Let’s just say, these people are not invited back. People on Quora share the strangest thing a houseguest has done while visiting. Content has been edited for clarity.
Well, At Least She Kept Trying
“One day, when I was around 18 or so, my mom got a can of soup out of the pantry. When she went to open it, she found the can had already been cut and the soup was all moldy inside.
She grabbed another can and saw the same thing. My mom ended up pulling all the canned items out of the pantry to check each one. All said, there were at least a dozen cans of soup that had been opened and carefully placed back on the shelf, and they were now absolutely disgusting inside.
My brother, my father, and I all swore we had not been responsible for this. None of us had any theories (well, no reasonable theories) as to how this might have happened.
It wasn’t until a while later (might have been a few months or even a year or more later, don’t really remember clearly) my mom was telling this story at a gathering of a large group of family friends when one of my best friends, Joelle, interjected with, ‘Umm, I think maybe that was me.’
And then we finally got our explanation for the whole bizarre event.
Several months prior to “’he soup incident,’ my family had gone away for a week-long vacation. Joelle, also 18 or so, had been our house-sitter since we had pets that needed to be taken care of.
She now recalled for us how one night she had been in the mood for a bowl of soup (and we had told her to feel free to eat anything she wanted). So she grabbed a can of soup and our can opener, which wasn’t like the electric one she was used to.
With the can openers she was used to, the blade would pierce into the top of the lid, cutting down into the metal inside the rim.
Ours, on the other hand, was a ‘safety’ can opener that cut into the side of the can, just below the rim.
Hungry, and determined to not let the defective can opener deprive her of a bowl of soup, she tried a different can. Then another, and another, before finally just giving up and eating something else entirely. And since she didn’t manage to open anything anyway, she just put all the cans back into the pantry the way she’d found them.
She never mentioned it to us before, because who wants to admit to being the idiot who can’t operate a simple can opener?? Besides, it’s not like we would ever find out…
And that is the story of how our house guest accidentally left us with a pantry full of moldy soup.”
Yeah, This Friendship Is Definitely Over
“I had a houseguest family, my friend and his girlfriend and their two children under five, as well as a 14-year-old from time to time.
My friend had been in trouble with the law in the past and had been convicted of a felony. No place will rent to a convicted felon. Even though he had steady employment, working at the same company for nearly two decades and meeting income qualifications for the places he applied, he was denied repeatedly.
His girlfriend didn’t work because she stayed at home raising the two and three-year-old. She also had a daughter from a previous relationship who was 14 or 15 at the time. She couldn’t apply for an apartment due to the fact she had no income.
So here was a family who, through no fault of their own, was ousted from their home and forced to apply to multiple places at the $50 per place application fee only to be denied over and over.
I had an extra room in my home which was a pretty good size, so I offered to let them stay until they found a place.
One month turned into six months, but from the first month on, these ‘friends’ slowly turned into enemies.
Every day after my friend got out of work, he and his family would leave together to look at some apartment they had contacted. But instead of actually doing this, they would all go to Walmart and return with toys for their children.
I sometimes worked from home, so on those days, I had to be in my home office to take calls. It was strange his girlfriend felt a need to follow me to this room every day and just sit there and talk my ear off. I tried to be polite and listen, but it started to annoy me because her conversations were just mainly focused on gossip and private relationship issues with my friend.
I attempted to redirect her conversations into looking at future goals for employment. She agreed she needed to work. I looked into local daycare and compared prices to see how much she would have to make to afford the cost of daycare. She qualified for government assistance, so I found the forms for her to fill out and passed them along to her. I created a resume for her and showed her how to upload it on different job search sites. Within a week, she had an interview. I offered to let her use my office while I babysat her kids during her initial phone interview. She politely declined. She told me it wouldn’t be necessary. I explained to her a phone interview was just as important as a face to face. I even prepared questions for her and researched the company and outlined all the essential details she might need to know. She didn’t seem to be very interested in what I had told her. In fact, she actually acted as if she knew everything already. Great.
The interview came and went. I could hear her kids screaming in the room she was supposed to be interviewing in. When I asked her how it went, she elaborated in great detail, telling me she expected a call within the next couple of days. I could tell she was lying to me. I could hear her yelling at her kids the entire time she was supposed to be interviewing.
Then she started to get really creepy. She and her kids would no longer come downstairs. She told my friend my husband hated her children and he forced her and the children to remain in their room all day. I was usually home, so I know this did not happen. My friend got mad at me.
I told him the truth, but he didn’t completely believe me.
She told my friend she could hear my husband and me talking about her all day. My husband and I would not speak to each other much during the day because I would be working and he would be with the baby. Even my friend knew this, but he once again believed his girlfriend.
