This was a very nice apartment, but unfortunately we did not have an overall great experience. We originally booked a non-smoking place in Carlton. We just moved back from overseas, and had finished quarantine at the hotel. When we got there, the place smelled of smoke, and I'm very allergic. We tried contacting the host, it took them 6 hours to respond, and another 5 hours for them to find us alternative accommodation. I had to get the AirBnb customer service team to intervene because of the slow response. We could not find any alternate accomodation within our budget that late, and we were forced to spend the night there. We had to spend most of the time walking outside in the cold, and only came back to sleep. Woke up next day with burning eyes, throat, and nose. Not ideal in the middle of COVID. We understand that they cannot control if the tenant breaks the rules and smokes, and we understand that there can be staff restrains during the pandemic, but to be that inaccessible on the day of a customer's check-in is not acceptable.
They did move us to a nice apartment downtown, it wasn't the location we wanted, but it was an upgrade. It was one we couldn't afford otherwise. Which became a huge problem for us when we tried to extend our booking when the Victorian Government announced Melbourne would be going back into lockdown. We had rented a house where the lease started early Aug, and had a cat coming from overseas at the end of July. It had been our intention to either extend, or move apartments once we found a place and figured out when our new lease started, but we were in a panic when the lockdown was announced with cases on the rise. We wanted to minimise movement, and not have to move twice during a lockdown. We pleaded with host, they informed us that the owner did not want to extend the lease with the price we originally paid for the first smoky place. This new place was $30-$50 a night more And they had a no pet policy, even if we offered to have it professionally cleaned hypo-allergenically. Both me and the customer service rep from AirBnb pleaded with them, it was a firm no. I tried one last time saying that we could make alternative arrangements for the pet, and the host told me "The owner is not hard pressed for money and has advised that he would rather have the apartment empty with no tenants than to extend it to you at the rate you originally paid for regardless of the lockdown and the circumstances". Wow.
We were left pretty speechless after that. It is absolutely the owners prerogative to have any rules about pets or to charge whatever he wants. We were just so disappointed by the lack of empathy during this extenuating circumstance. It was not our fault that we had to move to this place, we would have happily extended at the 1t place if there was no smoke issue and if it was available. Beyond the Room advised that there was no guarantee that if would have been available anyway, but c'mon, it was highly likely during this pandemic. If our roles were reversed, we would not hesitate to have rented it out, knowing that it was probably going to be empty anyway, and knowing it was just for 2-3 weeks, given the circumstance and lockdown.
Anyway, not an easy experience on top of re-expatriating in the middle of a pandemic. Here are some practicalities about the apartment itself.
Pro's: Nice apartment, great location. Pretty clean. Good size tv, good internet, close to park.
Cons: Bathroom floods when you take a shower. Adjusting the shower head was suggested, but does not help much. The seal to the door is either broken or too short. We had to put a big body towel outside the door every time we showered to stop it from flooding. Dryer does not work very well, even if you follow all the instructions. Bed Pillows not very comfortable. Under the rug and couch had a lot of dust and big crumbs. Insufficient Cleaning equipment, only a heavy vacuum, there's a broom but no dustpan. And the mop does not function well, cloth does not attach to he mop handle properly. We stayed there for a month, and it made cleaning the apartment difficult.
Would I recommend? I'll let you read my review and decide for yourself. This is the first negative review we have ever written on sites like AirBnB and VRBO btw, and we use them a fair bit.