I have stayed at Airbnb’s that have felt disappointing, subpar, and maybe even dirty- but I have never felt unsafe at a property until this past weekend.
What stuck out to us initially was the fact that this property was wildly misadvertised. This “luxury” home was nothing more than a gentrified new build in what is an extremely rough area. The neighborhood was described as “quiet and walkable” but I can confidently say no guest would be comfortable spending more than a few minutes at a time outside of the property, let alone going on a stroll. Even if you did want to brave out a walk, the nearest destination was a junkyard/flea market hybrid- so I’m not sure that “walkable” is a fair descriptor in any way. Throughout the day and night there were a number of suspicious characters constantly walking back and forth in front of the house, making everyone feel uneasy.
Our feelings of unease were no exaggeration, as one of our cars got broken into our first night there. Because the “gated” driveway (said gate was manual with no code or lock and could be opened by any passer-by, keeping no one with opposing thumbs out) could fit two cars at most and, per the host’s instructions, we parked our other car on the street in front of the house. The entire window was shattered and multiple belongings were taken from the vehicle. The host did check the camera footage for us, but could not find anything useful.
Our second night there, we were on high alert given the break-in we experienced. We noticed a car idle in front of our house in the middle of the night, so we went out to check on our cars. At the sight of us, in a panic the vehicle we saw immediately sped off and away from the property. Moments later, we heard multiple car alarms go off a few streets down.
The only positives for this listing were that the host was responsive and the inside of the house was fairly well kept and accommodating for our large group, but if you value your belongings, safety, or general sense of peace I strongly advice you pick another lodging option for your vacation in Austin.