I booked a 3 night stay at Anastasia's place. We arrived around 6pm. The place is very difficult to find. Our host Dyonisios was quick at responding and sent a picture of the outside of the building, which help us find it.
While I had read that it gets "a little loud" from another review and that the bedroom was above a restaurant, I certainly was not expecting what we walked into. The place is on the 2nd floor (3rd in Europe) no elevator which is typical in Europe, no big deal. However, this place is located on a very very busy street, bustling with several restaurants door after door and tables outside. So " a little loud" was completely inaccurate.
The place is upstairs directly from the pizza oven. Heat rises and typically no AC in Europe. Well open the windows for some fresh air, nope. You can hear all the noise from the street, people talking, plates, traffic etc. So either you get really hot or you get all the noise. Our host had left earplugs, packaged at home (not store sealed). This shows me, they are aware of the noise being very loud.
The bed comforter was questionable and looked very old, didn't even cover the whole bed. Not the comforter shown on the pictures. Same with the two mix matched shower towels. That was it, just two. No hand towel, wash cloth nothing.
The bathroom looks like it might have been updated but looks like to me, trying to get the basic cosmetic to make it look nice. The floor tiles around the shower are broken, cover with a shower mat. The floor also felt wabbly and not very stable. I know Europe has old buildings but still....
The apartment is very dark and outdated. We were looking for outlets to charge our phones and all that was available was an extension chord, where a fan was already using one of the possible outlets. This looked that it was improvise and not fire safe.
We had stayed at three other places while we traveled over a month and this was our last stop. We ended up hauling our luggage back down again and booked our stay at the nearby Dominican Hotel, which listened to our situation and were able to accommodate us last minute and even upgraded to a garden suite.
I didn't contact the host the very same day, we were tired, disappointed and upset. We had been traveling all day and just wanted to take a shower, get dinner and rest. We had some tours scheduled for the next day and the last thing I wanted was to deal with some stressful drama. I also wanted to see if our host was going to follow up and check in with us to see if we needed anything. After all, the workers from their restaurant below saw us going in and ten minutes later going back out with or luggage.
I did contact our host before our departure flight, and let him know we never stayed at his place. Honestly, there was nothing that could have been done at that point to change our minds. We were not happy with the place, didn't feel comfortable and we weren't going to stay in a place like that.
Our host was upset when responding to my message and also bringing up all the issues. He has informed me they will be refunding my money back, but that I have to wait until August 29 after their next reservation. He originally requested proof of our expense at the other hotel, and when I asked which way should send the documents, I was told no need, that he trusted me. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️ Not sure what the policy is with Airbnb. This is the first time this has happened to us, so I will contact the customer service.
Not trying to hurt a host or business here, but I feel that guests should get the correct information and accurate pictures. It's not fair for travelers to get a surprise and be stuck in the middle of your trip and ruin your holiday. I think everyone should be honest.
I guess you get what you paid for!!