‘It smells really bad’: Woman books Airbnb. Then she finds a door hidden under the bed
A woman booked an Airbnb for herself, her mother, and her baby girl. Next thing she knew, they were talking about calling the police in the middle of the night.
What’s under this Airbnb?
During their stay, Ku’uipo Dawn (@kuuipodawn) and her mother discovered a door under one of the property’s beds. Dawn recorded as they investigated further.
“It never says we can’t open it so doesn’t that mean we should open it?” Dawn asks in her TikTok about the experience.
She easily lifts one of the floorboards. Then the smell hits her.
“It stinks. It smells really bad,” she says, groaning.
Dawn initially describes the smell as cat urine. Then she reconsiders.
“What if it’s a dead body?” she wonders aloud.
Her mother is not thrilled with this suggestion. “Don’t say that. I’m sleeping on top of this,” her mother says.
Dawn responds that if it’s a corpse, they’re not just going to sleep. They’re calling the police.
Dawn’s all for continuing to investigate, especially after she finds a latch that confirms it is indeed a door. That changes when she looks at the underside of one of the floorboards and sees handprints.
“I’m scared. I’m actually scared. I don’t want to do it anymore,” she says, visibly frightened.
The two eventually decide to wait.
“We’re going to open it on the last day. But right now we’re going to move my mom’s bed by my bed and put our suitcases and this chair on it so nobody can get out if it’s the barbarian,” Dawn says half-jokingly.
The big reveal
The door in the floor of Dawn’s Airbnb struck people as either terrifying or no big deal.
Many said they’d pack their things that very minute and flee. Or had a hard time imagining going to sleep after finding that door.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were cameras in the room watching,” wrote one.
“Curiously invested but also low-key expecting a mouldy, damp crawl space with dead rats/mice,” another chimed in.
Someone who probably watched a lot of crime shows opined that the host had a sinister reason for renting the house out on Airbnb. “My theory is they let be Airbnb it so if they ever get caught they can blame it on the people who Airbnb it,” they said.
As promised, Dawn posted a recording of them opening that door before they checked out of the Airbnb. Just in case they had to make a quick getaway, she says they loaded the car first.
There weren’t any dead bodies, or cats, or even zombies, as some had suggested.
“OK, so it’s a crawlspace,” Dawn says when the door is finally open. Underneath, you can see a small dark space with what looks to be black plastic over dirt.
The only creepy thing they found was a spider.
Some still believed the door in the floor led to something sinister. One claimed they saw a head down there.
“Was I the only one that saw the light in the corner?” another said.
While they didn’t find anything in the dark, smelly crawlspace of their Airbnb, at least one person wondered if they might have found something—or someone—had they opened the door sooner.
“You gave whoever was there so much time to escape,” they said.
@kuuipodawn I’m scared and can’t sleep so I’m posting this. Do we open it or leave it be?! We leave Tuesday #scary #trapdoor #fyp #airbnb #help #funny #motherdaughter ♬ original sound – Ku'uipo Dawn
Dawn didn’t immediately reply to an inquiry sent via Instagram direct message Thursday afternoon.
Update July 4, 2025:
In an Instagram direct message to TMS, the creator said, “Yes we were scared after and made sure to pile a bunch of stuff on it so nothing could open it.”
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