What Nightmares Are Made Of ...
This was the worst experience of my entire life, from start to finish. I booked a stay in this apartment from Aug 28 - Oct 2 to facilitate my move to Paris for study. The host Carline bullied me and forced me to leave because I had fallen asleep with a lamp on.
The first red flag was when she sent me a derrogatory message when I requested to stay, questioning whether or not I was a woman and demanding that I confirm this and making remarks about my name. I was insulted however, as a 23 year old student, my income is very limited so I decided to proceed based on the price.
On the day of my arrival in Paris, I had been sending Carline updates throughout the day in order to organise checking in at her place. I became very concerned when I realised I wasnt receiving any responses. In the taxi from the airport I became very anxious and asked her if she could send her phone number. This was her first response to me all day, no hello, no sentence, just the number.
So, I called. No answer. Then I texted. No answer.
In terms of location, it is not exactly the safest so needless to say when I realised I was 2 minutes away and that I would be there standing on the side of my street with my suitcases at 12am I became extremely alarmed. Just as the car pulled up, she said she was coming thorugh text. No greeting from her just started walking expecting me to follow her. I totally understand that with all travelling there will always be some degree of a communication issue but you know what a smile is internationally recognised.
The lift in the building starts after the first full flight of stairs and is in the middle of the stairs so I had to carry my extemely heavy lugagge up them to get to the lift and then down half a flight of stairs to reach the apartment. It wasn't easy for me to do but what made it worse was her agressively whispering at me again and again to be quiet and stop making noise. That was just a complete impossibiltiy and made me so uncomfortable.
Inside the apartment, she gestures towards the room to the right and says its mine, gives me a key and then goes to her room. No information, no tour of the apartment, no guidelines, nothing. Once inside, I realsied the room looked different but after countless hours of travelling this wasnt going to stop me from falling on to the bed.
The next day i didnt see her. It felt really strange not having had any tour of the place because then I felt unsure of what exactly I was allowed to use or where I should keep some of my things in the bathroom and kitchen.
The room I was given was not the bedroom from the picture. It was clearly the living space of the apartment but it had a proper bed and a wardrobe so I didn't mind. What did bother me was the smell in the room. It smelled strange, like a fishy drainy type of smell. I kept the windows fully open at all times to help with this. There was also some rubbish left in the room and all the blankets and bedding looked like they were about 20 years old.
I didn't complain about any of this to Carline, not wanting to cause any problems.
My third night there, I was in the middle of a conversation on the phone when I heard a knock on my door. Carline was there to tell me how to queitly open and close the door. I was so insulted as she literally demonstating open the door, going outisde, closing the door and opening it again. "I dont like any noise". I can asure you that I am a normal and respectful person and i certainly wasnt going around slamming doors by any means. I thought this was so strange and so condescening. She also demonstated for me how I should walk correctly in the appartment.
On the tips of my toes.
I think that moment said a lot and I should have made a run for it then.
A couple nights after that, when passing in the hallway late at night she stopped me to tell me I need to eat fruit. That she has seen the fridge and gave me a disguted look. More fruit okay. I was so embarrassed and confused. I just tried to laugh it off even though she was completely serious.
After that, I hadnt seen Carline in days and I thought everything was normal.
On my 10th day there, I woke up to a text message from Carline. She tells me that she has decided that I need to leave because I didnt turn off the light and this is abuse. She continues to say that I must not watch the news because there is war and electricity is expensive. She says that this behaviour is unacceptable and she is calling Airbnb.
What a text to wake up to. I started shaking in bed. I have no friends or family in Paris, what was I supposed to do, all accomodation was booked or astronmically expensive. I just couldnt believe it. All because I had left a small table lamp on after falling asleep from exhaustion. Curiously, I remember that I didnt turn off the light, I didnt even change my clothes that night, however when I woke up the light was off. I could have apoligsed, we could have spoken about it but no. Just get out.
Thus ensued 8 days of spending all my spare time looking for another place to live and contacting airbnb support. I was only allowed to stay there until I found a place under the condition that