An Airbnb guest claimed that someone robbed a rental he was using in Dallas using the keypad lock on the front door.
As travel resumes after the peak of the pandemic, people are sharing safety lessons learned from using apps like Airbnb and VRBO. Recently a group that rented a house in Austin for a bachelorette party felt so suspicious of certain things throughout the house that they went to a hotel in the middle of the night. Another group of friends claimed that they were feeling unsafe after renting a garage during their stay, allegedly by the host.
This situation was filmed by TikTok user Sylvia (@sylpal), a pilot who documents her journey on TikTok. But in a recent upload, Sylvia shared the dark side of traveling and using home rental apps like Airbnb.
“Our Airbnb just got robbed,” he alleged in the video. “They stole my bag, my iPad, everything I had that was valuable.”
Sylvia filmed the now empty closet, which she claimed was filled with her clothes.
“They took everything,” she said, audibly upset. “They took my f****** makeup and all, they left nothing.”
Sylvia seemed most distraught over her missing logbook—a diary for pilots, of her training, career, and all her flights.
Whoever allegedly broke in, shoved a few things around. Sylvia noticed that there was a box of aluminum foil she knew she would now leave in the kitchen on the table near the front door, as well as a box of plastic gloves she hadn’t seen before.
“The whole place was destroyed,” she said. “We didn’t leave it like that.”
The biggest clue as to how the man got in was the keypad lock on the front door. The case covering the top of the lock was torn off, and Sylvia found it on the sofa in the living room of Airbnb.
Sylvia also used her phone to track down her missing iPad and noticed that it was last tracked several hours north of Airbnb. His Airpods were last tracked in the opposite direction, a little south of Airbnb’s location.
“We filed a police report with the Dallas PD, but if they don’t get a lead we unfortunately won’t be able to see our stuff back,” she said.
Sylvia also claimed that the Dallas PD did not suspect it was a forced break-in, despite the keypad being broken. Instead, he said the police thought it was someone who knew the code.
“Airbnb Host IS NOT REQUIRED TO CHANGE KEYPAD ACCESS CODE AFTER EVERY RENTAL!!” Sylvia wrote in the caption of Tiktok. “Be careful booking with them.”
The Know has contacted Airbnb to confirm whether the company does not mandate hosts to change the keypad access code for every new guest. Airbnb has not responded at the time of publication.
“Unfortunately the locals also know which houses are Airbnbs and will plot on those houses,” suggested one commenter in the TikTok comments.
“It’s so scary!” Another person wrote. “I think I still prefer hotels – I feel safe with the people around and the lobby. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
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