Things started out pretty well with Sarka, but ended horribly. When I arrived in Prague Sarka was very helpful with me in navigating the public transportation system to arrive at the apartment. I must have gotten off at the wrong subway station. She was nice and pleasant when greeting me and the apartment was as advertised, not perfect but fair for the price. There is a tram station right out front, literally 25 feet from your second-story window, just like in the pictures. At first, this seemed very convenient for traveling around the city, but the unit does not have air conditioning. So during the summer, you are left with two choices while trying to sleep, sleep in a suffocating hot room or sleep with all of the noise of a tram every two minutes. The trams are constant! It was very difficult to get a good nights rest when I was there. I cannot stress this enough when you have the windows open you cannot even talk on the phone as it so noisy. I regretted renting the place after the first night! If you stay when it is cooler outside I am sure this is not an issue as the windows do a good job blocking the noise. There is also a ton of dust and crud that comes in from all of the street activity. So if you have allergies be aware.
Then about halfway through my visit, the hot water went out. I contacted Sarka (the first time since I had been there 2.5 weeks) notifying her of the situation and she knew it was out and could care less. She actually suggested that I go to a local pool! When I asked for a partial refund she would not even reply. She thought I was rude to be contacting her as she was on vacation, which I find very convenient that she was on vacation at the same time the hot water was out. I suspect this was schedule maintenance and she knew the hot water would be out. If you search prior comments, this is not the first time maintenance was being done on the hot water in the month of July. I contacted Airbnb to resolve the issue and they told me that they needed to contact the host and get her side of the story before anything could be done, even though I had messages from Sarka to prove the situation. I was very frustrated with the level of support I was getting from Airbnb. I was on the phone with them constantly, wasting all of my time. They had to follow the procedure. Sarka took her sweet time replying. Airbnb had to issue her a warning, then she finally reply and confirmed the situation. She told me she would only issue a refund if Airbnb made her. She said I was being the difficult one, and no hot water was not an issue. I would like to add that hot water is not a life-threatening ordeal or anything. I have traveled the world and stayed at places that barely had water, let alone hot water. The point is I paid for a place with hot water and deserved a partial refund as the services were not being rendered.
After Airbnb received her reply, they set me up at another place at their cost. They made Sarka refund the remaining amount of my stay plus a fee for the days with no hot water. In the end, I was happy with how Airbnb treated me and handled the situation, it just took too long. I was without hot water for three days. Sarka seemed like a nice host at first. When the hot water went out, her true colors came out. She is not interested in her guests having a good experience, only that she gets her money. I understand this is a business but there is a happy medium to the business and treating your guests right. If the hot water did not go out I am sure I would be writing a more neutral review. I would have to mention the noise factor but that is as advertised in the write-up. I learned my lesson, that was my fault. A tram right out front is not a good thing! I am shocked that all of the comments do not mention this. I also want to add that I have had nothing but positive reviews as a guest. I have had issues with past Airbnbs but the host was responsive and understanding and we easily came to a resolution without involving Airbnb. I find this whole situation very unfortunate and something that could have easily been avoided if Sarka was a reasonable person, she is not.