Woman Discovers Mysterious Room in Airbnb Rental: 'Scary Experience'

A woman was left unable to sleep after discovering there was more to her Airbnb rental than first met the eye.

Xena Habashi from Kansas City, in Missouri, had rented a basement apartment through the popular homestay platform for her and her family during a trip to Chicago, Illinois, in late December.

From the moment they arrived at the apartment on December 30, she immediately sensed something was wrong. "I noticed that there were so many random doors inside the house that were never shown in the listing," she told Newsweek.

Before proceeding, it must be noted for the faint of heart that there would no real reason to be afraid of the apartment. Moreover, an Airbnb spokesperson told Newsweek there had been no other safety concerns with the listing. A full refund was offered as well as another place to stay.

Having arrived at the property at around 4 a.m. Habashi initially thought little of it and decided to get some much needed rest. However, things quickly changed.

"While getting ready to go to sleep me and my cousin noticed a light on in one of the rooms that was locked," Habashi said. "We decided to try and open it...I got a fork and was able to open the door. That's when I saw it."

What Habashi saw was a surprisingly spacious and dark, cellar-like room. According to Habashi there were "wooden doors with locks on" and "chains on the ground" in some of the areas while she also spotted a wooden door which "goes even further down" into the foundations of the building.

Habashi recorded footage showing the room with the resulting clip posted to TikTok under the handle notxh2. The two clips have been watched a combined total of nearly 10 million times.

Many commenting on the clip were quick to compare it to Barbarian, a 2022 horror thriller film written and directed by Zach Cregger, which focuses on a rental property that harbors a dark secret within its cavernous basement.

"This is literally the Barbarian movie," one user wrote while another branded the footage: "Barbarian Part 2." Habashi said: "I had watched Barbarian a month before and we had been joking before we got there saying 'imagine something like Barbarian happens!' Then the room was just like the movie!"

Though Habashi and her family had no real reason to be fearful of the apartment, the discovery was enough to leave them suitably unsettled. "My cousin and I both ran to the other room and got my mom to come see what it is," she said. "My mom saw it and got scared too because that was never shown in the listing and it looked scary."

The family were already suitably spooked but the scares were cranked up a notch further when, according to Habashi, they "started hearing tapping noises." They decided to get in touch with the owner of the Airbnb and were later contacted by Airbnb themselves. Even then, during the call, Habashi said they were taking no chances.

"We had that door blocked by a table and a rolled up towel under the handle to where you can't move the handle," she said. Though Airbnb was able to offer a refund, the remainder of their stay there was not a peaceful one. "We weren't able to sleep," Habashi said. "We stayed up till the morning, kept hearing noises, and before we left I decided to take that video and it went viral unexpectedly!"

Reflecting on the stay, Habashi called it a "scary experience" though appeared to have no ill feeling towards Airbnb and ended up staying in another of their properties the following night.

Airbnb told Newsweek they had had no other reports of safety concerns with the listing, noting that it is described as a "spacious basement unit" apartment on the listing and has a 4.84 rating and good reviews from other guests.

An Airbnb spokesperson said:"The listing is advertised as a basement apartment, and the separate space that was accessed is part of the basement. Our customer service team supported our guest with their concerns at the time, and assisted with a refund and another place to stay. In the rare event of a safety concern during a stay, our 24-hour Safety Line is available for guests and Hosts to quickly reach our specialized Safety team for help."