The Host has some serious work to do to make this a pleasant place to stay.
Our original Gastown reservation with Airbnb got cancelled with less than 36 hours notice. Andrea's place was the only available reservation within 4 km of the Pan Pacific Conference Center. But I was skeptical since there were not yet any reviews. I should have trusted my gut and got a hotel room instead.
First the good things:
The view is spectacular. The location and the neighborhood are fantastic. The bed was comfortable. The kitchen was nice. The LED lights on the shower head were cool.
Now the bad things:
We should have immediately cancelled the reservation when we entered the apartment. Tania, the property manager, met us and was delighted that my wife and I were the second set of Guests to rent the place. She then apologized that the only set of bed sheets were still being washed and dried because she realized they were stained from the first guests. Umm... that implies that if Tania didn't notice the stain or we didn't notice the stain, that we would have slept in unwashed linens? That's a 1-star start. Once Tania left, and we started checking the place out, it got worse:
Both bathroom floors had noticeable tufts of dark hairs from previous guests. The master bathroom had no shower curtain
The master bedroom carpet did not look like it has been vacuumed in months, or maybe years. Dog hair everywhere. Dog hair and hair on the pillow cases so we had to wash them again. Broken $5 venetian blinds that don't go down all the way in the bedroom, so it was very bright in the morning. It looked like no surfaces in the house had been wiped except the bathrooms and kitchen. There was a sticky brown stain in the living room that I stepped in. Hopefully it was just booze or soda but I didn't get close enough to smell before I cleaned it up. There were footprints on all the dining room table chair cushions. Maybe Tania stood on them to wipe down the light fixtures? There were stains on the living room couch and stains on the patio cushions. The TV remote control was crusty and sticky.
Ok so all of that is terrible, and I emailed Andrea. She wrote back apologizing and said she would refund one day of the reservation. She said she was new to being a Host and a bit in over her head, so we accepted her apology and her partial refund.
Then the third day the smoke alarm low-battery warning starts beeping. I text the Host. She writes back that Tania hasn't been answering her phone calls or texts. How convenient! Then Andrea thinks that "steam from the shower" could be setting off the alarm. Ok that's highly unlikely, and would never set off a low-battery warning. Andrea wants us to text her when we will be waiting around so that the apartment complex maintenance people can meet us. But for the first three days of my stay, I am attending a conference for 14 hours a day. The final two days, we have a full vacation itinerary. I don't have time to hound the property maintenance folks, and we hope/assume we won't die in a fire at night.
When I check out, I message Andrea again saying I am really unhappy that she never sorted out the smoke detector, and that she threw Tania under the bus. I would like additional costs of my reservation refunded. Suddenly the smoke detector doesn't have a battery to replace because it's "hardwired". And now I am "threatening" her because I told her I would escalate with Airbnb if she didn't give a better refund. Total gaslighting!
So, if you are in Vancouver for 24-48 hours to party and you don't care about sleeping in other people's hair, this place is amazing! If you are in Vancouver on business for an extended duration and you don't want to live in a filthy apartment, this place is hopefully avoidable!