Maria told us to write a review "only if it is good", but we are going to be honest: Maria is NOT a superhost as she is only nice as long as nothing unexpected happens. There were many problems, and drama, due to the poor maintenance of the apartment.
Maria was fast with communication before we booked our stay. We have a kitten and she said she was okay with us staying there but asked for a 300 USD deposit in case something happened. We also told Maria that we needed good internet because we both work from home, and Maria assured us the internet was great.
However, the internet was super slow and choppy, and even though we asked Maria to fix it, she didn’t. I had dealt with the same issue in a previous home, and it just required talking with the company provider, but Maria didn't. Other things started breaking down quickly (list below), but we decided to accept it.
On the last day, we showed her that our kitten scratched the corner of the bed, and we offered to pay the fix or cover. We gave her extra cash for that since we expected to get back the deposit. We were ready to leave as Maria saw scratches on two chair covers that we missed. We covered every furniture with blankets to prevent that from happening, and we didn't take them off until Maria arrived. She wanted to replace the covers, so we agreed for her to temporarily keep the deposit until we find out the cost.
Later, Maria started sending us pictures of things we “ruined”, such as a few chair marks on the wall and some stains on the sheets (which ended up being from an oil spill in the closet from a previous guest that she hadn't seen or cleaned). She sent us an image of a sheet with the tiniest dot which one can just wash off in the washing machine. When we asked if she's being unreasonable, she said she can’t rent out the apartment if it’s not "perfect", but she was ok to rent it to us with:
- Choppy/slow internet.
- Rotten doors.
- Broken doorlocks.
- AC broke down mid-stay.
- Broken blackout curtain.
- Water heater turned off mid-shower constantly.
We said that some small accidents are to be expected in a 2 month-stay, but she said that she never expected us to spend so much time inside. Apparently, staying there comes with a condition of hours to be spent outside. At that point, we sent a polite audio saying that we are sorry about everything and that she can keep the deposit. Two weeks later, Maria never had the courtesy to respond. We can only assume that it's because she got what she wanted.
Maria wanted to make the contract for the 2nd month outside of Airnbn so she could get paid more, and she asked for a bigger deposit (700 USD), which we didn’t accept!