When looking for a place to stay, I was very busy with work and did not thoroughly investigate the area prior to doing my search. I came across this listing and the home appeared neat and clean and with four bedrooms. There were no negative posts about safety issues etc. and I asked about the neighborhood to the host and she stated “The area is perfectly fine - as with any area in New Orleans you should be aware of your surroundings as crime can and does happen in all parts of the city. You’re likely more prone to encounter crime in the French Quarter honestly. We have quiet, nice neighbors”. For the most part, the home was nice and neat and was OK once you were inside the home. We did have an issue with a toilet that had a bad leak and the host took care of the issue on the same day.
However, there is an issue with the safety of the neighborhood where the home is located. I definitely should have done more research on the city as a whole because as soon as we got there, we visited two places to assist us with our activities (NOLA Chamber of Commerce, and the local Trip Advisor office). Both of them drew lines around the local area and defined the unsafe areas to stay away from. Unfortunately, this AIR BNB was located defined as the areas to stay away from. They both stated do not go north of Rampart Street to avoid issues and this is well north of that boundary. The trip advisor staff member called the area of this Air BNB “The death zone” due to the high level of violent crimes in this area. I pulled up Trulia and typed in the address and reviewed the neighborhood crime statistics. The neighborhood is surrounded by high-risk crime areas. You can actually see the list of crimes and arrests from the neighborhood over the last 90 days and they are scary. There is a post from a local resident stating “My neighborhood is a place where I am terrified to go outside. The rent is high and the police rarely drive around to check on the community.” While we were there, we did witness some of the neighborhood violence. On our last day there, we went to a local Family Store to pick up some milk and while we were in the store an employee assaulted a homeless man that was attempting to steal some food. She physically threw him on to the ground and there was an altercation that ended with the homeless man being thrown out of the store. This store is .2 miles from the Air BNB. There is a security alarm in the home and we did not experience any theft etc. but we did not attempt to walk around the neighborhood. We just took an UBER everywhere and immediately went into the home.
I want to stress the host was very kind and responsive and everyone has their own threshold for safety. Trulia.com and the local chamber of commerce are great resources to provide you safety information.