Where to Stream: Instant Hotel

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What does it take to make a truly great reality show villain? You gotta have charisma, obviously, and it definitely helps if you’ve got a catchphrase. Being bluntly honest is a must and, if the show’s a competition, a healthy dose of competitiveness is another. It also helps if you’ve got producers and editors that want to cast you as a villain, because very, very few people actually go on a reality show with a goal of being the one viewers love to hate.

That’s definitely the case with Serena on Instant Hotel, an Australian reality-competition show that pits owners of Airbnb’s against each other in a tournament that’s like Stay Here meets Survivor. Serena became a standout competitor in Round 2 of the show, which is finally streaming on Netflix after airing in Australia in November 2017. She had charisma, a catchphrase (she’s in the 1% of reviewers on TripAdvisor!), and was more honest and competitive than anyone else (except for maybe Mikey and Shay, the supervillains of the show). And, as Serena is more than willing to reveal, she apparently also had producers totally angling to up the drama wherever possible.

Like every great reality show, Instant Hotel provides one side of the story–a side of the story that is crazy bingeable! But there’s never just one side to a story, and Serena de Comarmond is ready to give us her side of some of Instant Hotel’s most outrageous moments. The houseboat, the waste treatment plant, the spying–Serena spills the tea on all of it!

You did a great job on Instant Hotel of creating a “villain” that was so much fun to watch. I got so much joy out of watching you scheme with Sturt.

Serena de Comarmond: That’s good. Yeah, it was really interesting. When you get cast on a reality show, I’ll be honest with you, you get really excited. You’re like, “This is it, this is my moment, I’m gonna be in the public eye, maybe a little bit of fame.” So when you’re on set, what you tend to do is want to please the producers. We had this mindset that if we made the producers happy, if we do whatever they wanted, then they were going to give us more opportunities — maybe even cast us in another reality show in the future! So, we were really kind of towing the company line. And I think we just trusted them a little too much with our words.

Just say for example, [fellow Instant Hotel contestant] Lynne was being annoying. They’d say, “So do you like Lynne?” and we’d be like “Yeah, we like Lynne” and they’d be like, “No, you don’t. We know you don’t. We saw you backstabbing her. We want you to say ‘We don’t like Lynne’.” We’d argue with them like, “We don’t wanna say that,” but after like twenty minutes we’d be like “Fine, we don’t like Lynne.” Do you know what I mean?

And then that’s the take they use on the show.

That’s the one they use. I’m not saying I’m an innocent party here. I said some stuff about some people, but in my mind it was funny. It was me and my bestie and we were having banter and it was funny. I mean, everyone pokes fun at everyone, right? That’s the world we live in. But I think because they took out all the positive stuff, it was all the shade and no light.

On the houseboat episode, Episode 7, it’s edited so that it looks like you’re making up things to complain about to cause drama. When Bec and Tristan show up, nothing’s wrong. It kind of throws you guys under the bus. What really happened on the boat?

Let me tell you, when we watched that on TV — me and Sturt — that was it. We threw the towel in, we’re done, threw a fork in it, we’re the villains, it’s over. No one’s gonna like us. So basically what happened, the water did go out for a brief moment in time. You know how water goes hot and then cold, hot and then cold, it is what it is. So I’ve come out of the shower and I’m like, “The water’s gone cold.” Then they said to me, “No, no, no, go back in and try it again, it should be fine.” So I did and it was fine, it was hot again. I had a shower, it was great. Then the producers were like, “Why don’t you ring Bec and Tristan and get them to come down? Tell them that the water’s out, tell them that the electricity’s out, it’ll be really funny.” So I’m like “No, I don’t wanna do that, I don’t wanna bother them.” Tristan was already texting me, he was at home with his mom and dad and he was drunk — ‘cause we’re friends, yeah? So he’s texting me, we’re chatting all night. So I’m like, “No, no, no, I don’t wanna ring them.” And they’re like “Come on, do it, do it, it’ll be really funny, ring them, ring them, it’ll be really funny.”

