I'm convinced half of the reviews on this are fake. I think once the reviews get bad enough they'll archive this listing and post it as a new one.
You communicate with two people with zero pictures, Zodiac (whoever that is), and Cecilia (who isn't verified at all and who we never saw).
None of this is in the listing, but a couple days before check-in you'll receive a few messages about:
- This AirBNB is illegal (not allowed in this building) and you shouldn't mention it to anyone.
- A sketchy website run by the host where you have to put in your personal info and arrival time and (maybe) pay extra fees for parking, pets, etc. But you don't actually pay there and the host doesn't tell you that.
- The check-in process which is basically: drive down to the parking garage where you have no cell service, meet this stranger (you have no idea who because they have no picture) who will speak very quietly to you and give you a broken hand cart to put your luggage in and cover it with a sheet, then take the elevator up and they will open the door to the unit and stand by the door and watch you unload all of your belongings before leaving without saying a word. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I think I would've left if I was traveling alone. It's such an unsafe situation.
The check-out process was equally bad. They wasted my time. I wasn't too sure when we were going to leave but gave them a window of time. They said give them 30 minutes notice and they'll repeat check-in by bringing the cart with a sheet for luggage and helping us out of the garage. I gave them notice and got no response at all after multiple messages. I sat and waited for 45 minutes before I left. They wasted my time. They didn't message me back until 2 HOURS LATER.
The place was mostly clean, except for the tampon under the sink, the dirty sock under the bed, and the weird brown stains on the bathroom floor (no assumptions made but come on).
The sliding door to the patio didn't close fully, so through the crack in it you could hear the drone of cars all day and loud sirens at night.
They didn't even take the plastic wrap off of the TV or the builder's tape off of the glass on the balcony. Hard to call it a "luxury penthouse" when there's no attention to detail at all.
I'm sure Zodiac will respond to this saying that I should have told them about all this at the time, but that kind of misses the point. This stuff shouldn't happen, and honestly I could give some of it a pass if the check-in and check-out process wasn't so horrifying. It's sad because the place has SO MUCH potential. It could be really nice and the location is really great.