I love Airbnb and use it almost exclusively when I travel. I’ve stayed at some great places and I’ve never had a disappointing experience yet. Until now.
I booked my stay at Constance’s because of her good reviews and proximity and price. I traveled to Paris with my husband and we were looking forward to another nice stay. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that.
When we arrived at Constance’s (jetlagged and a little travel weary) we made our way up the narrow stairs to her apartment. As it turned out, the stairs and hallways of her entire building were being painted. The fumes from the solvents or oil based paint they were using were overpowering. It was impossible to walk up the two flights with luggage and not get paint on my clothes. So it goes, we thought. Now, I understand that the painting was beyond her control, but a quick heads up during the several texts we exchanged that morning would have been a common courtesy. We were so tired that we went ahead and checked in. A few hours later, we were both suffering from headaches from the fumes, and it was clear that the painters were going to be there for more than just a day.
Constance was friendly, she showed us her apartment and she quickly left. We opened the windows on a cold 40 degree day to let out the fumes and unpacked and ate and tried to go to bed. We noticed a faint cat urine smell in the bedroom. Exhausted, we tried to sleep. The next day, the cat pee smell was more evident. That’s when I took a better whiff and realized it was coming from the mattress we had just been sleeping on! There was a cat bowl in the apartment, a scratching post, some tufts of cat hair. Now, I like cats, but this was just too much. We checked out and spent hours trying to find another place on such short notice. We ended paying much more and staying further from where we needed to be.
I wish things had turned out differently, but I can’t recommend Constance’s place. It was a pretty terrible experience altogether.