So I’m like “Okay, fine.” And before I even said anything I was like, “Tristan, Bec, this is a setup. There’s nothing wrong with the water, don’t freak out. But if you can, come down, because they want you to be on. It’ll be good for you anyway, you’ll get more airtime, get to be a part of the episode.” So they’re like “Ugh, okay, whatever, we’ll come down.” So that happened and when we were around the table people were saying “Yeah, the electricity was flickering a little bit,” “Yeah, Serena had some issues with the water.” So it was just this normal thing, but they constructed this whole scenario where I was this bitch who made it up.

The show is edited to make it seem like you and Sturt had a strategy. Did you guys actually have that strategy, to play nice to everyone’s face and then score them low?

Yeah, we did. But I mean, we had that strategy in the very beginning of the show. What people seem to forget is that this is a competition and the reason to be in a competition is to win. We were actually told, like “What’s your strategy?” and we were like “We don’t have one.” And they were like, “Go and have a think about your strategy, then come back in 10 minutes then we’ll film it.” So we came up with a strategy, but again, it just made us seem like we were evil people with this evil strategy. When we first came up with this strategy, we’d only just met these people, we didn’t know them from Adam. We were complete strangers and we were in a competition. So, yeah, we had a strategy. But they played that a few episodes in and at that point we’d already become pretty good friends with everyone and there was no strategy. The strategy was enjoy the experience and hope for the best.

Reality TV viewers have to be aware that even though it’s “reality,” you’re still watching an edited storyline. Did the editors prompt you into talking about TripAdvisor so much?

Yeah, it’s so embarrassing. So, I’m going to set the record straight about that. Basically, I’ve travelled the world. I love going on holidays, I’m so fortunate that I’ve had the means to be able to travel, it’s such a privilege. I rely on TripAdvisor a lot when I’m booking hotels, because I hate it when you walk up to the hotel and the pictures don’t match the ad. There’s nothing worse in the world. I rely on TripAdvisor and I read all the reviews before I go away.

So, because of that, a couple years ago I thought, “Okay, I’m going to give back to the medium and start reviewing.” I’ve only done 100-120 reviews, but because people don’t do heaps of reviews I’ve been put in the Top 1%. It’s just Australia, it’s not worldwide or anything like that. I’m just a lowly, normal, boring reviewer, sitting at home, doing a boring review. I just happened to mention it, it must’ve been in the casting or something, and they latched onto it. They kept telling me, “Mention it again, it’s really good for the show, it’s gonna be great publicity.” So I’m like “Alright, I’m Top 1% TripAdvisor.” The only thing I’m proud of about it is that I’ve travelled the world. That’s kind of it, I couldn’t give a shit that I’m in the Top 1%, it’s done nothing for me but bring me pain.

When the time came for everyone to stay at your place, how did that episode differ from the previous episodes? Was it more stressful?

It was weird, because you get kicked out of your home, so you have to stay somewhere else. It’s this weird feeling where you’re staying around the corner and you’re just wondering “What are they doing in the house? Are they having fun? Are they fighting? Is it boring?” So, yeah, it was kind of stressful.

Was “spying on Mikey and Shay” with the porch camera something that you did, or was it another thing the producers suggested?

That’s exactly what happened. For me, I think it’s really unethical to spy on people while they’re staying in your home.

Because I was someone that did Airbnb and a lot of other people didn’t. Like with Tristan and Bec, it was their mum and dad’s houseboat, so they’d never Airbnb’ed it out. That was their parents’. Mikey and Shay, that was Mikey’s mum and dad’s house. I don’t think Shay had even stayed there more than once, ever. They would never Airbnb out that house. Tt was like a Playboy mansion and their parents were, like, really loaded. I don’t think people really understood that Airbnb means renting out your family home where you live and going away on holiday and letting other people live there. It was just a really, really weird and strange experience to be a part of.

