We checked in around 7 pm on December 18. The next day, when we went out, we noticed both copies of the keys to the front door of the apartment were not working properly, as they got stuck in the lock and we had to manoeuver quite bit to get them out of the lock. We asked Paula to solve this problem for us and she sent someone to change the lock, but instead of giving us two copies of the keys – as we had indicated – we just got one and only the next day, after sending many messages and coming back and forth, we got the second one. This was quite a nuisance as we could not come and go independently from each other.
Three days before checking out, we noticed the air conditioning upstairs was leaking and actually the bed, the mattress and the sheets got quite wet. So we had to change the bed from the original position, cope with the only linen which was still dry, and tolerate temperatures above 30 degrees without air conditioning. The AC unit downstairs was not working properly either, it only circulated the hot air in the room. We tried everything, but the apartment was a sauna. It was a terribly unpleasant experience. The host offered to try and send people to repair it, but we had to pack quite a lot of stuff and we had lots of appointments during those last days of our stay, so having strangers in the apartment again, while all our belongings were around, was not really possible. Apparently our host does not understand you don´t come all the way from The Netherlands, pay over 1200 euros per ticket, and about the same amount to stay in her apartment for 11 days, in order to put up with this kind of nuisance. The guest pays for all the services offered, not to put up with repairs all the time. All in all, we had at least 5 days (almost half of our stay) having to cope with things which were not working the way they should.
While deciding which apartment to rent, we had read all the reviews and we had even asked about the air conditioning upstairs, as we read there was a complaint in the past referring to leaks on the bed due to malfunctioning air conditioning. The host said everything worked properly. However, when we moved the bed, we saw the wooden floor was totally damaged, so this was not a new problem but an existing one, and it means the host lied to us.
We asked about a safe in the apartment and our host insisted there was one but that was not true, so it was not a pleasant idea to have people around repairing things while we were not in the house. Another thing which went wrong was the cleaning. We had agreed upon getting the house cleaned one day at 9.30 and then at the very last moment got a message from the host saying it had to be later. Then we had to exchange lots of messages with her to reschedule.
Paula appears as a superhost on the Airbnb site, but she was not even a good host. She is not based in Buenos Aires – but in Brazil – and apparently, she only wants to make money with as little service as possible on the property. When we asked for more hangers to hang our clothes (we only got 10 for 2 people during 11 days – and an ironing board, she said those were extras and she did quite difficult to provide them. Paula also tried to sell us a late checkout for 50% of the additional daily rate to leave at 12 instead of 11. She also lied when discussing checkout time, saying we had to leave at 10 when the rules are checkout time at 11.
This was our first and very negative experience with Airbnb, so probably also the last one.