Couple woken at midnight to sound of Airbnb complex getting demolished

A young couple staying at an Airbnb were jolted awake by the sound of construction noise, wondering what on earth was going on.

Staying on the top floor of an apartment building in Curaçao, South America, American traveller Datrie and her boyfriend Christian started hearing drilling sounds at around 12am directly beneath them, and decided to record what was happening.

"It’s midnight and this big team of construction workers, like 10 plus men are literally demolishing — by the sounds of it — the floor below us," Datrie said in her TikTok.

A photo of the couple talking about what happened. Another photo of construction workers throwing cement into the truck in the middle of the night.
A couple were holidaying on an island when they woke up at 12am to construction noise at their Airbnb complex. Source: TikTok

"Like literally tearing it apart with a full on drill," Christian piped in, who is seen to be wearing earphones to help block out the noise.

They claimed to have been "trapped" in the Airbnb complex with the only exit being blocked by the construction workers' “giant truck”.

"We are in a different country and don't know what to do," Datrie said. "I'm just a little scared to go ask them why they’re doing construction at 1am."

She also claimed the noise was 97 decibels at one point, which can cause hearing damage after a certain point of exposure.

In an update video, the young woman mentioned they had to wait several hours until the construction workers finished and moved their truck, at which point the couple walked around at 3am trying to find other accomodation to stay at.

"We ended up finding a motel," Datrie said in the TikTok. "Needless to say we left the Airbnb in the morning and they were still working on the apartment under us. So wild."

She also said that they had contacted Airbnb who were "no help".

Social media users react to construction incident

The two videos went viral, with a collective reach of almost 4 million people.

Some people were shocked that such a bizarre thing would happen and empathised with the couple.

"This is why I would never stay in an AirBnb too many horror stories," one person said.

"Happened to me in Costa Rica," said another. "We contacted the Airbnb host and got a full refund after explaining how ridiculous the construction was."

"This is my island. You should be able to get a refund," a third person said. "The workers probably had no idea there were people staying at the place."

A couple were holidaying on an island when they woke up at 12am to construction noise at their Airbnb complex. Source: TikTok
The couple ended up leaving the complex in the morning, where the construction workers were still demolishing away. Source: TikTok

However others questioned why they didn't try to get the the attention of the construction workers.

"Just talk to them, that'll probably solve the problem pretty quickly," one person said.

"I’m sure if you ask them to move so you can exit, they will," another piped in. "Trucks have wheels".

"They were speaking Papiamento but they 100% can speak English," a third person said, given that the couple mentioned a language barrier was another reason they didn't try speak to them.

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