Our stay at this accommodation was overall rather disappointing.

We had booked the accommodation for two nights to host a small dinner party (10 guests) on the second afternoon/evening. At the time of the booking we made this clear to the host, and were not questioned about it.

When we arrived on the first afternoon we found that the tabletop of the dining table was missing. There was a note to say that it should be arriving later that afternoon. It would have been nice, however, if the host had forewarned us prior to arriving, considering we had booked the accommodation the day prior to our dinner to setup. In addition, we had difficulties with the oven, which the host had to come and fix.

The host also contacted us after arriving to say that there was a plant that had been left in the shower and that their partner would be coming to move it that afternoon as well. To be honest, I think when you book a private place, you should have private access without people coming and going constantly. It felt like we were being checked up on.

On one of the visits the host asked us what the occasion was for the dinner and we explained. The host seemed fine at the time but pointed out some things that we could not use in the property.

Later that evening the host became anxious and contacted me after midnight about her concerns regarding our dinner party. I woke to this message in the morning (the day of the dinner party), which was stressful as I was not sure as to what the host might do (e.g. kick us out).

Whilst I appreciate that the host had recently had a bad experience with guests I felt it was unfair to assume that all future guests would be the same. Furthermore, if the host is so concerned about the property, I would suggest that they remove that it is ‘suitable for events’ from the listing.

Also, while the place looked exactly like the pictures – rather impressive – there were some finer details that were lacking considering the price we paid per night, e.g. there was a bin in the bedroom still with rubbish in it, and the swimming pool looked like it needed cleaning (had stuff floating throughout it and a build up of algae).

Furthermore, for a place with a number of high tech appliances there was a lack of instructions. I would also recommend to the host that if there are any things (such as expensive glassware, etc.) that they do not want to be used by guests that they lock them away as has been my experience with other Airbnb properties. It is quite disconcerting coming into a place and being told you can’t use certain things.

Overall I found the whole experience to be stressful and I will not be staying at this or any other properties this host manages in the future.