I ignored this because I wasn’t about to be brought into the drama.
Then things started breaking. My washer we all shared broke. My dryer stopped working. My dishwasher flooded my kitchen. My floor tiles started cracking in a few places. My refrigerator shelves started breaking.
I figured maybe the appliances weren’t meant for the number of people using them. It wasn’t a huge deal but definitely did cost some money to replace.
But my mind changed when speaking to the 14-year-old daughter one day. She told me her mom gets angry and destroys others’ belongings. I knew these people had to go, but now I was scared of my friend’s girlfriend destroying my house and belongings on her way out, especially because she incorrectly assumed I spent my days gossiping about her.
One day when they were out ‘looking at apartments’ (meaning shopping), I opened the door to the room I had not dared look into for the past six months. I gagged. The smell was indescribable. I turned on the light to get a better look. I was not prepared for what I saw.
Cups and plates and dishes filled with an ecosystem of mold. Now, I didn’t actually set foot into the room, so this was just from peeking my head in the room. I could only imagine what more I would have found had I walked in. The walls and windows were all written on in crayon. My chaise longue was broken. And the brand-new mattresses I had just purchased prior to their arrival were without sheets and had large brown stains. And there were piles and piles of dirty diapers.
I refused to have children living like that in my house, so I told my friend I peeked into their room because of a foul smell and they needed to clean their mess immediately.
So his girlfriend spent the next day cleaning. And she tossed all her bags of trash out the side window into my bushes on the side of my house for me to find a little later. The rest of the trash bags were stuffed deep in the back of my closet for me to find after they moved.
I no longer speak to my former friend anymore. Needless to say, they did not move out on good terms.”
Turning Into A Scary Situation
“After the divorce, I was granted the home we had bought together, and to supplement my income I decided to rent out one of the bedrooms. I’d never done this before, so just asked a co-worker gal friend of mine if she wanted a room to rent? She said no, but her boyfriend needed a place.
I’d never met the guy before, but I thought since she was a nice person, he’d be cool too and didn’t do a background check. After he moved in, I found out he had been looking for a place because he’d just gotten out of jail. He was also looking for a job and went to work for an auto repair shop. They had scheduled him to work weekends, but he would stay out ALL Friday night and call in sick every Saturday. That wasn’t exactly my business, but I found out why he was able to stay up all night like that.
One Saturday, some shirts I had ordered had arrived in a box, and the guy started acting weird (he was home ‘sick’ again).
Finally, he told me very seriously, ‘We have to talk.’
So, I stopped what I was doing, and went to meet with him in the living room. He was sitting on the couch with my box in his lap, tapping it knowingly, and repeated, ‘We have to talk!’
Okay, so I sat across from him, and he said, ‘Shakira… I know what’s going on.’
Patting the box, he said, ‘I know you’re dealing substances.’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘Open it.’
So, he opened the box and found nothing in it but clothes and shirts. Well, that doesn’t satisfy him, so then he started ranting about how they’re dealing at his job; he knows they are! And his girlfriend is dealing, and he loves her so much he wants to marry her, but she’s cheating on him; he knows it! At one point, my phone rang, and I said it was my boss; I had to take this call.
‘No!’ he shouted. ‘No, it’s not! That’s not your boss, I KNOW it’s not!’
At this point, it was clear I’m dealing with a crazy person, so I just tried to stay calm and not aggravate him any further. He tried to get me to kiss him, but I managed to get away to my bedroom, where I locked and barricaded the door, hoping he’d sleep this off overnight. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well; I didn’t want him to eat my face off, so I didn’t put my weapon down all night.
In the morning, I was hoping for the best, and left my room to do some laundry. When I crossed the living room to get to the kitchen; I see he was touching under the blanket on the couch.
That was it! I called his girlfriend! I told him to go to his mom’s house; he couldn’t stay here!
He was still so crazy, his mom had him institutionalized because she said he was having a ‘psychotic episode. But nope! The dude was an addict!
Even though I told him not to come back, as soon as he left the hospital he showed up, saying I had to give him 30 days’ notice to move out. Nope! I said he had five minutes, or else I was going to call the cops!”
Come On, Rachel!
“I was home from college and a friend of mine came to visit. Let’s call her ‘Rachel.’
Later on, her boyfriend, we’ll call him ‘Mike,’ also joined us. So it was agreed Rachel was staying over, but it got late and Mike asked if he could crash too.
I knew my parents were fond of Mike and knew his family very well also, so when I asked they were cool with it.
So anyway, I was in my bed, I set up a bed on the floor for Rachel and since my older sister wasn’t home that night, I set Mike up in her bedroom next door.
