Woman rents Airbnb. Then she hears a noise and finds someone hiding in the closet

Vacations are supposed to be relaxing. A trip can hardly be classified as a vacation if it ends up making you more stressed than you were before.

Unfortunately, sometimes you spend a bunch of money only to experience a trip that doesn't go as planned. And one set of friends is going viral for experiencing something particularly harrowing.

What happened in the Airbnb?

Content creator Ciara (@cciarajones) posted shocking footage from inside her Airbnb. Her original video has more than 11.9 million views, and her explanatory follow-up has more than 53,000 views.

Ciara rented an Airbnb for a vacation with her friends. They heard a “weird noise” coming from the closet. Then they noticed something strange: the glass window of the closet that had previously been uncovered now had a blanket draped over it. It prevented Ciara and her friends from seeing into the closet. The door had been locked earlier, but someone had since unlocked it.

“Then we discovered him,” Ciara wrote in the text overlaying her follow-up video.

Ciara and her friends opened up the closet door, only to find a young Russian man named Vlad sitting quietly in the closet. He was scrolling on his phone. While Ciara's friends initially reacted with horror, they eventually began communicating with him via Google Translate.

“Luckily he was harmless and we made friends with him,” Ciara wrote. “He just had no where to stay so was hiding in the closet as you do … he was just as shocked as us when we found him.”

Apparently, closet-hiding is standard protocol for Vlad, who told Ciara and her friends that “this has never happened before” and he “didn't think [they] would find [him].” Seeing as he had no place to go, Ciara's friends made a pact with him.

“Made some ground rules when we realised he was harmless and just had no where else to stay,” Ciara wrote. “Made friends with him and he even ironed their clothes for them bless him.”

Vlad, for his part, promised via a translated message that “he [won't] sit in that closet anymore.”

@cciarajones wonder how long he was in there #manhidinginwardrobe #elp #barca ♬ original sound – Universal Pictures

Commenters have mixed feelings — but is this legal?

One comment summed up the sentiments expressed by most of Ciara's viewers: “This is actually terrifying.”

“People don't realize how many AirBNB host stay in their house the entire time you're there and just have a part of it blocked off,” another claimed. Another viewer responded, “This happened to me. I left early cos I couldn't sleep.”

“This is why I never want to rent an airbnb I've heard too many airbnb horror stories,” one person commented. “I'd be so paranoid there's secret cameras and stuff.”

Some viewers expressed sympathy for Vlad, who they assumed was the host of the Airbnb property. One person remarked that he seemed “so chill.”

“Looks like a good person thou,” wrote one viewer. “I actually feel bad for him.”

“That was scary,” said another. “But I feel bad for him.”

Regardless of anyone's personal feeling on the matter, is what Vlad did allowed in Airbnb's host policies? Well, not exactly.

In the “Protecting your privacy” section of Airbnb's community policies, Airbnb states that “hosts and guests must not enter private spaces unless they have permission or there is an emergency.” While these policies only apply to Vlad if he was truly the Airbnb host, Airbnb makes it clear that “Guests have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the space they have rented.”

“Hosts must obtain guest permission before accessing the listing or property during the reservation, unless there is an emergency,” Airbnb states. “For shared stays, hosts and guests must not enter a shared bathroom when another person is inside, and must obtain permission before entering non-shared spaces like bedrooms and private bathrooms.”

Buzz News has reached out to Airbnb via email and Ciara via TikTok comment.