This is my first AirBnB experience and it's unfortunately not a very good one.

At first there were small things that didn't make me feel very comfortable, like she asked me to not to tell her agent (the person managing this profile) that we paid her extra money for an extra person staying because she didn't want to give her agent part of the money. And then she told me that washing and drying clothes would be an extra $5, which was not specified in the listing. She asked us to not lock our doors because this is HER house, which I did not, only to find out that there are some things missing or moved in my room. (She admitted to me, afterwards, that she came into my room to take her plant away, while I was not there.) She was a senior lady at her late 70s, so even though I was not very pleased with these, I left it behind me and we were getting along fine.

And then it all happened when I was informed that my parents are coming to visit me early, I asked her in mid May if I could leave early and to give her half of the rent in June as penalty for short notice, she said OK and asked me to give her payment in cash, so that she could ask her agent to cancel the booking. She specifically asked me to not inform AirBnB about this because, again, she didn't want to share the profit with her agent, which I agreed (because I was very naive and stupid). When I asked her for a receipt, she asked me not to worry and said this has happened many times before( and how stupid I was, she later said that she never said this) Two days before I moved out, she stormed into my room and yelled at me, saying I lied to her and AirBnB is asking her for money (what?) , all of a sudden she changes 180 degree and accuses me of not paying her the rent of June through AirBnB, when I was still waiting for her to alter the reservation for me.

I believe I am responsible of this because I trusted her for not enough reason (she was kind to me before this came up) . However, since I am new to the city and know no one here, I feel like I have been taken advantage of. I really did feel like that the reason she agreed two weeks ago and just changed her mind right before I moved out saying contradicting things was only because she found out she could get more money out of my pocket. Also the fact that she is not the one managing her AirBnB profile adds a lot of complications to the situation.

I would like to warn everyone that was considering staying at this place to give it a another thought.