A WOMAN WHO booked out an entire holiday home has said the “blood drained from my face” when she realised the property’s owner was “hiding” behind the wall.

Therese told RTÉ’s Liveline that she booked an overnight stay in Co Wexford last weekend for herself, her partner and two children via Booking.com.

A spokesperson for Booking.com said the company has launched an investigation into the incident, which is ongoing, and that the property has been suspended while the investigation is completed.

Therese’s booking was for the entire property and she said that on arrival, she met the landlord and was shown around the house.

Therese said the owner had his clothes in the dryer at the time and because of this, she asked the owner if he would be there when they returned from a family party.

The landlord informed her that he would not be there when they returned.

Therese left to attend a family party and when she returned several hours later, she noticed that the washing machine was now on and this made her think the owner was in the house.

Therese said she “felt a little bit weird” and asked her partner to have a look upstairs.

“He went up and came back down and he was feeling a little bit weird.”

She said they then noticed what looked to be a partition wall in the living room but that upon inspection, it was a “really thin piece of plasterboard with a nail in it”.

“My partner went, ‘what’s behind that?’ and when he went to move it, it came off, and it was just darkness behind it, and I heard, ‘hey, hey’.”

Therese’s partner said there was someone behind the wall and they then gathered their children and left straight away.

She described it as a “horrifying” and “scary” experience.

“If someone told me this story, I’d be like, ‘she is lying’.

“The blood drained from my face and 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 small space or big space, and we knew there was a man behind that. It’s the most terrifying feeling ever.”

Therese said the experience will “genuinely put me off booking any sort of holiday home in the future” and that “it’ll probably be hotels from here on in”.

“Even in my own home now, I know I am safe, but I’m still psychologically affected by it, it’s terrifying.”

“You’re not expecting to hear somebody go, “hey, hey”, from a wall, which I thought it was just a wall at the time.”

Therese said she later met the landlord at the front of the house and that he claimed that he had never met Therese before.

“I said to him, ‘why have you done this, you have traumatised myself and my kids’, when you easily could have just said, ‘yes, I will be here later on’.”

She added: “Fair enough, it is his home, but when you’re paid to rent out a home, you’re not expecting the landlord to be in and out, especially when he said he wouldn’t be there.”

In a statement to The Journal, a Booking.com spokesperson said that the company “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,” added the spokesperson.

The property has been suspended from the site while the investigation is completed.

Meanwhile, in a statement to The Journal, a garda spokesperson said gardaí were called to a residential property in Co Wexford on Sunday 20 July.

“Gardaí responded to the matter and no criminal offence disclosed, at this time,” added the spokesperson.