I Felt Safer in Mexico Than I Do in Barcelona

Crooks roam the streets here.

About a month ago, I learned that one of my co-workers also lived in Barcelona. I was ecstatic to meet another digital nomad in their 30s. The prospect of meeting someone I enjoyed working with for over a year was even more exciting. I couldn’t wait to see her!

The unfortunate start to the evening.

I called a cab, and Uber directed me to Las Ramblas to wait. If you don’t already know this, Las Ramblas is known as “the World’s Most Pickpocketed Street.” I followed my usual precautions and stood with my back against a hotel wall.

As I waited, a gentleman approached. He was young, pulling a large suitcase as he walked toward the door. The person next to him seemed to playfully snatch an item out of his hand. He turned around and grabbed the person by his shirt. They jumped into oncoming traffic to get away.

At first, I thought, “Look at these two fools in the street! They’re about to get hit.”

But then I realized they weren’t friends. It wasn’t two guys roughhousing each other recklessly. One had just been robbed.

It was broad daylight: around 2PM on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I couldn’t believe it.

I lived in Mexico for two years and had never seen anything like that, but it didn’t surprise me. In fact, everyone I told the story to here said, “Welcome to Barcelona!”

One street from mine, there’s a bike chained up with its wheels missing. I’m extra careful about leaving my apartment and take precautions when locking up that I’ve never done anywhere else. I would never be comfortable leaving my apartment unoccupied overnight, and I always put Shadow’s tracker back on when I’m out.

Let’s go back to August 2023.

In January 2023, a Twitter Friend at WestJet offered me a buddy pass. As my year descended into chaos with the AI Revolution, I signed up for grad school with a start date of September 1, 2023. I decided to spend my last two weeks of freedom in Spain, and Barcelona was the only city WestJet flew to.

I booked an Airbnb in a quiet part of town and looked forward to the relaxation, but the host scammed me out of my money. She agreed to accept me outside her usual check-in hours but then changed her mind and told me to sleep at the airport or cancel.

I tried to adjust my stay by one night to book a hotel for that time when I arrived, but she declined and grew hostile. Ultimately, I had to book a hotel for my two-week stay and lost the money I paid for the Airbnb.

I shared the experience on Threads, and many others had terrible stories of Airbnbs in Barcelona—not just Spain or Europe—specifically in Barcelona. Hilariously, many of these hosts are SuperHosts on the platform, and Airbnb usually lets them get away with it. Here’s the Airbnb listing where I lost money so you can avoid a similar situation. This was my first introduction to shady behavior in Barcelona.

The cheapest hotel I could find was in Las Ramblas, and everyone warned me when I arrived: the cab driver who picked me up at the airport, the hotel manager, and the friends I met. I spent two weeks there, but thieves got nothing from me during my stay.

There are other shady things with Barcelona Airbnbs.

Shortly after arriving at my apartment this fall, I realized I kept having delivery issues. Uber Eats delivery guys would have a tough time finding my building or would get confused when I called them from two doors down. Finally, one of them told me that my building number was wrong.

“No, it’s not,” I insisted. “I have it right here on Airbnb.”

“I’m sure you do,” he said. “But look up!”

I had never noticed the actual number on the building. But sure enough, it didn’t match my Airbnb address. The Airbnb host had met in person and walked me to the apartment, so I never had to find it. I also never questioned why Google Maps usually said I had arrived shortly before I got to my door.

So, why did the host lie about the address? A few weeks later, I saw a sign saying the apartments shouldn’t be rented to tourists and that, if discovered, the tourists would be evicted immediately.

Housing scams are rampant.

Finding an apartment in Spain is a really competitive business. I knew this before I came. I read dozens of Reddit posts of expats sharing their struggle to find apartments. The same is true of locals. They have protested several times about rising housing costs caused by over-tourism. In fact, Barcelona plans to revoke Airbnb licenses by 2028.

Struggle fuels desperation, and when people are desperate, they take chances. Scammers know this and have flooded the rental market. I can’t tell you how many rental properties I saved and asked about, only to discover that they were scams. I reported several and got a few scammers banned from Idealista.

Barcelona isn’t unique to this kind of scam. I did encounter at least one in Madrid, but all the others of the dozen or so I got were for Barcelona. I can’t say whether the scammers were from Spain or elsewhere, but you’ll likely be targeted while looking for apartments here.

Other Spanish people feel the same.

Other people in Spain are also concerned about safety in Barcelona. Some Catalans have moved outside the city not just because of rental prices but also because of the sky-high crime rate, especially property crimes. I’ve engaged in the Reddit discussions and spoken to them online.

Some Spanish people from other regions say they love Barcelona to visit, but they could never live there. Others say it’s too unsafe, and you can’t pay them to set foot there. When you check online forums about unsafe neighborhoods in Barcelona, few places don’t make the list, and virtually everywhere in El Centro is considered a pickpocket zone.

But in Madrid, I struggled to find places listed as unsafe. The worst warning I got was not to wear any Rolexes while strolling through Salamanca. I remember my friend also insisting that there were dangerous places because she remembered there was a neighborhood that had one shooting in “only” seven years.

“One shooting in seven years?!” I replied, laughing. “Girl, I’ve lived in America! What do you mean???”

Every place has its bad apples. I’m sure there are many in Madrid, probably wearing someone else’s Rolex. But Barcelona does seem to have an unusually high risk for property crime, fraud, and unethical behavior.

Next week, I’ll share safety tips for persons visiting or moving to Barcelona. It’s a lovely city to visit, and I’m sure I’ll be back to see the beautiful Gothic buildings. But you do need to know where to stay and how to avoid trouble. Once I’m settled in Madrid, we’ll also cover some tips on how to find an apartment and avoid scams.

Additionally, you can check out this post I wrote after leaving Barcelona in 2023: How to Avoid Getting Pickpocketed in Spain.

Happy travels!