An Airbnb Experience in Madrid

One thing about me is that I’m not afraid to travel alone and will not wait for the trip to get out of the group chat to book it on my own. Although I am not discouraged by going on trips alone, I am very cautious. I haven’t branched out to stay in a hostel while traveling alone. I’m an avid true-crime podcast listener, which might not be the healthiest habit, but it does make sure I always feel safe in my accommodation because there are some things I know I am not comfortable with and I avoid them. That being said, I made a mistake in my diligence and it led to a sleepless night in Madrid. 

When I travel I usually book Airbnb, I will book a private room or flat and have never double-checked that the room has a lock on it because every time I have booked anything labeled as private, it has been my own space with a lock on the door. This time it wasn’t that. It was advertised as a private room and bathroom with a large balcony, but the room was inside someone’s apartment without a lock on the door and the private balcony was also connected to the rest of the house. I arrived in Madrid from Soria around 4:30 PM at the bus station on Avenida de America, the Airbnb was a short distance from there. 

When I met the host he seemed friendly enough and although I was a little surprised by the setup, I figured one night would be fine. I was only staying in Madrid to catch an early flight to Lisbon. I left my bag in the room and headed to the Prado museum. I decided to walk so that I could check out Madrid on my own little walking tour. It took me around an hour to get there and when I arrived I saw that the line was insanely long, so I decided to keep walking. I wandered around the Parque de El Retiro. It’s gorgeous and has a glass palace in the middle, the sun was setting at this point and the views were majestic. I ended up wandering around taking in the architecture and watching couples, families, and runners enjoying the park. 

After a while, my feet were screaming, and I had to stop at a farmacia to pick up bandaids for the blisters. By this point, it was around 9:00 PM, and I was hungry. There was a cute bakery that had chai lattes. That sounded perfect. I stopped for a ham sandwich, pastry, and chai latte. After some time off my feet, I made my way back towards the Airbnb. I stopped at a Dia to buy some ice cream to eat while watching Netflix before going to sleep. 

When I got back to the Airbnb the host was still home working in his office, I greeted him and went about getting ready for bed. That’s when I noticed that there wasn’t even a lock on the bedroom door. I thought about the 500+ good reviews he had and decided it would be okay. Around midnight I closed my laptop, ended my show, and tried to sleep. My host was watching something in his room and kept laughing loudly, from the noise I couldn’t sleep. He kept this up until around 2:00 AM, by this point I was so tired that I was dozing off even with the noise. 

To be cautious, I put my metal water bottle in front of the door in case someone were to open it. But now I was startled awake by a noise next to the door. My heart thudded in my ear, it was just the water from his bathroom, the pipe must be next to my door. I had only been asleep for 10 minutes. I tried to go back to sleep, but I could hear footsteps directly outside the door. He was walking back and forth outside the door. Weird. He would return to his room, turn the water on in the bathroom, then walk by my door. He did this until around 3:30 AM when he finally went to his room and the flat was silent. 

There was no way I was sleeping, I was not comfortable without a lock on the door. I sat tired and on edge until I finally fell asleep around 4:30 AM, what felt like a minute later my alarm went off. It was 5:30 AM, time to get ready for my flight. Being so close to the bus station I could get a bus to the airport and easily get to my gate, but the first thing I did was double-check my next Airbnb reservation. It was another private room, bathroom, and balcony, I messaged the host asking if there was a lock on the door to which they responded saying yes, good. 

I know that budgeting is important for most people, including myself, but from now on, I will not cut corners or make assumptions about spaces. I will make sure I feel safe because paying for a sleepless night wasn’t worth it.