My friend and I were visiting Toronto to check out the city and we chose Jeffreys place to stay for 3 nights. The both of us have stayed in airbnb's before, however this is the first airbnb that we have stayed in that was in a busier city. Our goal was to have a place to stash our luggage and a place to sleep and shower, where most of our time would be spent exploring the city.
As guests, we felt we did our due diligence in behaving and respecting Jeffrey's space. However, I made the amateur blunder of only booking for one person where there was in fact two of us so I immediately messaged Jeffrey in hopes that he would accommodate us. With an extra charge of 300$ this accommodation was made, and we were able to check in pretty easily with only the minor complaint that he responds quite slowly. That being said, we inconvenienced him with the last-minute request so we were more than happy to wait.
The result of our last-minute alteration in adding another person to the stay which is not exactly what we expected. To accommodate us, Jeffrey said he could set up a futon in his living room. Upon our arrival on the first night, we had assumed that one of us could sleep on the futon, and the other could sleep on the bed in the bedroom. After our first night, he communicated to us the next morning that he was upset with us as we were actually supposed to share the futon. We felt this was not clearly communicated when he had originally proposed using the futon, however I apologized and offered to move all of our belongings into the living room, but Jefferey said it was fine as at this point as we had already slept in separate rooms after one night. This particular part of the review is up in the air as we felt we were within reason to assume and act as we did, but we are open to the opinion that we were in the wrong.
The main discontent lies with the amenities advertised and his dog Millie. Millie the dog is a very nice dog, however we are not entirely comfortable around dogs and it was not clearly stated in the listing. At a closer glance it is spoken about within the reviews but is something that should be in the actual posting. We assumed that since it was not within the actual listing that for whatever reason, Millie would not be there.
My friend had taken the locked bedroom since he has a fear of dogs, and I took the living room which was blocked off from the other spaces within the home by curtains. This meant that the dog couldn't interact with my friend through a locked door but could interact with me, and my belongings. In the morning after our first night I found Millie chewing on my clothes, as well as waking me up quite often. Every morning after, Millie incessantly howled or barked very early in the morning which really hindered our ability to rest. My friend and I consider ourselves to be nonchalant individuals and respected that we were in Jeffrey's home as well as Millie's, so we put up with it however this component of the stay was less than ideal.
In the same vein, a microwave, hair drier, and specific toiletries were advertised as provided such as shampoo and body wash. However, these were in fact not provided and at check-in Jeffrey stated that you have to bring your own. As tourists travelling, buying take-out, working up a sweat, we held these minor inconveniences in high regard as we were unable to reset, shower and eat in the morning- things we do not think are much to ask for in a 900$ stay.
Beyond this, the communication was either off or reciprocated sparingly. Beyond the first mistake on our end, and through much discussion, we truly felt that our stay would have been more cost effective and pleasant in a different place at a more convenient location. We designed the trip to be a Sleep-Wash-Go, sort of trip that had little interaction with the Airbnb we chose to stay at with what we thought would be the least amount of burden placed on the host. Included in our expectation was a place that accommodated our needs to re-heat food, shower, and sleep however this was not really fulfilled.
Jeffrey does seem like a nice guy, and his home was actually nice and in a nice neighborhood. His home is literally next to a bus stop and close to an airport so we found these things to be very helpful to our trip.