I’m on a road trip with my brother and his roommate from university, let’s call him Stu. It’s winter break – we wanted to explore the most beautiful part of our country and partake in a certain plant that is illegal where I am from.
We get to the last city on our tour – trip is coming to an end, Stu has been butting heads with me all trip – I have been very kind and nice to him, trying to ignore all the digs at me, but he’s extremely narcissistic and one of those types who has delusions of grandeur about his social media page and likes to put down others to make himself feel better – that type.
We are in our Airbnb, it is a lovely little loft in a beautiful city. The owner comes in and talks to us and asks if it’s okay if a worker comes in to fix the shower while we are in the unit. I had already used the shower. I saw nothing wrong with it. It was something cosmetic apparently. I was bewildered that there was even something wrong with the shower since I had just used it.
So he asked us a question all at once. I was the first to move my lips and I stuttered, because I was shocked at the audacity of this guy to ruin our experience of this Airbnb by letting an invader in. The others look at me like I just committed a murder. The silence was crazy.
But then I thought of my own personal experience as a worker – what if this guy needs to hit this job today or it’s a pain in the ass to come back another day – so I, almost immediately, taking one for the team, say yes it’s okay if he works on the shower.
I paid for the Airbnb. I wanted to maintain the isolation that we paid for and feel like I’m on vacation. Work doesn’t happen in your hotel room while you’re on vacation, so it shouldn’t happen in an Airbnb, I thought.
Anyways, piling on to the unfriendliness and nastiness displayed throughout the entire trip, our buddy Stu rips into me by loudly, aggressively mocking/mimicing the way I initially stuttered when I started the sentence, and Stu tells me I need to work on my social skills.
Bitch how do I need to work on my social skills? It was a semi-rude question by the host that totally caught me off guard and put us on the spot, and I ended up making an unnecessarily compassionate and empathetic choice by letting the worker work – yet Stu rips into me like I’m some sort of anti-social monster.
Am I the asshole or is Stu the asshole? I would love to tell more Stu stories and have deeper conversations on this.
I feel Ike YTA just generally speaking
ESH
Stu is obnoxious.
But what exactly should the owner have done? He wanted to quickly make sure the shower worked for you.
The general vibe of this is YTA
Stu sounds like a piece of work, but why did you make the decision on behalf of the group? Why not say ‘ I don’t mind , what do you guys think?’.
It’s not a rude question from the owner, though. The shower needed fixing and he didn’t want a bad review. And when something does go wrong in a hotel, a maintenance worker will come in and fix it. It’s just not as common.
That being said, Stu’s still an AH.
So ESH.
“…this guy to ruin our experience of this Airbnb by letting an invader in.”.
There’s no invader. There’s a worker making sure your shower works. And if you want things to work like they do in a hotel then get a hotel room.
Unlike hotels in an Airbnb there’s not an option to move you to another room if there’s a problem with yours. That’s why, usually, there’s not work done on your hotel room when you’re staying at a hotel. Although if there’s no free room and something needs fixed in yours then yes work will be done on the hotel room possibly while you’re there.
I think you’re misdirecting your feelings from Stu to the Airbnb owner and worker. YTA for saying it was ok and seething about it. If you weren’t ok with it you should have said so. But that would have also meant you don’t get to complain about not having a working shower. Sounds like you shouldn’t go on trips with Stu again.
ESH – “ruin our experience of this Airbnb by letting an invader in.” A tradesman is an invader? Drama much? Versus bully boy Stu? You both are exhausting. You deserve each other.
I feel sorry for your brother.
YTA
That’s the trade off of staying in an air b n b versus a hotel. They are independently owned, and limited. it’s not like a hotel where they will block off a room for the day and just give you a different one.
The wifi could go down and it would take more efforts on your end to contact the host and longer to repair than a hotel.
chances you take and choices you make when picking an air b n b over a hotel.
ESH. What is your brother doing about Stu’s behaviour to you? Stu sounds insufferable. But I highly doubt the Airbnb host is interrupting you for a cosmetic change to the shower. Would you rather have privacy or a working shower? Also you should have asked the other two if they were cool before agreeing.
You sound insufferable. YTA
ESH except for the owner of the airbnb and the worker who went to fix the shower, everyone else, the 3 of you, sound exhausting, you and Stu are AH and your brother can’t be normal either if he decided travelling with the 2 of you was a good idea.
YTA. You don’t really know what was wrong with the shower. Just because it worked does not mean there wasn’t a leak somewhere. You are also taking this way too seriously. Even at a hotel they may have to work on something while you’re there.
YTA in generally I think. You sound just absolutely exhausting to be around.