We had a great time in Toronto and were grateful to be staying in such a centrally located place. Unfortunately, our stay here was not the cleanest or comfortable and was filled with accusations that we were problematic from co-host Sugito.
When we arrived it was clear that the place was not clean. There was salt spilled all over the kitchen shelves, food crumbs and residue on the counter and around the range, and the floors had not been vacuumed. There were also dirty damp rags hung on hangers in the main closet. The main closet had painting supplies left on top of the dryer/washer and was generally dirty and disorganized. Things that should not be left in a short-term rental were left in the closet.
The first thing we did was take a shower. The shower felt dirty, the floors were not clean, and the sink appeared to be quite dirty. We immediately phoned Sugito and shared our concerns. We also sent images of all the dirt and untidy areas to give him a better sense of what we meant. He apologized and mentioned the cleaning lady was sick the day prior and mentioned she may be having an off-day. We were totally understanding and felt bad having to complain but were quite disappointed and anxious about staying in a dirty place.
After this conversation with Sugito, his communication with us was quite delayed. The following day we had to reach out to him first to ensure the cleaning lady was even going to come. We planned our day around it as to make sure she had the place free to clean. While we were out we had not heard back from Sugito despite multiple texts sent to him asking when the place would be cleaned. We then finally decided to call him and he told us that he himself went to the apartment to clean it. He told us that it was clean enough and he took care of what he could.
We headed back to the place to see how it had been cleaned but on the way received multiple texts from him. In the text messages he asked “is there another agenda about raising cleanliness?”, and mentioned he was curious which is why he personally came to inspect the place. He also said, “I have come to the conclusion that you are not genuinely concerned about cleanliness, but are raising hell to get your money back.” These accusations really caught us off guard and tainted our experience. The place not being clean was one thing, but the accusations and conflict while we were on vacation were what really sucked.
Instead of responding to the texts we called Sugito directly and defended ourselves. We said that we simply wanted a clean place and a place to call home while we were out here. He mentioned that 99% of people don’t have an issue and that we are the 1% trying to create hell to get our money back. He said that we should’ve canceled to begin with if we were unhappy with it. We were not clear of what the cancellation policy was like, but despite this wanted to make the best of our stay and were solution-oriented. We wanted a solution which would’ve been to have the place cleaned properly just as we have experienced at other air bnb’s. The phone call concluded by us agreeing to disagree. We further reiterated that we simply wanted a clean second home and would treat his place just as that.
When we got back to the place we noticed that it had barely been cleaned. The salt was picked up from the kitchen shelves but that’s about it. We had already bought crocs from the dollar store on our first night to wear strictly in the house because the floors were so dirty but also decided to go purchase cleaning supplies to clean the place ourselves. The pair of us spent 1-2 hours cleaning the shower, sinks, and surfaces with greenworks disinfectant and paper towels. We also vacuumed all the floors. That relieved some of our worries about cleanliness but it never felt like home because of how Sugito spoke and treated us.
We did not have much contact with the main host Sofia so we are not sure if Sugito’s viewpoints and level of service are reflective of hers. The apartment was beautiful and well located but was not well maintained or clean. We would not recommend staying here based on cleanliness and service. The service aspect was definitely a damper and a sore-point of our vacation. It was unfortunate to have to face conflict and be made to feel the way we did while on vacation, which is why we feel obligated to share our experience at this rental.