A British holidaymaker says she and a friend were left traumatised after claiming they were secretly filmed by an "evil" Airbnb host through their bedroom door.
Charlotte Harkness, 23, says she spotted the male host's phone forced into a gap during her trip to Milan, Italy.
The student says the host arranged to meet her and her pal late at night at a nearby children's playground on the outskirts of the city and take them to the flat.
The pair said they wanted to get into the flat earlier and found him at 7am, after travelling since 2am.
When they arrived they said they didn't realise they would be sharing it with they host and had assumed they were renting the whole place.
When they got inside they say they found the bedroom door had no lock and that the host had the flat's only key.
Their only exit, if they didn't get the key, was through a three-storey window.
Charlotte, from Manchester, says when they both got into their room to change and unpack she spotted the camera.
She said: “I turned around and saw an iPhone camera through a gap between the top of the doorframe and the top of the door.
“And it was just sheer panic. It was so scary. I shouted at him: 'No, no, don’t you dare!'
“I turned around and said: 'He was filming us! He was recording us!'
“It was panic like I have never felt before - my heart was going and I was shaking really badly.”
She says her friend had already stripped down to her underwear to change before they spotted the camera.
Charlotte also says they had started to feel uncomfortable before they got to their rooms and had hatched a plan to move the chest of drawers in front of the door to sleep.
She says they pushed the door and started to think of a way to escape - but the host allegedly jammed the phone through the gap again.
Charlotte’s pal - who doesn’t want to be named - decided to FaceTime an Italian friend, hoping to scare the host by showing him they knew people nearby.
Charlotte said when that when they left the room the man was standing at the front door, blocking them from getting out.
She said: “We built up the courage to leave the room and were just thinking ‘We’ll just have to accept that whatever’s going to happen is going to happen and try to get out of here’.
“I came out behind my friend and looked into the other two rooms because I was afraid of somebody attacking us from behind.
“I was holding this big stick and shouted “Move! Move now!'
“The host just looked at me completely expressionless. He just looked evil. There was nothing on his face.”
Their Italian friend shouted at the man in his language, claiming he was coming to get them and hoping the threat would make the host let them go freely.
They managed to flee the flat where they hid in a shed and finally found a medical centre, where a woman took them in and called the police.
Charlotte said: “He opened the door and we just ran. We ran until we found a place to hide. We didn’t look back."
She added: “I hadn't been crying or anything up until then. It was when we got out of the situation that the emotional side of it really started to set in.
“With every car that passed us by I thought: ‘That could be somebody that knows him’.” I remember saying: ‘I’m just so scared of men.'”
The friends, who met through their church group and are both parts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, were helped by members of their organisation to find somewhere safe to stay.
Badly shaken, they cancelled the rest of their holiday and headed home early.
Charlotte’s friend said: “It's honestly disgusting that things like that do actually happen. I thought it was just in movies like Taken.
“It's absolutely scary to think what would have happened if we hadn't noticed the camera. Was he bringing more men there?
"Every time I think back at it I get shaky. I have never been so paranoid in my life.”
Charlotte added: “My initial thought was that he could be sending videos of us to other men to say 'I have got girls in my apartment'.
“I genuinely think that if we hadn’t got out of that situation we could have been raped or trafficked."
Two months after their terrifying ordeal, the host has been taken off the platform by Airbnb.
The pair were offered a refund but they felt that the danger of their experience was “dismissed” until they were able to speak to a woman.
Amelia Handy, Policy Lead at Rape Crisis England & Wales, said: “It is very upsetting to hear that Airbnb does not seem to have taken this seriously.
“What happened to these women was a kind of sexual violence known as ‘image-based sexual abuse’ and any company should be horrified to learn that their platform is being used as a tool by perpetrators to carry out such offences.
“All women have a right to be free from this kind of exploitation and ensuring the safety of customers should be the top priority of any company.
“This means that any customer who reports sexual violence should be believed immediately and that proper processes should be in place for preventing anyone else from being subjected to the same experience.
“All forms of sexual violence can have a serious and long-lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of victims and survivors, and no instance of it should ever be dismissed or downplayed.”
An Airbnb spokesman said that they supported the guests as soon as the issue was brought to their attention, including giving them a full refund and rebooking.
They have now removed the host from Airbnb and are reviewing their original handling of the case.
They have zero tolerance for violations of their privacy policies governing the use of recording devices in listings.
A spokesman added: “While we provided the guests with our full support as soon as this was brought to our attention at the time, the original handling fell short of the high standards we hold ourselves to and we have removed the Host from the platform.
“The safety of our community is our priority, and with over one billion check-ins on Airbnb to date, isolated issues are incredibly rare and our Community Support team is on hand 24/7 to help.”
