We booked Megan & Merrick's place for seven weeks, however we had to leave the unit after five weeks under the advice of the Airbnb Safety Team. The unit is comfortable and well-equipped, however there is no sound barrier between the unit and the main area of the property.
The hosts had three gatherings late at night, midweek, which caused great disruption. The third gathering was particularly loud. I messaged the host asking when it would finish and could then hear Merrick speak with guests at the party about this. We heard one of the guests say we could "go die" and suggesting everybody "go down there". We also heard this guest make sexual comments about women. We took audio/video footage of the party to submit to Airbnb, including the vulgar comments used by the guest. After the party ended, we heard the hosts talk about the situation and Merrick referred to us as "Irish f**ks". We received a long reply from the hosts addressing how we were in "their basement, their home, their property" and outlined how we had extra guests over, violating the policy. He also said if we had an issue, we could "find alternative accommodation". The extra guests were pre-authorised by Megan weeks prior, so we were puzzled as to why we received such a reply.
We contacted the Airbnb Safety Team who, after reading this message, agreed it was intimidating and supported us in finding alternative accommodation. Airbnb paid for a temporary hotel and provided us with a coupon to find an alternative unit for the remainder of our stay. We also received a refund of over half of the original booking cost.
I use Airbnb on a regular basis and I am not one to overreact to situations, however I am a paying customer. The advertised unit does not reflect the experience in relation to the noise, and it certainly does not warrant the high rental cost. I also uphold self-respect. My co-guest was a woman and I will not allow her to listen to such vile comments, nor will I allow us to be subjected to xenophobic comments by anybody, let alone an Airbnb host. Having parties, dogs barking etc. late at night midweek is not something we consider to be appropriate by an Airbnb host - but maybe that's just our friendly, considerate nature as Irish people.
We hope Megan and Merrick can use these comments as constructive criticism and maybe make some changes to how they operate as Airbnb hosts. Our experience wasn't as we had hoped, however this does not mean future guests should experience the same.