My Airbnb host was responsive at first but suddenly became weird and unresponsive. I noticed the host rented an apartment on other sites. After making the reservation, I noticed the host became unresponsive. I was told the check-in time must be later because she must clean. I didn’t expect the cleaning would take 4-6 hours. I would never have booked if had known.
Previous guests gave positive feedback to this host by saying she was honest and always on time, which was not true for me. Then I found another page in which some guests had complained the host was late. She was a foreigner living in one city and renting in another.
We were waiting many hours and agreed to arrive in the evening. I thought it would be okay. I was wondering why the host didn’t have any time to respond; I thought she was cleaning and had no time. In the evening, I noticed the location was not 150 meters from the station – it was 1 km walking distance to the apartment. It was a cold evening and the host turned off her phone. I received a message saying I “can’t call this number right now” even though we agreed on the arrival time.
It’s so easy to lie because most holiday apartments don’t have a reception desk. It made me think the host only wanted to get money and has no responsibility. I tried to knock on the door but it was locked and no one was there. I also had the wrong code. I couldn’t wait outside the whole night so I had to spend the night in a hotel.
Around midnight, the host started to respond, asking where I was and if I was coming. I thought it was rude and crazy. The host agreed the check-in time would be in the afternoon, then changed it to the evening. Then she thought it would be okay to ask us to arrive at night.
The host tried to make stupid excuses like she was shopping for breakfast food for us in the evening (we didn’t ask for any breakfast and it would not take three hours to buy breakfast items). The keys would be just enough but we didn’t get keys. I’ve met angry and weird hosts before but this one was incredible; it felt she wanted to leave us outside. I froze and this is one of my worst travel experiences. I’m pretty sure I don’t want anything from Airbnb because I can’t trust them. I could end up being left outside and frozen without a key again.
What did customer service do? I’ve been waiting days to see if I will get a response but mostly they believe the host. The host says she has called multiple times (even though she did not) and gave an incorrect code. It’s difficult to prove the host closed her phone. I don’t have a conversation record of this because I had no chance to speak to the host.
I wonder how on earth could anyone think that guests can wait outside all afternoon and night and how any service could accept this behaviour. I booked just one night and the host expected me to spend hours outside without a key or expected me to wait until the night or morning without a response.