STAY AWAY!! No heat, rodents and uncaring inhospitable hosts!!
We arrived to our flat in the afternoon on Saturday. The host told us that they would not be there to check us in and would leave the keys in the flower pot. I let him know that was not a problem. We are experienced Airbnbers as well as hosts so self check in is never a problem for me us.
I asked him to make sure the heat was on when we arrived as I knew it would be cold in Lyon. He assured us it would be.
At our arrival we did a quick glance and left our luggage to explore the city and have dinner. After dinner, as I had not heard from our hosts, I sent a message via Airbnb to let them know we arrived and all looked good. On return to the flat at about 9pm we immediately found the apartment to be extremely cold. We checked the heaters and they were ice cold. We contacted the host and they said they could not do anything about it until they returned the following day at 6pm since they were out of town. The temps were 40F/7C and the bedroom is the coldest place in the flat. Since it never gets any sun and has a wall of stone it retains the cold making the bedroom the coldest room in the flat. We both had pneumonia a few months back and contemplated leaving but we were exhausted after a long day of travel and as it was late, we grabbed every blanket we could find and went to bed. It was a rough night and we hardly slept because of the cold. The next morning the temps were worse as we soon discovered that from 5am to about 9am is when Lyon was at its coldest.
Again we called the hosts to ask if perhaps they could walk us through what they were going to do to turn it on. But in a very matter of fact tone they said it was too complicated and we would have to wait for them to arrive after 6pm.
So we decided to unpack and make the best of it. We had an important dinner for that evening and my husband had to iron his shirt and I my dress. We found a small ironing board but no iron. When we messaged them again via Airbnb they said the last one broke and they did not replace it but would bring an iron when they arrive that night. I said we needed it before then and that I could buy one and they reimburse us. She said no and would drop off her iron at 6pm. We left at 7pm with wrinkled clothes and no iron was left that night when they finally came to turn in the heat.
On Monday she came with a brand new iron. At that time I let her know that my cousin who lives in Spain was coming for 2 nights the next day. Below is his flight details. She immediately said that was an extra 25 euros per day. I reminded her that we had no heat for our first 2 days and night and to let’s call it a wash. She said the rules are the rules. I said ok I don’t have a problem paying for my cousin and will discuss with Airbnb my refund for no heat. She asked for cash and I told her that is not allowed with Airbnb and I would send via their website resolution center.
I asked for an extra towel and sheets for the bed for my cousin. She acted as if I did something wrong and was bothering her even though I was upfront with her. She was unpleasant but gave me the items. I then asked for an extra bath rug as one small one was not enough with that shower where water goes everywhere. That put her over the edge and she returned with the item and slammed the door to the apartment. I thought ok perhaps she had a bad day. So immediately sent payment for my cousin’s 2 night stay via the Resolution Center. As a host I understand that if they charge for extra persons I have no problem paying.
They gave us one bath and one hand towel each for our 8 night stay. We host guests in our Airbnb as well and always leave 3 bath towels per person on an 8 night stay. I thought perhaps it’s a French thing but our friends from Lyon said that is not correct and they should have given more.
Thinking that perhaps it was a lost in translation incident I decided to send an email to the host who is the husband via Airbnb, that I have no problem paying for my cousin as it is in the listing description. However I felt it was only fair that we get reimbursement of some sort for no heat for the first 29 hours of our stay. I reminded him that we specifically requested the heat be on because we are very sensitive to the heat as we both had pneumonia recently.
They quickly replied that they live next door and that it was not that cold, and that they have not turned the heat on in over a year and that they did not agree with any reimbursement. I was shocked at their uncaring response. I then sent them a screen shot with the temperatures for Saturday and Sunday to document that it had been very cold. Mind you my husband got a head cold for the entire stay due to their uncaring and selfish actions. We tried to make the best of it as we are on vacation and did not want the bitterness these hosts portrayed to affect our perception of other people from Lyon who we found very sweet.
The flat is in a central