A disappointing experience. There were many problems. Neither the agent nor the owner are honest, and the promised partial refund was never sent. The apartment was small but nice - but I would never stay there again.
The initial problems were with the agent, who was called Yann. If you ever see an Airbnb with this guy named, just don’t book it. Apparently Yann owns a company called Europea Residences. He is really unprofessional, he couldn’t be bothered to answer some questions and requests, didn’t answer his phone, kept me and the cleaner waiting unnecessarily, is inconsistent, rude, and breaks his promises. Amongst many issues, check-in was a problem, I had to bring my own sleeping bag to the apartment, he promised more duvets and then didn’t bring them, and we ran out of toilet paper.
The owner is Dalila, and is currently abroad. She intervened in these problems and apologised for Yann’s actions. We discussed the problems and I accepted her apologies. She said that Yann had been causing problems for every single guest in recent times – and it seems that this might have been deliberate. Indeed, the person who was staying after me had to sit in her car in the cold for 3 hours, and then when she got into the apartment, it had not even been cleaned. Just the sheets and towels from my stay had been removed. Dalila had to keep this agent until her contract with him ended (soon after my stay) and then she was planning to begin with someone whom she thought would be much better.
I asked Dalila for a partial refund, and she promised 25% would be sent on 9 Dec 2019. She said please could I not leave a negative review as that would punish her, not Yann. I said I would write a review that was objective and told her that I had heard what she had said. We then chatted about life and travels; it was friendly – though of course she was also trying to keep me sweet. Our conversation and connection should have led her to believe my review would be OK.
My plan was to give 4/5* because of her efforts to resolve things. Not 5/5* because there were problems in the experience, and because she is responsible for whom she hires as an agent; but not 2/5* or 3/5* because sometimes things do go wrong with people, and I empathised with her situation. I felt this was fair but honest. Generous too, perhaps.
On 9 Dec 2019 she wrote saying she will send the refund, and she asked about the review. I was busy, and away, so didn’t reply. But I later realised that she had not sent the refund as promised. Fast forward to 19 Dec 2019 and she tells me ‘For the refund, I wanted to be sure that either you will not publish one or if you do, just to be sure that it will be good ...’ and that ‘I wasn’t super sure that the deal was clear last time we talk ..’.
She had not been clear before that the refund was contingent on no review or a positive review. Nor had I agreed to this. She was fixated on this perceived agreement / ‘tacite’ deal, but the situation was clear in our messages, which she could read. She felt there was a misunderstanding, but I believe this was only because she had this expectation, which distracted her from being objective.
She was also dishonest by saying that she had promised to contact me on that day about the refund, where in fact she had promised to pay it then; no contact was needed.
In these new discussions, which took several more hours, she refused to keep her promise of the refund unless the review was not done or was positive. Then she said ‘If you don’t write / You get paid / If you write, no payment.’ I felt this was really unethical. And reviews are important and do need to be honest, even if somewhat accommodating sometimes.
I pointed out that it wasn’t her right to know whether I would write a review or what I would write. Nevertheless, I told her that I was originally planning to criticise Yann but write that she had helped resolve things. I felt this would be, overall, a brief but positive review, but still she felt this would be a ‘double punishment’.
Because she broke her promise for the refund, and because she just couldn’t see why that and her demand about the review were problems, I changed my mind and decided to give her just 2/5* along with this detailed and critical review. I’ll also be following up with Airbnb. I do feel a bit sad about this because I don’t think she is a bad person; but she didn’t take responsibility for her actions and her promises, and I wasn’t prepared to be accommodating for that.