A family's overnight stay turned into a horrifying ordeal when they discovered a man hiding behind a wall inside a rental property they had booked for a birthday celebration.
Mum Therese explained that she had arranged lodgings for herself, her partner and their two children following a family birthday celebration in the vicinity last weekend. The property, listed as unoccupied by the owner, was conveniently located near the event and appeared ideal for an overnight visit – but shortly after their arrival, the situation began to deteriorate rapidly.
"I met with the landlord to get a key," Therese told Kieran Cuddihy on RTÉ's Liveline. "That was in a key lock box. He showed me around the house. He had his clothes in his dryer at the time, and so they were drying away. I was leaving, heading back to the party, and I said, 'Will you be here tonight when I come back?' And he went, 'Oh no, no, I won't be here.'"
Unexpected discoveries
She added: "At the time I didn't realise when I booked it, the entire piece. It does have advertised the entire home is yours. But even with that regardless, I wouldn't have minded if he was staying there because B&B hosts still stay in the house sometimes. I just asked, 'Are you going to be here tonight?' And he went, 'No, no, I'll be gone.'"
Alongside the dryer running, she found it odd that the children's bedroom downstairs sat adjacent to a locked room – and while she felt uneasy about the kids sleeping there, she believed at that stage there was little she could do to change the arrangement. Nevertheless, confident the property would remain unoccupied until their evening return, the family departed for their celebration.
Only upon arriving back did they discover something peculiar was afoot. When they entered the home, they discovered the washing machine was now running, suggesting the landlord had paid another visit. The property key remained attached to a chain within a lockbox positioned outside.
Man found behind partition wall
"That did make me think that he was here," she shared. "I knocked off the washing machine because the kids were going to bed at that point, and I was like, 'I'm going to knock off the washing machine because the single beds were right beside it.'"
Unsettled by the entire episode, Therese requested her partner inspect the rooms upstairs, which led to an extremely bizarre discovery about the property. "Still I felt a little bit weird. So I said to my partner, 'Will you go upstairs and just check all the rooms'. And he went up, then he came back down. He was feeling a little bit weird. We didn't initially notice that there was like this partition-looking wall. It was actually a really thin piece of plasterboard with a nail. So there was no nails on one part. This was in the sitting room, in the living room. So my partner went, 'What's behind that?' Because it looked like it could move. So when he went to move it, it came off."
"It was just darkness behind it and I hear 'hey, hey', so we obviously died. And I went, 'Is there somebody behind that wall?' And he went, 'Yes'. Now the man didn't come out near us, but like straight away, I went to get the kids and just leave right now."
Therese explained that she met the landlord after, who claimed to have never met her before, and told him how the experience was traumatising. "It was pitch black, so you couldn't say a thing," Therese said. "And obviously, when you get frightened, you're not expecting to hear somebody go, 'Hey, hey', from a wall, which I thought was just a wall at the time. We left, initially had the kids outside. In the end, I did end up meeting him at the front of the house. He said that he didn't meet me before. And I said to him, 'Why have you done this? You have traumatized myself and my kids when you easily could have just said, 'Yes, I will be here later on'.... And he went, 'Well, my Google reviews don't say that'."
Ongoing investigation
Therese said the whole experience has put her off booking a property that isn't a hotel in the future, telling how even in her own home she sometimes feels unsafe. "It's horrifying. It's so scary," she said. "I genuinely. The only way to describe it is... I feel like I was on a Netflix documentary. I wouldn't believe this. The blood drained from my face. The kids were frozen in one spot. We had to physically move them. Their jaws had dropped. They heard the hey, and all we could see was this black hole. We didn't know what size it was, whether it was a small space or big space, and we knew there was a man behind that. It's the most terrifying feeling ever."
"I'm still not over it," she continued. "It's terrifying, and I feel sorry for the kids. Genuinely, will put me off booking any sort of holiday home in the future. I think I'll probably be hotels from here on in. I don't think the kids would want to stay. You just don't feel safe. Even in my own home now, it's crazy. I know I am safe, but I'm still psychologically affected by it. It's terrifying."
Booking.com confirmed that a probe has been launched into the incident, and that the listing has been taken down while the investigation continues. A Booking.com spokesperson told the Irish Mirror: "We take safety and security very seriously. As soon as we were made aware of this incident, we launched an investigation into the property, which is ongoing." They added: "The property has been suspended while the investigation is completed."
