WARNING: BED BUGS!!! ABSENTEE HOST! STAY AWAY!
I booked this location for my senior parents and sister, who were visiting for my wedding, as we thought it was a good location with good amenities, and what seemed like a good cost. I'm going to provide as much detail as I can, as I do not want the host to comment on this to try and pretend this didn't happen to save face.
Two days into the stay, both of my parents woke up covered in scratchy red bites on their arms and faces. They quickly took off the duvet and lifted the mattress and found several bed bugs living under the mattress and along the headboard, as well as a blood-stained duvet. The bugs seemed to be contained to one of the two bedrooms. They consulted a doctor, who diagnosed the bites as bed bugs. Upon finding these bugs, we reached out to the host, who took several hours to respond to us.
A person named Justin (not listed as a host) came to the unit and saw the bugs firsthand, he was shocked and very apologetic. We then contacted the hosts again via text message, upon Justin's recommendation, and they did not respond to us. I filed a complaint to Airbnb, and they reimbursed us for our stay. Airbnb suggested that we connect directly with the hosts about any other concerns. We reached out to the hosts AGAIN, several days later, and they still never responded to us, until today, when I said if I didn't hear from them, I would take action. They are refusing to compensate us for the last-minute costs that we had to incur from booking a new hotel (which should not have happened at all, given the assurances we were given for this space), as well as paying to dry clean and steam clean all of our belongings (which should definitely be their expense, since this was a result of their carelessness). They are claiming it is not their responsibility to compensate us, and that the bed bugs had nothing to do with their cleanliness... not sure how this works, since if they had stripped the bed sheets, and cleaned the bed as they claim to do, they would have found the bugs between guests.
I also want to note that the hosts (Maggie, Gloria, Alex and Jen) own nine other properties, and we have seen the same sheets in photos for other listings, so I would caution you to STAY AWAY from their other listings as well as this one (these listings are spread out under the different hosts). The hosts seem to live out of town, and they instead have reps who do their face-to-face interactions.
At this point, we don't care about the financial compensation, but the lack of empathy for my senior parents, who are now struggling with inflammation and the stress of the situation, is absolutely ridiculous and disgusting. The very least they could have done is respond to our initial messages of distress and concern. DO NOT do business with these people. We gave them an honest review, and said that the location and check-in were both good, however, the rest of the review should be zero stars. These bugs likely came from a previous guest, however, if they were cleaning as thoroughly as they claim to be, they should have found these. If they are reusing textiles or furniture between units, it is likely these bugs have already spread. We expected a lot more from a "superhost" and a place this well-reviewed, especially common decency and empathy.
In addition, we booked this unit six months in advance. About a month after booking, we inquired about changing the reservation from 10 days to 7 days, since at the time, COVID cases were not looking good, and my parents were thinking to stay for less time. When they finally responded after a week, they refused to update the reservation, because they said that "it will be challenging for [them] to fill the gaps before and after" a.k.a. they would not make as much cash as they initially planned. When I asked if there could be any degree of understanding given the realities of the pandemic, they never responded.... I think this also says a lot about the character of the people running these units. AVOID AVOID AVOID, save yourself the stress, hassle, money and health risks. Even if they fumigate, the good location and more reasonable cost is NOT WORTH IT. I've stayed at a lot of Airbnbs, and this is the first negative review I have ever had to leave. Says more about the hosts than the platform.