My Tour Tales: An Airbnb Disaster In Destin, FL

I stopped in Mississippi because I saw a sign for a Whataburger, and I needed fuel anyway so said Whattheheck. Whataburger is a Texas tradition and now that they are all over the South, I try and stop whenever I get a craving. It hit the spot.

As I got into Destin, it was apparent that it was high season. The traffic on Hwy 98 was backed up from the Destin/Crab Island Bridge half way to Okaloosa Island!

I took it in stride though because I in my old home territory and back at the beach. As I drove over the bridge I could see how packed the island was; in fact, it’s really not an island anymore. It was above the water before Hurricane Eloise in 1974, now it’s knee to waist deep. People stand in the water all day and drink beer and, for some reason, never have to pee!

Destin has transformed from a sleepy little fishing village to world-class tourist destination, with that comes pros and cons. The pros are, there will be a ton of work for me as a musician when I move back, the cons are traffic, too many people and high hotel prices when visiting in high season. I couldn’t find anything under $250! So I opted to try Airbnb.

The picture and reviews on the website looked promising. The problem is I didn’t look deep enough. While the hosts were very nice, they were way over their head and should not be renting. I say that because of many reasons.

Deep breath…Here goes:

When I arrived the directions were so hard to understand, it took me half an hour to find the right building.

The bathroom was in the living room, it had no towel, there was no separate entrance so the hostess met me at the front door and showed me to my room. Room?

It was a loft above the living room with a dangerously steep ladder to climb.

She and her kids were sprawled our on the two couches below the loft. The TV was blaring with kids shows.

When I climbed into my dungeon, I saw it was just was mattress on the floor. There was no nightstand like in the photos, there was clutter in the cubby hole and it had a tiny TV no one could see.

The sheets and pillows didn’t match.

The room was barren – just the mattress on the floor. I’m not picky but come on!

The kids slept on the couch with the TV on all night. I managed to fall asleep at midnight and then at 5:45 the kids started crying and the TV was cranked to full volume. I tried to get back to sleep had success so I tossed and turned until 7:30 then let myself out as the two kids slept hard on the couch

Later, I e-mailed  her and explained that it is dangerous to keep your kids in a living room with perfect strangers sleeping above them. I mean really?! She thanked me for my input and refunded my fee.

All good.