We all went off to sleep and I woke in the middle of the night, in total darkness with only the dim lighting from outside filling the room. I then heard some…well, grunting noises. At first, I thought Rachel was having a bad dream or something, but as my sleepiness subsides, I realize these grunts sound an awful lot like love-making noises!
So I very slowly turned over to face the direction of Rachel’s bed, set up no more than four feet from my bed. To my horror, I saw Mike and Rachel going at it.
I just turned over and covered my ears, feeling too ashamed to interrupt the act. So I just laid there, not knowing what to do and in complete shock at the audacity of these two!
I guess they must have suspected I was awake because they called out to me a few times when they were done, but I didn’t dare answer and pretended to be asleep. Shortly after, Mike got up goes to the bathroom and snuck back into my sister’s room.
The next morning I carried on playing dumb, Mike didn’t seem the least bit bothered by any of this. Rachel, however, was being unusually quiet for a girl who can’t ever stop talking. Rachel left shortly after waking, although we made plans to go to the mall together. She made some lame excuse about having to help her parents with something. Mike on the other hand was hanging around and overstaying his welcome. I mean, he’s my good friend and all, but he was not invited to stay over in the first place, this is my parents’ house, his girlfriend has left and I had stated many times that I wanted to shower and get dressed.
In the end, I had to jokingly say, ‘Okay Mike, I’m kicking you out!’
Even then, he didn’t take the hint straight away!
About a week later, I called them both and confronted them about what had happened. Rachel was so embarrassed and eternally sorry, Mike apologized, but it didn’t feel genuine.”
At Least The Son Reimbursed Her
“The AirBnB houseguest who was the last straw was a woman in her 60’s from Memphis. When I confirmed her reservation, she called all excited because I was booked on her previous trip to visit her son. Her son lived in a studio apartment, so she always made other arrangements. It took about a half-hour to get her off that call! But, she assured me she was quiet, spent her days out sightseeing, and very neat and clean, even bringing her own cleaning supplies. Huh?
I made extra effort to make sure everything was spotless, especially the bathroom.
So, she only went out for about an hour each day, returned to take a long, hot bath, cleaned the tub with her cleaning supplies, then took a long nap in the living room where I was working at my desk. I’d made it very clear I expected guests to go out for the day, since I work from home.
Then, when I came back one afternoon after a couple of meetings and went into the bathroom, it seemed especially sparkling clean. When I asked, she said she’d literally washed all the walls along with every other surface because she didn’t think it was clean enough.
I thought it was weird she’d remade her bed the morning she was leaving. Someone like that will normally strip the bed. I overheard her talking to her son about getting a cut on her knee that just wouldn’t stop bleeding, but didn’t think anything about it until they went out the door. I pulled back the covers on the bed to discover a huge red stain more than a foot in diameter on the top sheet that had actually gone through the blanket. Yes, blood, a lot of blood. Not a word. No apology. Nothing. Then I realized I didn’t have her phone number!
Emailed Customer Service and didn’t mince words. What they didn’t tell me was my emails were shared with the guest. It got very nasty with her making false accusations. But, her son quickly reimbursed me for all the blood-stained bedding.
I had a couple more reservations I honored, but no more new ones. That was the end of my AirBnB experiment. I insisted they delete my account, rather than a simple deactivation. There was no way in heck I’d ever open up my home to strangers again.”
Why Didn’t Ed Say Anything?
“A friend invited two couples from the same upscale condo for a BBQ on his balcony. The host possessed ‘chef-like’ qualities and the meal was a complete success.
As they enjoyed a post-meal glass of bubbly, the host asked if anyone would mind if he lit an after-dinner joint. There was a nice breeze and everyone was in agreement…have at it.
Five minutes later a guest, I’ll call him ‘Ed,’ left to use the washroom. He was gone an inordinate amount of time, and when he returned, he announced there was someone at the door. The host answered the door and was surprised to see the on-site security man looking nervous. He haltingly told him there had been a complaint from another unit owner and the smoke from his joint was interfering with their meal.
The host was surprised anyone would complain, as balcony smoking was allowed, and the strong breeze seemed to be dissipating the smoke. While the joint was a post-meal treat for him, he had no trouble putting it out if it was noxious for another owner.
It was only later he surmised Ed had left the table, phoned security, and anonymously put in the complaint rather than addressing him personally when asked if smoking would bother anyone.
The host has since reduced his circle of friends.”
The Roommate Of Actual Nightmares
“I lived in a two-bedroom flat and decided I’d rent out the other room as it wasn’t getting much use. It was a good size double room too.
