I’m going to preface this by saying I have stayed in countless Airbnbs in three different continents and have had nothing but positive experiences until I stayed at this place. My roommate and I faced one absurdity after another. Conveniently my review (and all other negative reviews) have been removed by Airbnb.
The apartment itself was borderline uninhabitable. To be frank, it seemed to be a storage locker that the host was trying to pass off as an apartment. There was no ventilation and just two windows the size of a laptop. Both had broken glass with a makeshift net covering them, allowing roaches to freely roam inside the apartment; the place was infested with them. In addition to the ventilation problem, the shower pressure was so low it only had a drizzle of water pressure that would not allow for anyone’s definition of a proper shower.
The highlight of this stay was our second night when a leak under the bathroom sink caused the entire apartment to flood. Instead of a proper response to the situation, like securing a pump, the host and his mother came over with brooms and mops, handed them to us, which resulted in us (the guests) sweeping water out of the apartment for several hours in the middle of the night. We then also helped sweep water out of his apartment next door.
Following this, the house was never properly cleaned which resulted in a sickening odor throughout the house for the remainder of our stay (my flatmate and I felt physically ill throughout our entire stay). She kept getting migraines following this and I was congested and sick. After this we had to ask for a change of sheets. What we were provided with was the consistency of sandpaper and was meant to last us for an entire month.
To add more discomfort to the situation, the host managed to find me and repeatedly liked me on different dating apps where I found some of his prompts about impregnating people truly disturbing. Knowing that this person not only shared a wall with us, but also had keys to our apartment made me incredibly uncomfortable and had us looking for new places while there. He would almost daily ask to enter the apartment for “supplies” or to “take care” of the multitude of issues the apartment had to deal with. We understand that hosts may need access from time to time but the frequency made it feel gratuitous and like we had no privacy.
Once I left my review, the host had the gall to ask for $2,000 of “cleaning” fees and had taken photos of our belongings without our consent. I repeatedly reported this to Airbnb. They even had the nerve to remove my review of the host but I am now stuck with a derogatory review on my account. To say that Airbnb only protects the interests of the hosts would be a gross understatement. I am so disgusted by their handling of this situation.
There is no vetting and little comeback in the event of a problem. Go elsewhere!