'Scary experience': Woman finds horrifying cellar room not advertised in Airbnb rental

In one of the more strange travel experiences, a family from Kansas City discovered a dark cellar room during their stay at someone's Chicago-based Airbnb. A short clip of the room has gone viral on TikTok.

Xena Habashi decided to rent the basement apartment in Chicago in December, but she quickly found that there was something sketchy about the room. She told Newsweek that several doors in the apartment were never advertised when she initially reserved the space.

“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.”

The guest posted an 18-second video clip of the freaky dungeon, which appeared to have half-full garbage bags and cardboard boxes in it.

The New York Post reported that Habashi spotted "wooden doors with locks on" and "chains" lying "on the ground." There was also a wooden door that went deeper into the building, but she decided not to investigate further.

The TikTok post included a caption that read "Barbarian??" — appearing to reference a 2022 horror movie about a woman who discovers that a rental home she reserved was already inhabited by an unknown person.

“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!” Habashi said.

Habashi posted two clips of the footage on the social media platform, which has garnered more than 10 million views.

One user said "this is literally the Barbarian movie," and another said, "I watched Barbarian I know how this ends."

Another user commended Habashi for deciding to stay the night despite the creepy passageway, adding, "I would have been out of that place immediately. Imagine someone or something coming into your room from there."

The family heard "tapping noises," so they decided to contact the owner and Airbnb. “We had that door blocked by a table and a rolled up towel under the handle to where you can’t move the handle,” Habashi told Newsweek.

“We weren’t able to sleep. We stayed up till the morning, kept hearing noises, and before we left I decided to take that video and it went viral unexpectedly!”

Airbnb offered the family a refund for what the family described as a "scary experience."

However, Airbnb had not received any previous complaints about the apartment. It had a 4.84 rating and good reviews, according to the report.

“The listing is advertised as a basement apartment, and the separate space that was accessed is part of the basement,” an Airbnb representative told Newsweek.

“Our customer service team supported our guest with their concerns at the time, and assisted with a refund and another place to stay."

It is unknown who owns the apartment or what the cellar area is used for.

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