Airbnb Guest Shocked To Find They're Staying Inside a Beauty Salon: 'Leave'

An Airbnb guest shared his shock online after being greeted with a salon upon his arrival to a "spacious one bedroom condominium."

The place had a lit-up sign in the front window, along with a bucket and sink for a shower and light switches hanging off the wall.

Eryk Sawicki landed in Copenhagen after 12 hours of traveling where "everything that could go wrong, did go wrong," he explained in a video with over 120,000 views.

"I had to record this because there's a lot to unpack," he said before giving a tour of the place.

Sawicki told Newsweek that he recorded the video three years ago to send to his friends: "It was hilarious in the moment and it's still pretty funny now—I recorded the video to show some friends on Instagram three years ago and thought I'd re-upload it to TikTok for a laugh, and it went viral almost immediately. I was interrailing at the time so I was only staying for two nights before whizzing off to Oslo."

"When I walked in, through this magnificent door here, you can see that there is a buddha and a TV screen pointed outside, and I thought 'hmmm that's a bit interesting' but it was dark as f**k and i couldn't see a thing," explained Sawicki in the video, which can be seen here.

The only initially visible light switch turned on the lights in the window and outside of the apartment-and-salon-in-one.

Upon realizing that there was a big curtain, Sawicki drew it back to reveal that "there's actually a massage parlor," showing a massage table set up in a salon environment. The room, he explained, smelt like beauty products too.

After accepting that the space was a workplace being used as an Airbnb on the side for some extra money, he checked out the bathroom. Sawicki had been warned by the host that the bathroom did not have a drain, but that she had left him a bucket to shower with.

He assumed that it would be a wet room style bathroom, but was disappointed to discover that the bucket was in order to stand in and catch the water, which came from a shower head attached to the sink tap.

"The funniest thing, really, is that it was my birthday the day after I arrived. I went to sleep, woke up on my birthday, showered in the bucket, and got on with my day," Sawicki told Newsweek.

Although it comes as a surprise when renting an Airbnb, such cramped bathrooms with make-shift showers are reportedly common in Denmark, where apartments used to have shared showers in a bathroom.

As years went by, demands for private showers increased but the small bathrooms could not accommodate it. Instead, owners installed small showers into the bathrooms, often right next to the toilet. However, one without a drain, and using a bucket instead is seemingly not so common.

Upon requests of how to turn on the lights in the apartment, the host warned Sawicki that the light switch is a "little bit fiddly though."

"I peer behind it and this light switch is hanging out of the wall," he said, showing the light switch with visible wires. Sawicki confirmed in a comment that the place did have a bedroom which was "actually pretty comfy and cozy."

He told Newsweek that he was able to get his money for the stay back through his bank as "luckily I worked at a bank at the time, the bank I had an account with, so I knew I could raise a Goods and Services dispute with them. It took about three months but I got my money back with the help of my bank which is the key take-away I suppose."

In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Airbnb said: "This reservation was over two years ago, we provided our full support to the guest at the time, and the listing has not been active on Airbnb since."

Airbnb confirmed to Newsweek that it didn't receive reports of concern during the stay but mediated with the host after. The company has now given a coupon as a goodwill gesture and Sawicki confirmed to Newsweek that he "mysteriously" received a coupon shortly after going viral.

Viewers were left equally bewildered and entertained by the room rented by Sawicki, flooding with comments of advice.

"LEAVE! Get a hotel room," advised one TikTok viewer.

"Should be paying you to stay there," joked another.

Wacky Airbnbs are far from rare, as shown by hosts online on multiple occasions.

In December, one Airbnb guest expected to wake up to views of a New York skyline, but instead was greeted by diners at a restaurant. The window in her bedroom appeared to connect to a restaurant, meaning she could see diners sitting right next to it having a meal.

"How is this legal?" she asked in a video. In another clip, she confirmed that the restaurant did have one-way glass, so they were unable to see her in her room.

Update 05/18/22, 3:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Eryk Sawicki and Airbnb.