The three stars are for the positives of the listing: central location, generally good set up of the apartment and a large comfortable mattress. My partner are mindful of leaving low reviews as we have been on both sides as a guests and hosts and know how such reviews would affect a host’s livelihood. Unfortunately, the lack of cleanliness was shocking. When addressing it with the host objectively, their emotionally charged, confrontational and unprofessional response was even more shocking than the state of the listing. These issues greatly affected the quality of our stay; in particular knowing the host was living somewhere in the building.
The state of the listing does not reflect the price range. The whole place looked, smelled and was cleaned to the lowest standard with dire need of a professional deep clean. We have photographic evidence of the amount of accumulated dirt, handfuls of pet fur and debris on the floor, on and under the rugs, under the bed and furniture. All the rugs were stained and full of debris and hair with one having two bloodstains. We couldn’t even breathe properly until we bought cleaning supplies and cleaned the place within the first day or two. Having arrived tired after a long journey and in dire need of rest we didn’t anticipate cleaning a whole apartment before we could even open our suitcases!
The host stated, “Since my place is pet friendly, as you benefited from…” Having a pet does not constitute low standards or lowered expectations (we have a very clean cat). Having a pet does not justify the dirty floors, not mopping or vacuuming properly, not cleaning the cabinets, fridge or bathtub, not cleaning the windows, dusting and having cobwebs in the corner of the windows, having mould in the grout of the bath tiles and stains on all the cabinet doors and inside and most surface areas. Also, the sheet and fitted sheet were of the worst quality and a 100% synthetic. It affected not only the quality of our sleep but felt horrible on the skin. A simple and affordable cotton set would have sufficed. We had to buy sheets to replace them for our stay and when changing the fitted sheet, we found a pair of ladies underwear under it! This in itself was completely unacceptable and should have granted more humility from the host or an offer of partial refund. We have a picture of this too.
Since we were staying longer, more space in the fridge, dressers and cupboards would’ve been great. The host had emptied one drawer and a small section of a cupboard to hang clothes with their stuff packed tightly underneath. The rest of the cupboards/dressers were packed with their personal belongings. The fridge was more than half full of their food items with a few perishables out of date (partly consumed chocolate milk dated best by March 1st). The freezer was packed and we could not put anything in it. If a host is long term renting, there has to be more room for the guests.
Overall this could be a good listing if not for the above issues. Not everyone is personally able to adhere to acceptable cleaning and hygiene standards and that’s why using professional cleaning services are essential in particular in a time of a pandemic. The host claims they've had no complaints before which makes us wonder if they failed to adhere to basic standards for us, or if they don't know what basic standards are or as we nearly did, guests are hesitant to leave a negative review based on the host loaded response. Also, the listing only has 12 reviews starting last year which means it’s a very new listing. Overall, some basic customer service training and a bit of humility would work wonders when a host.