“This experience as tenants was quite memorable. Four of my friends and I decided to go to California. For accommodations, we chose to rent out an Airbnb online.
Upon landing, things got sketchy, quickly. We contacted the host, let’s call her ‘Veronica,’ to notify her of our arrival. She told us the address of the apartment, which was different than the one we thought we were renting. We were also told not to contact the front desk of the apartment building for anything, but instead to contact her directly. This raised some red flags, but we were only staying for three nights, so we weren’t too concerned.
After having a great time around town, we headed back to our Airbnb to chill for a bit before going to a club. When we got ready to leave, we went over to the door but realized the lock was broken. We struggled for twenty minutes trying to get the door open but to no avail. There also were no screwdrivers around to allow us to remove the lock. We were essentially stuck inside our room on the forty-ninth floor of this apartment complex so we decided to contact Veronica.
After another thirty minutes of trying to explain things through texts, she said she will call the front desk to help us out. This is when things get really messed up.
Forty minutes later, the maintenance man comes to our room, let’s call him, ‘Hector.’ The problem is Hector was trashed and banging on our door. Oh yeah, did I mention Veronica was about to get evicted in a couple of days due to overdue rent? We had no idea either until Hector told us.
Anyway, Hector told us he would let us out when we pay our overdue rent whether it takes four hours or four days. We tried to explain what happened and we were not the tenants, but he didn’t seem to understand us. He angrily tried to break down the door to come in. Now, here we are, five guys who aren’t from the area, and the only exit from the room we were currently stuck in was the door being broken down by Hector the trashed maintenance man.
We decided to call 911 since we didn’t know whether this guy had a weapon on him or what. While on the line with the operator, Hector somehow managed to get inside, and, I kid you not, the door locked behind him and we were all stuck. Again.
Now the five of us were stuck with ticked-off Hector who was looking around and asking about rent. Not knowing whether he was armed, we were quietly on the line with the cops. Hector calmed down once he realized we knew nothing about the rent situation. At around the same time, the cops rushed to the building and were demanding Hector open the door with his hands up. But the door was stuck, and Hector was trying to open it up with a large kitchen knife, because why not?
After some shouting back and forth, we finally got Hector to drop the knife. Some police officers managed to get out to a neighbors’ balcony and ask two of us already standing out there what went down. We described the situation and they headed back to try to get the door open. Eventually, the cops got it open and after further explanation of the situation, everything turned out well for those involved. Except for Veronica.
She was found to be subletting apartment rooms and condos online. She got completely reamed by her landlord and evicted, I heard.
Basically, I accidentally booked an illegal room online.”
