We are a group of 5 friends who flew from around the world to attend a friend’s wedding in the Czech Republic. At the end of our trip, we needed a place to stay for one night. We found this listing with tasteful decor with a spacious living room that we thought we could hang out in.
A lady (supposedly the host’s mother) checked us in early and showed us around the apartment, which looks just like the photos. But there’s something bizarre about the building, the front gate/main entrance is left open throughout the day, and there’s construction plastic sheets hanging down the staircase, public corridors go around the apartments, with large windows above waist level that could easily grant access if open.
But we were all too tired from the trip to notice these things. We put our luggage down and went out to enjoy our last day together. When we got back at 23:56, we found out that the apartment was entered and a lot of valuables were stolen. All of the suitcases were open and whatever remained was scattered all over the floor. 3 passports were stolen.
We tried to contact the Airbnb host through the app. No response. We called the newlyweds who live in Prague for help. We started investigating the place and noticed a door facing the front door. I opened it and found out it was a laundry room. There’s a window inside that faced the public corridor that I described earlier. The window was closed but not locked. The strange thing is the lady did not show us the room during the check-in, so we assumed the door was locked and not accessible to guests.
We noticed that the thieves meticulously went through our belongings as even the smallest bags and the smallest compartments of the suitcases were opened as if they were sure that we wouldn’t return shortly.
Our local friends soon arrived and called the police. One of them tried calling the host 4 times, but couldn’t reach him. A few moments later, a policeman showed up along with the lady and the host, whom I hadn’t met until then. We described what had happened and that we suspected the thieves might have entered through the window. The host checked the window in the laundry room, and said he could swear that the window had been locked. When asked why the room hadn’t been shown to us during check-in. He said, “it’s just a room.”
Our friends pointed out the lock on the front door is very insecure for Czech standards. It’s something they might use for a garden door. As for the front gate, it didn’t seem to lock properly either. The policeman told us he pushed right through it. Since he wasn’t sure which floor we were on, he went all the way up, but somehow met the host there as they live upstairs. It’s odd that the the host(s) didn’t respond to our messages or calls at first, but then appeared as soon as the police arrived. After the criminal team took photos and collected samples, we were asked to go to the police station to file a report. I ended up staying there all night until around 8:30.
I’d like to give the host(s) the benefit of the doubt, but their reactions prompted us to feel otherwise. They showed no compassion for our situation and only cared to clear themselves from responsibilities, and even seemed bored with the whole thing. I didn’t get a single message asking how things were until I asked him how we should return the keys hours later. He then offered a refund. Next time, try “I’m sorry for your loss.”