For the life of me, I can't give my stay a 3-star review for the following reasons:
First and foremost, here are the good points:
- Great communication (until you check out!). Anne is very responsive until it comes the time for the fulfillment of a refund offer.
- Great location - a stone's throw from nice stores and restaurants in the heart of the city.
Negative points:
- The cleanliness in the apartment is subpar. I stayed in hotels, aparthotels, motels in many countries in the past; this apartment is very likely one of the dirtiest ones I've stayed in.
- There was mold inside the shower room, mud outside the shower's door threshold (mixture of water and dirt left uncleaned).
- There was visible hair around the toilet bowl and seat (a bunch), most likely from previous tenants. This is unacceptable!
- There were crumbs on the plate inside the oven.
- There was visible dirt in many corners of the apartment, as well as hair balls falling and flying.
- The shower head didn't seem to work, not practical to shower kids.
- There was a hand wash bottle in the bathroom but it was empty.
- The towel bar was full of dirt.
- etc.
In this whole apartment, there was only one pan and it was not compatible with the cooking plates. The only thing that worked was a frying pan. The host took two days to finally explain that to us after many back-and-forth messages. As a result of that, we couldn't boil water for the kids for two days. Some refund for the inconvenience was offered but had never been fulfilled, along with a refund of 50% for the cleaning fee. The host had stopped replying to my messages regarding the refund after we checked out. That could potentially be unethical and a potential violation of Airbnb rules. I will report this to Airbnb.