Overall, the apartment itself was clean and had everything one would need to have an enjoyable trip, but there were a few instances that made our stay underwhelming and downright weird.
First, about 10 minutes before we were set to arrive, we received a call from one of the owners letting us know that she had to switch us to another unit in the apartment building because someone else needed to stay in the unit we originally booked. While they were identical units, it’s a bit unsettling to arrive to a new city and have someone swap where you’re staying right before you check in. Notably, all units had a key code for the lock and we were told to not enter the original unit with the code they had given us as the new renters now had this code -- which means that whoever was originally supposed to stay in our new unit had the code to get into our place as well. This is completely unsafe and the codes should be switched with each stay/swap/etc.
After arriving to the apartment, we noticed the building appeared as though it just underwent a renovation. While it’s nice to see the owners have upgraded the place, it was as if they just about finished the job and didn’t have time to clean up. The hallways were apparently unfinished -- there was paint and patches on the wall, random beams of wood in the hallway, empty soda cans, and the entire place smelled of drywall or paint.
The unit itself had a similar feel. While the furniture, floors, etc. felt relatively new, the unit smelled of construction and there was a fine dust on the floor that appeared to be either loose drywall or some other construction material. When we called to ask the owner an unrelated question she inquired if the apartment had been cleaned -- we briefly mentioned the floors seemed a bit dusty or dirty, but she said if there were towels on the bed (which there were) then it was cleaned, so we dropped it (note: this point is important down the line).
There were also some other odd inconsistencies with the unit -- a hole in the window (it was on the outside so didn’t impact the temperature, but still … unsightly), there was a hole in the wall, and a weird hole in the ceiling of the bathroom that looks like it lead into a section above the unit (perhaps where the sunlight was). There was also a bench in the entry that looked either broken or not fully built as it was upside down and one of the legs were loose.
The most bizarre thing of all was finding a pocket knife wedged between the mattress and bedframe of the second bedroom. Finding a knife is weird and unsettling on its own, but even worse is after we left the unit we came back to find the knife gone. This means someone came to retrieve it without our permission. This is completely unacceptable -- if someone is going to come back into the unit after the guests have already checked in, they should have called or emailed us to let us know. We did not feel safe knowing that someone could enter our unit at any time (especially due to the keycode issue mentioned above).
All of this being said, we were willing to let the little things go and enjoy our trip. Ultimately, after we left the owners sent us a note saying that the cleaning crew told them we smoked cigarettes in the apartment and left our ashes all over the floor. This is completely ridiculous as we do not smoke and the owners are taking the word of the cleaning crew over ours. 1. They did not find one cigarette butt in the apartment. 2. These so called “ashes” that they sent to us in a grainy picture is the same dust/drywall/construction material on the floor that we called out to the owners when we first checked in. They requested additional payment from us (which Airbnb has said we do not have to fulfill).
Again, sure, there’s plenty of great reviews for this place … we survived the trip, the unit was clean enough and all turned out okay, but after all everything outlined above I wanted to leave an honest review for future renters so they know what they’re truly getting into.