Then there was the visit to the water treatment plant. Had you ever been there before?

I actually didn’t know it existed. I did not know it existed and it was about 40 minutes away from my house, as well. So at this point, we were 25 minutes away from the city and if you’re going to print anything about this, just hop on Google Maps. Type in “Point Hook” and type in “Spencer Street Station” which is the city in Melbourne. You’ll see, it’s 20-25 minutes to get there. So they could’ve gone to the city, the beautiful Melbourne city. We’d arranged for them to go to the Werribee Open Range Zoo, where you actually go on safari and see all these amazing African animals and Australian animals. That was like 10 minutes away from my house. And we’d arranged for them to go on a Tiger Moth flight — do you know what a Tiger Moth is? Imagine it’s the 1920’s, the 1930’s, you know those little airplanes where two people can sit in them and you’ve got your goggles in? So, we’d arranged for them to go there. Tristan and Bec’s grandfather was actually in the war and had flown these Tiger Moths so we were like, “Wow, this is the best thing.” We organized it, we gave everybody Aviator sunglasses, they went down there, then the weather wouldn’t let them fly. So basically we got sabotaged and they made our area look so bad. I had to live in that area for six months and I felt so embarrassed, because I felt like I’d let down the area. They’re like “Why did you take them to the treatment plant? Why did you take them there?” and I’m like “Ugh, I didn’t.” Like if you see me and Sturt, we’re party animals that hang out in the cities. We take people to, like, the toilet.

The most painfully awkward moment in the whole season has to be the end of Mikey and Shay’s episode. What was it like rating their instant hotel to their faces?

I was super hungover at the time, I was so hungover, I was beyond. You know when you’re so hungover you’re having a panic attack, then you have to be on camera? With like 50 people standing around you, it was like hell. But yeah, she just lost it, she just lost it, she just lost it!

Everyone was getting really upset, but by this time we were really good friends with her so we thought it was the funniest thing in the world and she was just fuming. And the funny thing was, it wasn’t even her house. She had absolutely zero emotional attachment to anything in that house. But yeah, she lost her shit. One thing they did on the show which wasn’t true was, you know when they read out the comments? Like, “Serena and Sturt said it was a class act.” They never read out our names, it was anonymous, so they would just read out the comments. Then it was afterwards that we would be like, “Did you say that? Why did you say that? You’re supposed to be our friend, you’re so mean!”

When I tell people about the show, I’m like, “You have to watch it, because they have to rate each other, then they have to live and travel together.” That has to have created some awkward, close-quarters conditions.



Yeah, it was good and it was bad. Because, for me, I’m trying to make friends with everyone, trying to make peace with everyone, trying to keep everything cool the whole time. But there were just constantly these little explosions. And Shay was just, she’s just always ready for the fight with anybody. “Did you just say that to me? Why did you look at me that way? Don’t look at me that way. Did you just roll your eyes?” She was always ready to attack. I think early on I saw her as a person who lacked self-esteem and was going through a lot of shit, and that was how it manifested. It never bothered me, but other people were so triggered by her. Like her and Leroy, oh my god. Those two were terrible, they were like two mortal enemies who wanted to murder each other. Awful.

I just want all the unedited footage of this show. What’s going on with you right now and what’s going on with your instant hotel right now?

So, I don’t live there anymore. It was a very intense experience and I was very happy to get away from the house. One thing that happens with people watching your house and scrutinizing it is you start to see all the flaws. I never thought my house was that good anyway. I was just happy to be part of the show. But when people are constantly ripping you about your house, you just sort of get over it. So I’ve moved now and I live in this beautiful town, Williamstown. I have actually been signed on for a new show in America called True Love Story which follows me as I interview celebrities about their love life. Not their current, tabloid love life, but their entire love life, from their first crush to now. That comes out in August, which is really exciting. And yeah, just trying to live my best life, brotha!

This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

Stream Instant Hotel on Netflix