As a former host, I am very hesitant to write a less than perfect review, but our experience in this loft just did not live up to our expectations, especially for the price. The design of the loft and the art were stunning, and there was lots of space and privacy.
Unfortunately, that’s all I can compliment. When we got there, the house keeper let us in and showed us a few things however she spoke no English and so it was not possible to really understand what she was trying to tell us. We tried consulting the house manual but it was very unclear, and the suggestions for “where to go” were not local spots, but tourist locations everyone in the world knows about. The bedrooms are all interior rooms with no true exterior windows to the outside. The only windows in the rooms are to the interior of the loft. When it got hot in the room we were staying in the only thing we could do was turn on the fan, which didn’t help much. (Note: the master bedroom does have an A/C unit but I was told it was very loud.) Additionally, the loft smelled of sewage. We did not complain about this because I know it’s common in some countries, however once we went to our next location in France (which was also a very old building) and it didn’t smell, I realized I should have complained. There were no essentials like shampoo, conditioner, robes, etc. and no extra towels anywhere that we could find. I would have asked the host about this but when I messaged with another question regarding where trash bags were I was told to reach out to the cleaning person who never responded to me so I didn’t bother asking for something else.
But the very worst part was that we were in a rush to leave and we left our suit and dress for the wedding we were attending at the loft. We realized as soon as we got to the train station and messaged the host apologizing profusely (understanding this was our mistake) and telling him we would pay for both overnight shipping and the person who shipped it’s time if he could please help us get it back on time for my brother’s wedding. The host was unresponsive for hours, and when we finally got him on the phone he told our friend who spoke French that the housekeeper who watches the loft refused to send it on a weekend. (We were under the impression his English speaking assistant lived in Paris and would help us with anything we needed, but she is actually in Spain and was completely MIA during this whole conversation.) We researched a place right by the apartment where she could go send it, and made it incredibly easy for her, but at that point the host, his assistant, and his cleaning lady, all stopped responding to our messages. We spoke to Airbnb who also confirmed they could not get in touch with the host, and we did not get response until after the wedding. We both ended up having to wear jeans to a formal wedding. We did end up getting our clothes back on our way back through Paris, but coordinating the pick up was a real hassle. Again as a former host, I would have gone above and beyond to ensure someone who was paying me this much got their clothes back in time for the wedding, but they just really didn’t seem to care much about service or ensuring our happiness. It’s a shame. We come to France often and would have loved to book again.