We booked the “Beautiful Heritage Suite”, and were disappointed to find it was not as described in the listing, photos, or (most of) the reviews on Airbnb - and Russ’s aggressive behavior made the experience even worse. I don’t like leaving negative reviews (check my other reviews on this site), but I also want to caution others about this suite so they aren’t disappointed like we were. I’d encourage everyone to carefully read the reviews about this suite, and to pay special attention to those that are less-than-glowing, as well as Russ’s confrontational responses to them.
We were doing renovations on our house and needed a place to stay for a week with our two cats. Russ’s suite was in the neighborhood, and had generally positive reviews with photos that portrayed it as comfortable and clean - it looked perfect for us.
When we arrived, we were disappointed to find that the suite was not at all as described. Instead of the clean, modern leather sofa pictured in the photos, the suite now features a shabby, stained fabric sofa. There was random junk laying around, including an AA battery on the table, a broken telescope in the corner, and several large unused appliances lining the walls. The internet was unreliable, and the electronic door lock required 10-15 attempts to open (Russ acknowledged this in his introductory email – why not just fix it?).
None of this was a huge deal, but there was one huge issue that did require addressing: the suite was FILTHY. The bathroom walls were covered in dirt and grime where the towels hang, a pair of 1” long fake eyelashes were stuck on the bathroom light fixture (eww), the drywall behind the kitchen sink was covered in months/years of accumulated splashes and spills, the fridge was full of crumbs, the windows had grease/film/sticky stuff and smudge marks all over them, there was an opened mayonnaise jar in the cupboard (unrefrigerated and decomposing), and there giant cobwebs in the corners of the rooms. Clearly the suite has not been cleaned in ages. It was absolutely disgusting, and words can’t do it justice (I wish I could share the photos on this site). To make things worse, the suite is in a damp basement and reeks of mold and mildew, which caused us respiratory problems. We couldn’t open the windows because there are no screens, and our cats would escape.
While all of this was unexpected, we were happy to clean the unit ourselves, but could not find any cleaning supplies in the suite. So the next morning, we purchased our own cleaning supplies, and sent a polite message to Russ notifying him of the issues and our solution. We also requested a partial refund, since we had to purchase supplies and clean the unit ourselves.
Russ did not respond, so after two hours, I contacted Airbnb customer service. I then received two immediate messages from Russ saying “Get out of my house” and “don’t come back”. We didn’t feel safe in the suite at this point, so we left for another local Airbnb, which was the same price but was much nicer and much cleaner (please see my review of it).