Our checkin experience wasn’t great. Firstly, you are required to keep an external person up to date with the exact status of check in time, which is a little stressful when driving…
When we arrived the place had not been cleaned after the previous guests. It was really unclean and we couldn’t stay in the apartment. We informed the host who explained that he would get onto to it (we sent photos to confirm). Unfortunately we had a birthday dinner booked and we were forced to have a shower at a friend of a friends place.
During our dinner we checked in with the host to see how he was going with arranging cleaning, by this stage we were getting nervous as it was 7:30pm and we were stuffed from driving. The host asked if we could meet the new cleaners? Which we declined.
After some time hanging at a friends place we were wanting just to stay at a hotel. The host suggested that we cancel the booking (not him) or receive a partial refund. Also called us rude for suggesting a refund for the first night, and in the same swooping sentence, made claim that it was people like ‘us’ that were responsible for the stress experience in the service industry.
I note at no point did we have the host suggested that he would meet us at the apartment or clean it himself. No in fact the host surreptitiously avoided any inclination that he would involve himself in meeting us at the premises, clean it himself, cancel, or refund a night. Then flipped when we suggested a full refund on that night.
After Airbnb refunded our night and the place was cleaned (9:45pm) it was a nice place to enjoy, although it takes a while to erase the previous images. I will note that there isn’t any air conditioning but will only be an issue for the extreme hot weather.
Ultimately when left wondering aimlessly around 9:30pm on a Sunday night in Fitzroy, you start to consider should have chosen that less glossy but equally appealing Airbnb down the road….