There were some pros but there were also a lot of cons during my stay at this airbnb. The following is a detailed break down of every pro and con of our stay in a chronological format.
This Airbnb is located in the core downtown on Montreal so I knew that it would be hard to find parking We decided to rent a parking space located at the back of the building from Espace for $20/night. Unfortunately, the parking requires you to walk around the entire strip of the buildings in order to reach the entrance at the front of the building. The parking was also very sketchy with heavy vandalism, very few lights, and no CCTV camera, so it is not recommended to leave any personal valuables in your vehicle. We were quite afraid that our car would get robbed so we made sure to take everything with us.
When we checked in, there was an issue with the smart lock. It was jammed which was very frustrating for my girlfriend and I since we just drove 7 hours to Montreal, in addition to having to carry a lot of heavy bags and luggage from the parking to the entrance and then up a few flights of stairs as there were no elevators. However, we contacted the host who helped us find another room next door.
However, that room was not ready for guests yet as the bathroom hook was not built in yet. We also saw a lot of accumulated dirt by the shower and stains on the shower handle as well as the sink tap water handle. In my opinion, since we were unexpectedly given another room, I believe it was definitely not cleaned very well beforehand and also not COVID friendly.
The room had good ammenities such as a full kitchen with modern steel appliances as well as kitchen utensils.
The door to the room did not have a proper peephole but instead, had a literal hole which could allow people from the outside to see inside the bedroom. In fact, while we scrutinizing the hole, a group of guests walked by our door and looked directly into the hole and both parties could clearly see each other through the hole. In the end, we used our jackets to cover the holes. The door also had a huge transparent glass on top. Other guests in Espace covered up the transparent window area with cardboads and cereal boxes taped to the window. Strangely, there was a Blink security camera placed directly over the transparent window which looked like it could possibly see into the transparent window of the unit across from ours.
Our first night was terrible because we were woken up in the middle of the night by loud construction sounds in the building at 5 a.m. We told the manager who told us that the workers were actually supposed to come at 7a.m.
On the second day, we came back to the Airbnb at around 10 p.m and discovered that somebody illegally took our parking spot so I did not have anywhere else to park. I called the manager of Espace and for some reason, he did not know whether he "double booked" the parking spot (even though all guests had to give their license plate numbers ahead of time in order to avoid getting towed) . He seemed to be feigning ignorance about what cars are allowed to park there and so instead of towing the car, he instructed me to find parking elsewhere. After over an hour, I managed to find a street parking but it was inconvenient as it was even further away from the Airbnb. It was located at an even less secured area on a very narrow street that was hard to manœuvre in.
I went to check on the Espace parking the following morning and the person who illegally parked in my parking space was still there until noon. It was obvious that the management did not make any effort to try and resolve the issue.
I spoke about the problem with the owner of Espace himself and asked for a refund for the parking which he reluctantly refunded. In fact, he even tried to bribe me into giving him a "good" review on Airbnb in order for me to get my full refund which was ridiculous. I had to call AirBnB support about it because as per AirBnB policy, hosts are not allowed to incentivize positive reviews from guests.
This was unfortunately the worst experience I have ever had with an Airbnb. The management was unprofessional and inconsiderate. He actually messaged me to subtlety blame me for the door not opening in the original room, as if it was my own incompetence. However it was clearly not my fault as I could hear the electronic sounds of the smart door lock being jammed as it kept unlocking then re-locking on its own. I do not recommend this Airbnb as my experience with the management was quite unpleasant and the price was not even cheap compared to other places. I definitely suggest finding another airbnb in downtown Montreal in order to avoid this type of fiasco.