World Is That?

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#44 The “City View” From My Hotel Room In Istanbul

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#45 The Airbnb Has A Window From The Shower To The Living Room

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#46 Airbnb Really?

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#47 My Parents Are Staying In A Hotel That Promised To Serve Them Breakfast During Their Stay. This Is The Breakfast They Were Given

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#48 I Paid Extra For A “Tower Room” At Our Hotel And Were Told We’d Get A Nice View Of The River

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#49 Airbnb Is Getting Out Of Hand

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#50 I Reserved A Suite Months Ago For A Trip To San Diego, Only To Find Out During Check-In That Pool And Hot Tub Are Closed For Renovation

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#51 The Light Switches In My Hotel Room. I Accidentally Turned The Lights On Twice While Sleeping

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#52 I’m Staying In A Hotel Room And Found This License Plate Hidden Under The Mattress

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#53 TV In My Hotel

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#54 My Daughter’s Budget Hotel View Over Liverpool

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#55 The “I Ran Out Of Paint And Got Lazy” Aesthetic

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#56 A Monkey Broke Into My Friend’s Hotel Room Next To Mine By Opening A Very Heavy Balcony Door, Which Was Closed But Not Locked

Apparently, the monkey emptied two tubes of powdered Celsius I had given my friend, so there’s an insane macaque hopped up on Celsius.

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#57 I Cannot Stop Laughing At The Vegetarian Starter My Friend Was Given In A Hotel

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#58 My Mom’s Shower At Her Hotel

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#59 You Can Now Poop While Showering

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#60 Yep, I’ll Definitely Know What To Do “In Fire Emergency”, Hilton Garden Inn Cherry Creek (Denver)

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#61 The TV Remote In My Hotel Wasn’t Working. It Felt Too Light, So I Checked The Batteries And Found This

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#62 This Hotel Elevator Won’t Let Me Go Down

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#63 Hotel In Dublin Installed The Anti-Fog Mirror Upside Down

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#64 The Hotel I Stayed At Last Night Said They Provided Free Breakfast

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#65 To The Guy Saying His Airbnb Had A Sink Too Close To The Toilet… I Wanted To Welcome Myself To The Club

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#66 Someone Urinated (I Think) In My Hotel Room’s Bed

I’ve been sitting on top of the duvet for the past 3 hours. I showered, then pulled the covers back to find this… Smells funky.

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#67 Arbitrary Stairs In The Middle Of A Hallway

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#68 Nice Idea But Badly Executed

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#69 Who Approved This “Artwork” At My Hotel?

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#70 The Sheets At My Airbnb. Homeowner Wouldn’t Answer The Phone Because It Was The Sabbath, And He Couldn’t Work

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#71 A Hotel Room With “Sea View”, Cape Town

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#72 We’re In Poland

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#73 This Is Very Strange

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#74 Airbnb Asking For Tips After Charging A Cleaning Fee

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#75 Apparently, Not Only My Room Wasn’t Ready

On vacation with my kid, I went to check in at 2:30, and my hotel asked that I come back in an hour to pick up my key card because my room wasn’t ready yet. Later, I came back to a long line with 100 more people behind me. They had only one single working bathroom and no water.

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#76 This Shower That Doesn’t Have A Door And Gets The Floor Soaked

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#77 I Paid 300 Bucks For 3 Nights At This Specific Hotel Because They Advertised Free Continental Breakfast. This Is Their “Continental Breakfast”

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#78 Hotel I’m At Just Charged Me 14 Bucks For A Couple Of Eggos And 10 Tater Tots

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#79 $160 A Night In This Disgusting Hotel Room In Midwest USA

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#80 Hotel Key Card That Doesn’t Fit In Your Wallet

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#81 The Shower Drain In My Hotel

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#82 Floor Lights In Front Of Hotel Elevator. It’s Very Easy To Trip Over Them

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#83 Sprinklers In My Hotel Room

“Remove after installation” written on the cap.

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#84 I Stayed At A Hotel With Giant Fleas On The Wallpaper

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#85 This Airbnb Host’s Kitchen Rules

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#86 Me And My Girlfriend Stayed At The Hotel, Where The Valet Driver Decided To Take My Car For A Joy Ride And Ran My Car Up A Curb

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#87 I’m Glad I Paid For The “Deluxe Room” Upgrade In This 4-Star Hotel

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#88 This Faucet In My Hotel Makes It Nearly Impossible To Wash Your Hands

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#89 Totally Gonna Use This Sink Water On The Coffee Machine In The Hotel Room

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#90 The Ritz-Carlton Hotel In Guatemala

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#91 Stuff Like That, Can Give Me Dizziness

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#92 Salt And Pepper Shakers At My Hotel Room

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#93 This Light Switch That I Have Found In My Hotel Room

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#94 Me And My Wife Stayed In This Room Where One Of Those Doors Conjoins With The Neighboring Room. The Little Kids Who Were There Kept Trying To Open It To Our Room The Whole Night

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#95 The Hotel I’m Staying At Forgot To Change Out Both Signs, Leaving Very Different Cleaning Fees

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#96 This Railing At A Hotel I Stayed At

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#97 My Hotel Room In North Carolina

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#98 The Shower Drain In My Hotel Looks Like A Trap Door

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#99 A “Perfect” Fit For A TV (At An Airbnb My Girlfriend Stayed In)

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#100 The Hotel Forgot To Put The Bedding On The Beds

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#101 My Hotel Room’s TV. The Funny Thing Is That I Couldn’t Focus As It Was Too Far Away. If You Are Too Close, It’s Like Looking Up At The Sky While Playing

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#102 I’m Currently In A Hotel And Need To Take A Shower. I’m Sure One Of These Turns The Water On. These Things Are Far More Complicated Than They Need To Be

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#103 I Arrived In Prague. This Hotel Room Is Interesting

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#104 Is This Mold Caused By Water Infiltration? Found In An Airbnb, Unsure Whether Or Not To Report

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#105 This Very Annoying Emergency Exit Light In My Room

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#106 The Curtains At This Hotel Are Not Movable, So We Couldn’t Block Out Any Light

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#107 I’m Staying At A Hotel And Found This Next To The Basin. One Is Liquid Soap, And The Other One Is A Gift Left By The Previous Person

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#108 I Have Never Once Stayed At An Airbnb And Found Non-Stick Pans That Don’t Look Like They’ve Been Sandblasted

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#109 The Beach Access Door At The Hotel I’m Staying At. People Without Cards Can Easily Open The Door

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#110 These Random Shower Tiles In The Hotel Where We Are Staying

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#111 These Charging Ports In A Hotel

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#112 The Highlight Of My Day Was When I Stood On The Bathroom Scale In My Hotel Room This Morning And It Literally Exploded

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#113 This Useless Half-Wall Nook In My Hotel Room. New Developments Really Just Love To Waste Materials

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#114 You Only Get Free Water At My Hotel If You Are “Elite”

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#115 Impeccable Interior Design

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#116 The TV At My Hotel Lobby Has Been Doing This For Over An Hour

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#117 3 Cars Had All Of Their Tires Stolen In The Hotel Parking Lot Last Night

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#118 I’m In Los Angeles For Work And My Hotel Has The Worst Artwork

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#119 The Hotel I’m Staying At Had A Broken Door, So I Fixed It For Them

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#120 How My Hotel Decided To Set Up The Bed And The Fridge

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#121 Airbnb Host Asks This After A $350 Cleaning Fee While Being Asked To Strip All Sheets, Take Out All Trash And Run A Dishwasher

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#122 Airbnb House, TV Is Hung Halfway Up A Two-Story High Fireplace, Nearly Level With The Upper Floor

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