Airbnb Stay: Living In Secret
Pros
I Airbnbed the basement of the house. First off, I loved this neighborhood. It is so damn quiet (Avenue X on the F train) that it is incredible. At the same time, it’s safe in that there’s rarely uproar, theft, etc. There are few food options nearby but I definitely Seamless a lot. On Avenue X are a few food options (deli, pizza, Chinese food, Dunkin’ Donuts, bagel place, etc). The place itself is definitely quiet due to neighborhood culture — it’s a residential neighborhood of a certain race. Water pressure was good.
Cons
Because I rented this off Airbnb, I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into. Little to no details are ever truly revealed on Airbnb. Consequently, I felt like an imposter the entire stay. The owner (?) of the house saw me the day I moved in for my 2-3 week stay, and she instantly said, “You’re not moving in, are you?” I felt so uncomfortable that I couldn’t even say I Airbnbed this place. Clearly the owner doesn’t know. (The basement was rented/owned by a young man.) When I discussed with the Airbnb host, he told me to just say I’m his friend living a little while. I rarely left the place after because I think either the next door neighbors or the family in the house INTENTIONALLY were chatting outside my door saying, “Does (the Airbnb host) still live here? Cause I saw a (certain race) boy/girl live here.” I felt so damn uncomfortable because I know they wanted me to come out and identify myself. There’s the front of the house with the gates and next door neighbors, a little walk next to the house leads to the back which is the door to the basement. There’s nothing there so it’s obvious the 2 people walked there to “chat” in hopes to lure me out. Never felt so uncomfortable in my life, and I swore off Airbnb ever since because hosts are always illegally leasing out their places then the guests have to suck up all the consequences despite not knowing. There were also bugs in the place (spiders specifically). The place was also never cleaned by the host before I moved in.
Advice to the owners
Make sure your residents aren’t renting out their apartments if you don’t want them to — it’s a house after all, not a whole apartment complex with hundreds of residents.
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