I will be very selective about AirBnB accommodations – here’s why

In my far and wide travels, I have stayed at many types of hotels – luxury to just converted old bungalows. Each stay was an experience. The hotels were usually rooms with the stated amenities. No big deal and usually were not meant for longer stay in the room. If you are on business trip, a hotel room is only for your to sleep the night and if you are on leisure trip, it is merely for showering and sleeping before more activities the next day.

I have also stayed in converted bungalows where the ambience was more family-like. Be it in Kuching, Malaysia or Ayodhia, Thailand or Rangoon City, Myanmar – the feeling was the same. It did not make one feel alienated, or totally cut off from the rest of the world as one would feel in a hotel room.

Then came along the new wave of accommodations – the AirBnB. People around the world were willing to let strangers into their homes – be it into designated rooms or apartments/houses that they owned. So far I have stayed in more than half a dozen accommodation and believe me, each stay is an experience.

There was one studio which I had stayed in that made me realise how an empty room can be made into such a nice place to live – not stay, mind you, but live. It was practically and tastefully designed that it made the stay very comfortable.

Then again there were stays where the apartments were very nicely done but amenities were lacking.

However, nothing beats apartments with paranormal activities. Yup, you heard it right – paranormal activities as in ghost or `penunggu’. Penunggu means caretaker. Some owners who rent out their apartments do place these penunggu in their units for multiple reasons. But the main reason is to safe-guard against break in and theft. It is not a practice that everyone follows but some people  in Malaysia and Asia do. It is their belief so who are we to agree or disagree.

If you happen to be one who is not affected by the surrounding or one who is not sensitive to creatures of the nether world, then you have nothing to worry about. Penunggu is programmed to act only when the occupier does something not permitted like remove an item from the AirBnB home or break something in the unit. Other times, it just watches. Yes, that is when it becomes a problem. For sensitive people like me, I can sense these things. So, imagine when you constantly feel a pair of eyes watching you or a presence in the small space which makes you feel uncomfortable.

A couple of months ago, I stayed at a duplex unit at an upcoming commercial hub in Cyberjaya. I did not feel anything when there were a few people in the unit but when I was alone I could not sleep. Felt as if someone was watching me. The discomfort was so apparent that I slept with the lights on! Yup, it was not a peaceful sleep that night.

Another incident that happened was even scarier and this time around I was not the one who stayed in that unit. My daughter rents a place at the commercial hub mentioned above. There are many AirBnB units on her floor. The following incident happened a couple of weeks ago. Someone moved into one of the AirBnB units around 10.30 p.m. that night. My daughter saw the girl, as she went down to pick up food delivery. Half hour later as we were having dinner, there was a frantic knock on the door. The doorbell was also ringing incessantly. My daughter and I looked at each other. Who on earth would do that especially at that time of the night? Braving myself, I opened the door. There stood the girl who had just moved in – clad only in her jeans and bra! She held a plastic bag against her chest. We quickly invited her in and gave her one of my daughter’s t shirts. She then explained what happened to her – she just moved into one of the AirBnB units on long stay basis. She was arranging her stuff and she wanted to place something outside. As she stepped out, the door slammed shut behind her – such unit have auto locks unlike the traditional units. And she was trapped outside. Sitting in our living area, she made a couple of calls and about 40 minutes later her fiancé came and she went home around 12.30 midnight.

Nothing happened that night but what happened the next night was nerve wrecking. Around 2 a.m. our little Pomeranian started barking incessantly at the door, at times charging towards something at the door, other times retreating as if to strike back. But we did not see anything at the door. The whole drama lasted about an hour. To make things worse, the corridor did not have lights – pitch black. We managed to calm our little fellow and went back to sleep but he was whimpering the whole time.

The next day, he was barking again the same way around 4 p.m. and the drama repeated the next night. Something seems to try to enter the unit my daughter was staying and the Pomeranian seems to do its might to stop whatever that was trying to enter. The same drama happened the following night, only a little earlier that we had to call the bomoh to find out what happened. Bomohs are part of the society whom we turn to when we encounter the unseen or unexplained. The bomoh told us that something was trying to enter our house because it thinks that it is its house – a case of mistaken identity! Apparently, the unit where the girl moved into had a penunggu and when she came over to my daughter’s place and left with a t shirt, it seemed to think this was also its place and tried entering. We had to do some prayers, chant some mantras and every night we had to place the broom across the front door. It has been peaceful ever since. As for that girl, I think she also moved out because I am sure she would have felt the presence too. She didn’t last even a week in that unit!

Scary as it has been, since we started doing some very serious prayers, the floor where my daughter stays seem to have almost no more paranormal activities. And it also made me wiser. Next time I book an AirBnB accommodation, I am going to be more selective. Before choosing, I would checkout the owner(s) first. Ain’t gonna have unseen eyes staring at me!