Unfortunately, our experience at Kumar’s was very negative and we did not complete our reservation. We felt very grateful that Airbnb provided us with a full refund after viewing our photos documenting the problem with this apartment .
We booked this air bnb for our daughters, who’s university residence was closed for the month due to Covid, and they needed a private, safe space to do school online for the month of January.
This apartment was advertised as “Entire Home-have the whole house to yourself.” Unfortunately, this was untrue, as the host lives upstairs. The hosts living area was not separated by a door from the Airbnb living area, rather it was a split level (Aka you walk in from the main entrance and proceed upstairs, or proceed directly into the air bnb apartment). The host also informed the girls in written note that he would be using the laundry facility located inside their Airbnb living space twice a week from 7-10pm, thus further invading their privacy.
When we tried to resolve the issue with Kumar, he stated that I did not read the advertisement, and that they could lock their bedroom doors from the inside, so it was fine if he came into the living room or kitchen. He admitted to having direct access from his apartment into the kitchen, living room, etc, with no way for them to close their space off from his. He was unmasked when he approached them from his entrance into the Airbnb living space.
We requested a call back from Kumar to work this out, which he committed to but did not do. So we had no choice but to escalate this through Airbnb, and they provided a full refund since the girls privacy (and, ultimately, their safety, given that, as we disclosed, they are 19 and it was in appropriate for a strange man to walk into their apartment unannounced and to be able to have direct access from his space into theirs) was at risk.
We had hoped to avoid leaving a negative review and working this out directly with Kumar, but since he cut off communication and did not call back or wish to resolve this, we simply found another space for the girls, spend zero nights at Kumar’s and received a full refund through Airbnb.
The space did look quite nice, and had it been advertised as a shared home with two living areas but a common entrance and uninhibited access between the two apartments, it would have likely worked out! We would not have booked it for the girls since they are young women and because it’s a pandemic, but this whole kerfuffle could have been avoided. privacy (and, ultimately, their safety, given that, as we disclosed, they are 19 and it was in appropriate for a strange man to walk into their apartment unannounced and to be able to have direct access from his space into theirs) was at risk.
We had hoped to avoid leaving a negative review and working this out directly with Kumar, but since he cut off communication and did not call back or wish to resolve this, we simply found another space for the girls, spend zero nights at Kumar’s and received a full refund through Airbnb.
The space did look quite nice, and had it been advertised as a shared home with two living areas but a common entrance and uninhibited access between the two apartments, it would have likely worked out! We would not have booked it for the girls since they are young women and because it’s a pandemic, but this whole kerfuffle could have been avoided.