I rented this Airbnb and was super excited to bring my family to the city and give them a true New Orleans experience. From the pictures, the place looked amazing. We arrived at 2pm and I contacted the host to ask for an early check in. Check in was initially at 4:00. I was told I could check in at 3:00 but she didn’t send the code until 3:30. The first CON was the way we had to enter/ leave the home. The initial way we entered the home was understandable because we had to gain access to the gate key; however, we didn’t like the fact that once you park inside the gate (which is in the back of the home ) you can’t gain access to the house from the back of the house so someone has to enter the house from the front to open the back door. Also, when leaving, someone has to stay inside the home to lock the back entry of the house and then come out the front door to insure that everything is locked up properly. The second CON was all the construction going on in the area.
Once we entered the home, it appeared nice and very spacious. We noticed some minor issues like dirty sponges on the sink and a few cobwebs on some light fixtures but the major issues for me was the security. We noticed this immediately. First off, there is a big window in the front of the house that doesn’t have any shutters or curtains so there is no privacy there. Although there is a metal gate with a lock in the front of the house, the front door has a big window too and one latch lock that took a lot of manipulation to get it to lock securely. The door knob on the front door is flimsy. I didn’t feel like the house was as secure as I would like but I was with 5 members of my family plus they had security cameras around the property so I assumed it was a safe monitored area. We were at the house about an hour before we left to go sightseeing. Once we returned to the home, a few hours later, the house was broken into and we had a lot of items stolen. I immediately contacted the host and made her aware that we had a break in and I also called the police. The host first response to me was “can you send pictures”. Instead of asking is everybody ok. The communication from the host was terrible and I couldn’t even get a phone call from anybody after I informed her of what was going on. When I did receive a call, it was from someone with a heavy accent and his only concern was how did they gain access into the home which I didn’t know how because everything was ram shacked and open. I said, “you have cameras on the property right, so you tell me!!” We locked up the house before we left so I wasn’t sure how the intruders gained entry. After this incident, we definitely felt unsafe and decided to find a hotel. I didn’t get any communication or accommodations from the host or owner. I had to contact them two more times before someone finally messaged me and said that they will check the security cameras and get back to me tomorrow. I would also like to note that this house has an alarm system but they would not allow us to use this during our stay. Which is absurd to me when they could easily change the security code after each visit just to insure their customers feel safe during their visit. The next day, the police detective contacted me and said that they haven’t been able to contact the owner. I called Airbnb directly and they were also having issues contacting the owner. I would not recommend this house. I was also informed by the detective that this residence has had many break in before and that the owner has been advise to secure the place better. I was contacted the next day, from another women (not the host Nia ), and she informed me that I would be refunded for this stay and she was sorry that this happened to us. Personally, I think this house should be off the market/Airbnb until they can figure out how to make it more secure and safe for their renters so I wouldn’t advise that you rent this property and if you do decide to rent, RENT AT YOUR OWN RISK⛔️!
I do want to also note: I give 5 starts to Airbnb who paid for the hotel we had to get due to this inconvenience and who also helped with getting my refunds for the owner of the Airbnb that we didn’t get to stay in because this had happened. As of this review, I’m still trying to get compensation for the items stolen from me and my family, but I’m working with Airbnb personally to get this resolved.