A woman on TikTok claims she was set up to be robbed while renting a home for a bachelorette party in Austin, Texas.
TikToker Callie Bryant (@callie.bryant) shared a video of the bachelorette party “emergency evacuating” the home they rented from Vrbo, an online marketplace for vacation rentals.
Bryant said the party decided to evacuate to a hotel in the middle of the night after realizing that the doors didn’t lock and the alarm system was dead. The TikToker said the rental owner didn’t respond when the party reached out to them, and the Vrbo listing had been removed from the website.
“We realized we were being set up to be robbed and/or worse,” Bryant writes in the text overlaying the clip. The video had 2.5 million views by Monday.
Bryant’s allegations scared some viewers, while others said they had similar experiences at rental properties.
“New fear unlocked,” one viewer said.
“Every day I learn a new reason that I should be terrified every time I leave my house,” another commented.
One TikToker shared their own home rental horror story. “I literally had police show up in the middle of the night to ours looking for the owner,” the user wrote. “They told us it wasn’t safe to be there lol.”
“My husband is a cop and this happened to a group of girls in LA. got robbed and their car getting stolen. Glad you guys left before anything happened!” another user shared.
Several users commented that experiences like Bryant’s are becoming “common” in other cities, especially Nashville, Tennessee.
“Sadly this is common in Austin and Nashville for groups of women,” one viewer said.
“Airbnbs in Nashville get robbed all the time! And if your Uber driver asks if you’re staying in one, tell them your friend lives there,” another viewer advised.
A third commented, “Bachelorette parties are often targeted, especially in Nashville!”
Some viewers cautioned against booking a rental home, suggesting hotels instead.
“Yep. I’m fully back to hotels now. Way too many security risks at these homes plus CRAZY amounts of rules. Not worth it,” one viewer commented.
“Yep. Never staying in an Airbnb or Vrbo with a group of girls again. Hotels it is,” another said.
In a four-part storytime, Bryant said that a friend had booked the home for the bachelorette party. At the time of booking, the home had 19 customer reviews, and none of them showed any red flags, Bryant added.
“You need to listen to your intuition,” Bryant said in the final part of the storytime. “Do what you have to do because it’s not worth putting your safety at risk.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Bryant via TikTok comment and to Vrbo via press email.
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