Do not book with OpenFlats unless you want to be highly inconvenienced.
Problems began when we arrived in Paris at 8pm. Picking up our key from the “key Cafe” box inside a supermarket. The key wasn’t there. It had been misplaced by them. Leading us to waste a night getting taxis around Paris to stay in another apartment which we didn’t book. Open flats then promised they would get the key for the apartment we booked to us the next morning before 10AM the next day. Didn’t happen. We were waiting until 12pm. Wasting yet another morning of our short trip. Finally, getting our keys to the apartment we booked (which actually was quite nice if it wasn’t massively overshadowed by the amount of rudeness from openflats staff and time wasted in Paris) we notice the shower glass was hanging off its hinge which was incredibly dangerous. Regardless my boyfriend took this down just incase it did smash and shatter into a million pieces, knowing the agency would charge us and deduct this from the €500 deposit they asked us to pay in exchange for the instructions to get the key fob. (They originally asked us for €800 ….). I’m addition, we were unable to be refunded for the first night we didn’t stay at the flat we booked, regardless of all the issues. OpenFlats also promised to refund us for the Taxis we used getting ourselves across Paris to find the keys, let’s see if that happens.
On the final day we tried to return the keys to the key cafe and shock; the box didn’t work! we didn’t want to leave them in the apartment (as we wouldn’t be able to lock it behind us) or leave them in the supermarket where the key box is. We decided to take the keys with us until open flats returned the many calls we left with them. An extremely rude lady called back and insisted we returned the key back to the apartment or they would deduct this from the deposit. We had a train to catch back to london and didn’t want open flats to affect our holiday even more than they already have. They sent an employee to where we were eating lunch to retrieve the key which was the most ideal solution.
The experience with this booking really negatively overshadowed our trip, knowing that the agency behind air bnb really held all the cards to be able to charge us for anything they wanted. The apartments were not up to scratch and most things were already previously damaged. But that is your word against theirs.
Please please please learn from our experience and read the other reviews and do not book through this agency. Also bring an iron, it’s broken and drenched my boyfriends shirt :)