It was the worst experience I had with Airbnb. My wife and I were staying with our in-laws while waiting for my wife’s visa to go to the US. I wanted to get away for a little bit with my wife for some alone time to comfort her in a quiet and peaceful place since she was 5-weeks pregnant. This place and experience was very bad for us as it turned out we were paying $2,450.00 for two people to be TRAPPED in a basement with strangers from Dec 20 - Jan 20. To be more precise, a family of five people. I believe both the mom and dad worked from home and the kids were homeschooled. It stated a “New full basement apartment”. We assumed it was private and separate from the main upstairs but the door to it is through the main floor; an open living area with living room, kitchen and dining table. We were trapped into it because we couldn’t cancel per Airbnb policy. We decided to make it work and make the best of it even though it started with the inside of the shower was not entirely cleaned; there was hair, shampoo and water stains on the inside of the glass shower as well as mold behind the tracks of the wheels on the bottom. We did not use it the first day and told her about it but she persisted and argued that it was cleaned. She offered to come down and clean it but I ended up doing it myself because I didn’t want anyone coming down. I asked her for cleaning supplies to clean it myself and told me to wait until tomorrow afternoon. We waited until the evening and she didn’t get anything so we went to Walmart and bought some and cleaned it. Later that night she brought a spray cleaner and a sponge. From the get go I knew it was not what we were looking for but knew we couldn’t cancel yet we were very polite, quiet and considerate. From the first day we tried to avoid encounters with them as much as possible but it was very difficult especially with the Pandemic situation so we started staying downstairs until we get a chance to go cook something in the evening or later after 11pm when she finally goes up. On Dec 25 she offered to do our laundry which I found was a nice gesture but I kindly declined and told her I would like to do it myself. I put the laundry in and set an alarm, a couple mins after the alarm went off I went upstairs to put them in the dryer she was in the kitchen and told me she just put them for me. I did not appreciate her doing that.
On Jan 13 she messaged me “Hi Ali, just a friendly reminder that please make sure to wash your dishes after cooking. Don’t leave unwashed stuff overnight because this is a shared kitchen and we have to use the sinks in the morning. I had to wash your left-over stuff last night and the night before.”
The only thing we ever left was the rice cooker pot, we left it because we didn’t finish cooking until 1am and there was rice stuck to it so we cleaned everything and left it soaking in water and soap for me to clean when I wake up. I went up around noon to clean it and it wasn’t there. She was there in the kitchen as usual but never said a thing to me in person but sent me that annoying message later. The night prior we cooked pasta and I left it in the pot on the side of the stove, you never touched it. I ate the leftovers and cleaned the pot myself! No need to lie or accuse your guests of lying! Below are the message and judge for yourself:
Me:
“We washed everything except for the the rice pan from last night we will make sure not to use it again! It had rice suck to it and had to be soaked. There was nothing else left. I don’t believe you cleaned anything from the night before, that’s incorrect.
You got it. We will double check!
Anything else?”
The host:
“Belive or not is your right I don’t argue. As you said the rice pan was left unwashed the night before and a pot last night and I washed them in the morning. Checked with your wife whether she washed those 2 or not.”
Me:
“You are arguing right now and accusing us. You did not wash them. Them is for plural, there is no them. We left nothing unwashed except for the rice pan which had rice stuck on the bottom so we left it soaking in water to be easier to clean! As for the other pan that was from the night before my wife left pasta in it and left it covered on the stove over night the next day. I put it in box and washed the pot myself. I don’t see any problem with it. I don’t get you.
We don’t say anything when you had the dryer working past 10:30 pm right above our head, we don’t say anything or complain about not having time to share the kitchen and cook. We don’t complain about your little kid stamping his feet and jumping off the stairs onto the floor right above us.
I don’t understand you, you are two sided. In the beginning offered to take our clothes and wash them now you tell me I can’t use the detergent (no problem we will get our own detergent) even though we are only here for a few more days and will probably do laundry once or twice again.
I don’t understand why you are bothering us when we barley come up or make noise. We are trapped in the basement most of the