We booked this Airbnb for the weekend for 2 nights and the host was 5 hours late in allowing us to check into the apartment. He first advised it was due to a broken dishwasher that he had to fix. However, when we arrived at 530pm after driving from Montreal to drop off our luggage (mind you, check in was at 4pm), the entire place was still in a mess and dirty. There was bags everywhere, and even his underwear was in the middle of the living room near the sofa. Ken kept mentioning to us that he was going to compensate us for the inconvenience and will refund a night, as he should since check in was 5 hours.
We went back to the apartment after dinner around 9pm, and Ken said he was going to come over and bring us some beer as an apology, which the 4 of us shared one can of beer. We appreciate that he’s trying to do ‘damage control’, however we do not appreciate:
1. Him coming into the apartment WITHOUT a mask, especially during times like this with COVID.
2. Pressuring us guests to ‘high-5’, twice, even though he washed his hands in front of us. Human contact is not welcomed and is extremely uncomfortable, especially with strangers.
3. Him trying to move the conversation outside of the Airbnb app and asked us to call him via Facebook Messenger (violation of the Airbnb rules).
4. Towels were washed with his own laundry. We were unable to find towels anywhere and looked around the apartment only to find them in the dryer with his clothes.
5. Overstaying his welcome. We appreciate that he’s being extremely friendly and trying to compensate for the late check in, but guests check in to an Airbnb for a holiday and relax and do not want to be disturbed. He only left about 45 mins later, does not read into cues.
6. Him requesting a 5 star review and vet the reviews before posting (see below paragraph).
Following day, he messaged us at 8am, which we again think it is completely inappropriate as we would very much appreciate not to be disturbed. At around 4pm, he sent another message which talks about checking out and requesting that we give hi 5 start review, otherwise he would like to speak to us first. This is 100% not acceptable as reviews should be honest on Airbnb and should NOT be ‘vetted’ by the host. We only booked this Airbnb because he appeared to be a SuperHost and clearly we know the reason why.
We then proceed to follow up regarding the compensation of him refunding us a night for the inconvenience and this is where the problem started. He offered us verbally twice about refunding and once written via the chat within the Airbnb app about the refund. However, not ONCE did he ever mention that it was for ‘next time’. Please tell us how does one get a refund for the future? After this experience, it is very unlikely that we would ever book with Ken again. We questioned him about the refund and then Ken then claimed that the ‘refund’ was for our next stay and blamed it on his pour English on the confusion, which we did offer to converse in French. He did not accept the offer and continued to speak to us in English, so surely he is comfortable and competent to speak and communicate to us in English. Therefore him blaming the confusing regarding the refund compensation is quite frankly an excuse and full of lies.
This back and forth became so uncomfortable that we contacted Airbnb immediately to report and cancel our remaining night and immediately book a hotel for the rest of our stay. We were afraid that he would just show up at the apartment like he did on the first night. We are still dealing with this refund with Airbnb right now. We hope that this honest review will give future guests a better picture of how this experience went.