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There’s no question that Airbnb is controversial. After all, in tourist destinations across the world, people who have lived in those places their entire lives are being forced out of their homes, or priced out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in, all so that landlords can rent out properties to tourists.
Not only does this lead to the forced displacement of folk as once family homes are converted into holiday rentals, it also leads to the dilution of the culture and heritage of these neighbourhoods, as they are reduced to tourist traps filled with souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants – all while the folk who work in them can’t actually afford to live anywhere nearby.
Nevertheless, if you live somewhere that isn’t already saturated with holiday lets, some folk find that renting out an additional property that they own is a solid way of earning some extra money, and Airbnb can undoubtedly be a profitable way to do so.
Just spruce up your property, list it, and keep it clean and secure, and Voila! Tourists money is appearing in your bank account before you know it.
It sounds easy, right? And it can make things easier for folks visiting places too, allowing them to stay somewhere other than a hotel, and truly settle in and make themselves at home.
However, the couple in this story recently found out one of the potential pitfalls of making themselves too much at home while staying in an Airbnb.
Read on to find out what happened.
AITA for changing the input on an Airbnb’s TV?
A little while ago, I went on a trip with my girlfriend and we booked an Airbnb.
The place was nice and we had a good time, but there was a little hiccup.
There was two TVs in the house, and they both had Dish satellite receivers. We bought a roku stick so we could watch something other than satellite and hooked it up to the bedroom TV.
The TV had two HDMI inputs, so I just hooked it up to the empty one.
But this innocent action was the start of a whole lot of drama.
On the way out, I remembered I didn’t change the input back.
I wasn’t really worried about it though. The owner was a 60-something year old woman, and I figured she should be able to change the input. Turns out I was wrong.
On the drive home, I got a call from the owner.
She asked me, “Did you mess with anything on the TV?” I confirmed that I did and asked, “I just plugged something in briefly, is there a problem?”
Let’s see what the problem was.
She told me, “Yes. Neither of the TVs were working, and it took my husband two hours to get them working again.”
I said, “I guess I could have bumped something..?” to which she replied, “Well, when you stay in someone’s home, you shouldn’t mess with their technology stuff. It isn’t yours. You need to remember that.”
I feel sort of bad for not changing it back. I knew the owner was an older woman, and I probably shouldn’t have assumed she wasn’t very tech savvy. However, and maybe I’m wrong for this, I don’t think you need to be very tech savvy to change your TV input from HDMI 1 to 2.
Also, I’m sure she lied to me when she said both TVs didn’t work, as I didn’t even touch the living room TV or the remote.
AITA?
Honestly, this guy did absolutely nothing wrong.
When you host people in an Airbnb you have to accept that they are going to touch stuff and move stuff around – that’s just a part of having strangers stay in your property.
Really, it’s not hard to change the input, and gaslighting him that both TVs were affected is completely unacceptable.
Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.
This person confirmed that he’d done nothing wrong.
While others thought that it was on the couple to understand how to use their TV.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who held up her end of a college savings bargain only to be ripped off by her scheming older sibling.
Meanwhile, this Redditor explained that the older couple needed to understand how Airbnbs worked.
Let’s be real. He didn’t damage any property. He didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to him. He didn’t make a big mess. He paid and left the property on time. This guy and his girlfriend were stellar Airbnb guests, and at worst they caused a mild inconvenience to the couple by changing the TV input. That is a very basic TV control, and absolutely not something they should have been having to worry about changing back. Sure it would have been nice for the older couple to not have to do that, but when you’re renting a property out, you have to be ready for some inconvenience.
But calling up a guest after the TV was ‘fixed’ and questioning him, before gaslighting him and saying both TVs were ‘broken’ is completely unacceptable. If the couple can’t handle changing a TV input after guests have stayed, and not changing the TV input isn’t an explicit part of the house rules for their Airbnb, then they need to consider whether they really want to be renting their property out at all.