Through a friend of mine who previously stayed at mine for a month, I was connected to this guy who had just got a job in my city and was looking for a place to stay Sunday nights to Friday nights. He would go back to his family for the weekends. Sounded perfect.
So we negotiated a price, he accepted my price, came to see the flat, loved it, and moved in a couple of weeks later. Bills and everything were included in the price too.
The first thing he did on entry was rearrange the whole room and move everything around, which I never really thought was a big deal. It was going to be his room, so I didn’t mind that he had done that.
Besides that, everything was great at first. He tried to be quite social initially and would come hang with me and my girlfriend in the sitting room and talk to us.
In one of the conversations, he said to me and her very boldly, ‘I’m a village boy.’
I thought this was weird until my girlfriend and I started seeing what he meant.
His village character started to come to light once he got comfortable. He would spend the whole evening cooking and not open windows. The house would be humid and smelly. I mean, there was condensation on the walls every time he cooked. One time he even put a can of food in the microwave to warm up the contents. Almost broke the microwave. I don’t know what he was thinking.
His telephone habits were a bit disturbing too. He always had his phone on the loud ring setting and you could hear all his notifications come through no matter where you were in the flat. He sometimes stayed up late on the phone, and his conversations were always loud enough to keep me awake. Every morning, he would start to play loud music and that sometimes woke me up.
At the time, my toilet had a weak flush as it was an old toilet with a retrofitted flush system, and I made him aware of this. This meant possibly having to flush twice to get the toilet clean. However, he just never had the patience for that. I realized he was using the toilet brush to break up poo and toilet paper when we saw poo crumbs and mangled tissue in the toilet brush bristles. It wasn’t a brilliant sight.
His room smelt musty and unaired every time I went in to clean it. It became apparent he never aired the room out when mold started showing up on the walls.
To top it off, he started getting a bit funny and telling me about his finances and how expensive things were getting. I knew he was setting the scene for something, and he finally came out with it. This fellow wanted me to take a rent cut so he could continue his expensive weekly trips to see his family and continue to buy the endless amounts of food he liked to cook daily. He drove a big-engined truck which I can only imagine he didn’t have the funds to run. For me, I think that was the last straw. It became clear he had agreed and moved in with the hopes of convincing me later for a lower rent. Needless to say, I refused his offer and he moved out by the end of the month.
That was not all. When finally cleaning out the room, we made some more discoveries. He had stained the bed and walls next to it with what seemed like vomit stains. I can only assume he vomited while in bed one night and didn’t bother to get up. We found chewed gum just casually left on the window sill. On the wall, we found some dried-up nasal contents, which appeared to have been smeared on the wall.
This fellow was one of a kind and helped me fully understand how gross people can be.”
Age Has Nothing To Do With It
“My parents threw a birthday party one time, and they’re known to make the best foods for the occasion. We usually give leftovers to our guests since we don’t want the food to go to waste. So, when the party had ended that day, the two relatives decided that year to bring their containers. My parents were in disbelief because they are often the ones that pack the leftovers for the guests.
So, the two relatives bought their containers but proceeded without asking my parents to take the food. And that’s when they crossed the line. They were impatient, cut in line, being greedy, and all that. Later on, they also made a statement stating that they are old, so they have the right to do so. What does age have to do with their ignorant behavior?”
Bill, You Mad Man
“My friend Bill and his wife were invited to another couple’s home for dinner. Although it was a casual meal among friends, the table setting was lovely: heirloom china and fine silver. Bill was seated next to the couple’s young son; Bill likes kids and they were getting along swimmingly. But the child was young and at some point during the meal, he became restless. He took the spoon from Bill’s place setting and started hitting it against the table. Bill distracted the child and took the spoon from him, placing it in his jacket pocket.
That night, after returning home and starting to undress, Bill realized that he still had the spoon in his pocket.
The next morning, he called their friends and cheerfully announced that he was the guest you needed to watch because he was prone to stealing the family silver.”
I Would Have Done The Same
“When I was in my 20s I spent the night at my friend’s house she rented with her two brothers.
I was on the couch and I was having trouble falling asleep, so I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. The kitchen was nasty! There wasn’t a single clean vessel to drink from. In fact, every single dish, bowl, pot, pan, and piece of cutlery was dirty.
Of course, when I saw the kitchen chaos, my OCD kicked into overdrive. I organized everything into neat piles and washed all the dishes, the countertops, etc. It took me three hours and I felt satisfied. I went back to the couch and had a great sleep.
In the morning when my friend’s brothers came downstairs, they were astonished. One of them asked if I was insane. My friend scolded me, then thanked me for cleaning up after her brothers.”
