I was disappointed by my interactions with the host Jonathan regarding issues we had with the apartment. I have used Airbnb extensively in the USA and internationally and have never had to write a negative review before regarding a host. The issue we had was that shortly after check in, we realized that the air conditioner in the living room was not functioning- was blowing air but not cooling (there is a AC in the living room and a separate one in the bedroom). I let Jonathan know immediately. While he did respond quickly, his responses did not help correct the problem (he asked if it was in the right mode- it was, he asked for picture of the thermostat- we sent, he said multiple times he'd have “his agent” look into it- the agent never came that we could tell). Fortunately, the unit in the bedroom was working otherwise we would have checked out. We had to pull the drapes to keep the sun from heating the apartment and essentially could not comfortably use over 50% of the apartment that did not have a functioning AC and was nearly 80 degrees F which was quite frustrating given that we sought out an Airbnb specifically that had AC (not super common in Paris) for our comfort.
Jonathan did not seem to understand the importance of the problem, or any ability to problem solve the issue. I gave it the first 2 days (Saturday/Sunday) as benefit of the doubt being the weekend, but it continued to go unresolved on Monday and Tuesday. Despite knowing we checked out at 7am on Wednesday, he messaged me later in the AM telling us to switch off the power to the AC in the breaker box (which is not something I should have to do as the guest). His follow up on this issue was very lacking.
Additionally, I noted to him that we had noticed that at night there were a significant number of ants along the baseboards in 2 of the rooms and we had to kill countless ants (at least 50+) there each night (seemed to not be much of an issue during the day), but he never responded to that issue at all.
Ultimately, I submitted a request through Airbnb for partial refund of 25% given this issue affected over half of the apartment and persisted for the duration of our stay. He did not respond to this request so I got Airbnb support involved. Jonathan then responded to me about the problem but made no mention of the refund request, so I messaged him directly that I had submitted a request. He countered my request with a lower offer, which I did not feel was reasonable and decided to let Airbnb decide. They ultimately decided that a 30% refund (even higher than I requested) was warranted and I was granted this refund by virtue of Airbnb’s direct involvement.
It is a shame that this all was not more adequately addressed by the host because the unit itself it beautifully appointed, spacious, and extremely well located- within 5 minute walk of 2 different Metro stations and 8 minute walk to Chatlet/Les Halles where you can access multiple Metro lines and RER A and RER B. If everything were functional and there were no issues, I'm sure that this Airbnb experience would be wonderful for most people, however I have serious doubts about the hosts ability to handle any issues that arise during the stay.