We can start with the positives: the house is cute, was (mostly) clean, and at a good location near Yonge Street with included parking.
The house was old so it has 'character' but unfortunately the walls are paper-thin as I discovered during my first night at 5:30 am when I was woken to the sound of a truck braking only a few metres from the main bedroom on the busy street outside. The traffic noise only grew louder as the morning rush hour reached its peak hours so I quickly gave up on sleeping for the rest of the morning even though I am an exceptionally heavy sleeper.
Then while showering before work I noticed several hairs in the bathtub and black mould growing on the shower curtain.
The next night I tried to sleep in the back room on the tiny single-sized bed on a frame with wheels that moves easily. The bed was small and the mattress hard, so combined with the (somewhat fainter) traffic noise I was unable to sleep again.
When I messaged Sammy about the situation his suggestion was to play white noise from my phone. I wish I was joking.
For the first time ever I was so uncomfortable in an Airbnb that I cancelled the rest of my stay and drove home to Montreal because I so badly needed my own bed after two sleepless nights. I was able to receive a paltry $234 back out of the nearly $1500 booking for 5 nights.
This entire experience could be avoided if the host were to take two simple steps. Being up front about the 5:30 am traffic noise in the 'About this space' section and/or at the very least mentioning it in the pre-confirmation messaging, rather than pretending to warn about it by saying 'potential for noise in daytime' in the Health & Safety section. And simply replacing an old, mouldy shower curtain that has way outlasted its usefulness and the bed that would serve a better purpose as a mobile bench.