I’m a young, single female physician in residency training and booked an AirBnB at Shawna’s place for 5 nights to attend a conference for my field.
This BnB is in a pretty dangerous area relative to other NOLA neighborhoods (Seventh Ward adjacent to the I-10) which I was unaware of. I later found out the Seventh ward has one of the higher rates of violent crimes in NOLA at the moment, and this made sense as I felt very hypervigilant and unsafe there.
I’ve lived in plenty of poor and ‘non-gentrified’ areas- Crown Heights and East Flatbush, Brooklyn during my 5 years in medical school. I have also lived in sketchier parts of Paris and Berlin, all large and diverse cities. I’m no stranger to ‘non-gentrified’ or travel in new an unfamiliar environments.
I reached out to Shawna the night I arrived explaining I didn’t feel comfortable. I said I’d be willing to stay half the nights if she’d refund me for the last few nights so I could find another place. I also said I’d be open to other solutions. She replied that she did her due diligence to discuss the neighborhood in her listing. This is not the case- there is no mention about the nature of the neighborhood prior to booking, and in her neighborhood description that is available after booking, she is vague and basically says that safety is subjective. It may be to a point.
She told me I could either choose to leave without any refund, or stay. She also told me to go through Airbnb and not discuss it with her further. AirBnB told me they would reach out to Shawna to try and mediate. This was on Friday. I did not bring it up with her after that point.
Two days later on Sunday, Shawna messaged me at noon and said she was feeling 'uncomfortable' and wanted me out by the next morning. She told me to either accept her reservation change by 3pm for some monies back, or she would cancel the reservation without any refund. I was in the middle of my conference at the time and so had to scramble to find something else without much notice.
After everything, she refunded only $100 back for a $500+ booking. I asked if I could possibly have a greater % of the reservation back given her sudden change which put me in a difficult position. She then became hostile and threatened that I either accept her reservation change by 3pm, or she would call AirBnB and have me 'vacate' with nothing at all.
Shawna’s behavior was unprofessional and self-interested. I was diplomatic in all my communications with her and did not deserve her hostility. She seemed to do as she pleased without any regard for another’s needs (or feelings) aside from her own. She chose to take an antagonistic approach to working with her guest as opposed to a prosocial one.
She needs to understand that omissions about the neighborhood will inevitably lead to mismatched expectations, and a big problem, for some guests. If she doesn’t want to be candid in the description, she should at least be willing to work with guests who are not comfortable with the situation instead of getting defensive, being unreasonable, and behaving like a bully.
Otherwise, her place is clean, mattress was comfortable, and she gave useful local tips. I did not meet her in person, so I cannot speak to any interactions. I gave 3/5 stars overall and think this is generous given what happened. I wish her the very best. Hopefully there were some learning points in this experience.