My friend and I stayed in Arnaud’s Airbnb from August 4-7th, 2022. Upon arrival, everything seemed fairly okay. It definitely was far from being the nicest place we’ve stayed in, but we deemed it to be fine for a couple nights. We dropped off our things and went to grab some dinner. When we got back home that evening, we were surprised (and slightly horrified!) to find a couple cockroaches on the kitchen counter. The walls had bugs/baby cockroaches on them as well. We took several pictures/videos. The next morning, we contacted Arnaud about this problem. He said he had contacted the building manager who admitted that some tenants had reported being infested with cockroaches. He told us that if we could be out of the apartment before noon (even though it was 10 am at the time), he would refund us for the stay. However, we could not be expected to pack our things, exit the apartment and find a new place within two hours. As such, although I commend Arnaud for at least proposing a solution, it was not ideal nor feasible for us. We had tickets to a big event that was happening that weekend which made booking all that more complicated. As such, Arnaud proposed to reimburse us for 50% of the stay if we decided to stay. We decided to accept his offer.
In addition, because of the cockroach infestation, we could not cook any of our meals in the apartment. We felt uncomfortable leaving any traces of food in the cupboards and/or trash. This added additional costs to the trip as we had previously planned to eat breakfast at the apartment to save a little money.
A couple other problems/concerns:
This apartment has no blackout curtains. As such, be prepared to be awakened by a room full of sun very (very!) early in the morning.
There was also a cigarette smell in the apartment. It was a lingering smell, as if the previous owners or tenant had smoked repeatedly.
Also, the apartment has a TV with an amazon fire stick. However, the owners put a code on it meaning that to access the TV in any way, one must have the code. Although not a big deal, this was just an added frustration.
Although not Arnaud’s fault at all - the building is pretty run down. Expect a homeless individual blocking the entrance at least half of the time. On our last day, we descended the stairs to find a very large puddle of vomit and urine blocking the front door (right at the bottom of the elevator). Absolutely disgusting.
The elevator is another experience in itself. It smells like a litter box and many tenants seem to think it is a good idea to simply leave their garbage in the corner of it.
Overall, Arnaud was quick to communicate with us which was a plus. The location is great as well (right in Gay Village). The apartment is accessed with a code which is really convenient. However, because of all the things mentioned above, we would not recommend this airbnb.