Tempe woman experiences ‘scary’ short-term housing rental

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Dec 19, 2022

TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A Tempe woman in need of temporary housing used a popular website to search for houses to rent. That’s when she came across a house she thought was right. But when she arrived she says the house was nothing like the pictures she saw online and claims it was downright scary.

Krista Luciano just needed a place to stay for about a month before leaving the state for a job transfer. So she went online and found a house on Airbnb with a room to rent. “The room looked good in the photos,” she said. “You know, it looks clean. The floor looks clean.”

Krista paid almost $1,200 in advance for a month’s stay. However, when she arrived at Mesa’s house, she found the lock on the front door broken and she was able to enter directly.

She thought she could share the house with a family or maybe roommates. It turned out that was not the case at all. Once inside, she discovered that the whole house had been converted into bedrooms, all of which were available for rent. There was no living room, no kitchen, a green swimming pool and only one bathroom that all the tenants of the house had to share.

When On Your Side visited the house, the tub was dirty and had pink mold. “So I sat down and almost started crying,” Krista said. “It was just… It was dirty and weird, like I didn’t feel safe at all.”

Krista says there was no way she was sharing the bathroom and the rest of the house with strangers and immediately contacted Airbnb with the hosts. She told them she wanted her $1,200 returned because the house did not feel safe. “And they responded very soon after and said ‘sure, sure,'” she said.

Krista never stayed in the house and waited for Airbnb to change its mind about her refund. “I didn’t cancel my reservation because I didn’t want to lose my money,” she said.

Krista contacted On Your Side, and we wanted to see how “safe” the house was.

After doing some research, we found that Mesa police responded to the home nearly 20 times in the last year and a half, including calls for sexual assault, burglary, threats, and suspicious activity. The list continues. “There’s a lot of illegal stuff going on in places like this that hurts people,” Krista said.

Additionally, the home owner has been cited multiple times by the City of Mesa this year for using a single-family home as a multi-family rental. City of Mesa records show they’re trying to collect $1,600 in fines, but the landlord hasn’t paid.

Since the room was still rented to Krista, she agreed to take the On Your Side crew home, and what we found surprised us. “As we entered the room, it’s not like that when I left it and I still rent it,” she said. “So someone came in here. They slept here.

The bedding was different; a lamp had moved and a bath towel was hanging to dry in the closet.

On Your Side contacted Airbnb and sent them pictures of the broken door lock, the dirty towel hanging in the closet, the dirty tub, and that green pool. On Your Side also attached this police document with these disturbing calls for service. After reviewing our information, Airbnb decided to refund Krista nearly $1,200.

They are also launching a survey of hosts who rent other properties on the Airbnb site. “They need to do better and they need to verify that the homes listed are up to code,” Krista said. “If they had done it alone, it would have avoided all of this.”

In the meantime, Krista has rented a hotel room. It’s more money than she wants to spend, but she says it’s worth it. She feels comfortable and safe.

She says the ordeal was a real eye-opener – and she thanks On Your Side for getting involved. “I’m very grateful,” she said. “It’s money I really needed to get back, and I wouldn’t have gotten it back if you hadn’t been a part of this.”