Single woman as Airbnb guest. What are good safety practices?

August 29, 2021 10:58 AM

I want to stay in Airbnbs, various ones, for a month or two, in an urban area that hasn't been my home turf for some years. What can I do, and what search criteria should I use, to have reasonable assurance that I'm not putting my self or identity at risk?
posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Pre-pandemic, I regularly stayed at Airbnbs as a single woman, mostly a few days at a time, but once for 4 weeks. I strongly prefer to rent the whole place if I can; if that's not an option due to stock or budget, I will rent a private room from another woman.

I'd avoid apartments where each room is rented separately -- this happened on the 4 week stay (I didn't realize before booking) and while it was fine, that was just more variability than I was comfortable with.

You can also message the host before booking about safety, locking doors, etc.

Make sure someone back home has a copy of your itinerary (including addresses) and knows how to reach you with at least two different forms of communication. That's just travel best-practices moreso than Airbnb best-practices.
posted by basalganglia at 11:56 AM on August 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

Make sure the place, or at least the bedroom, has a manual deadbolt. We always wonder why that isn’t standard information on listings if it can’t be required of hosts.
posted by michaelh at 1:01 PM on August 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

I would ask for a street address (or immediate landmark eg the store right across the street) and Google street view it. It can help to give a sense of whether it’s lit, distance from transit, the “vibe”.

Assuming you’re familiar with Airbnb but do not go with any without reviews even though they may look attractive. L
posted by artificialard at 2:13 PM on August 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

AirBnB hosts may be reluctant to give you the actual address before you book — they value their safety and privacy too and don’t want random people coming by to check out the place or disturbing the current guests. But you can ask for the nearest major intersection/name of the neighborhood/landmark and then look at the crime “heat map” for that neighborhood. If you do get the address for the property, you can look it up in the county tax database to see who owns it. And then you can type the names of the owners into your county court database to see if they’ve been in the court system at all. When you arrive at the property, do a perimeter sweep of the interior, making sure that the windows are locked. All cameras should be disclosed in the listing, so any cameras not disclosed in the listing are red flags. If the host uses a door code for the lock, ask them if the code is changed between each guest.
posted by Ostara at 6:34 PM on August 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Get a portable door lock to just have with you. They're cheap and nice to have for when you want them, and sort of obnoxious to make in a pinch.
posted by stormyteal at 11:20 PM on August 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Also - um - you might want to always search for hidden cameras (and even ask the host up-front, prior to renting) - that has been a known issue with AirBnb's over the last several years.
posted by rozcakj at 9:25 AM on August 30, 2021