Here is our advice on Fred and his Airbnb location:
(1) Read all of his negative reviews carefully. You’ll find a pattern.
(2) Do not book here in the summer. Period. While relatively cheap and in the heart of the tourist district, the interior of this location gets very hot and receives very little breeze as it’s on a short block, bounded by other buildings of equal height. In addition, the sun shines directly into the apartment in the afternoons. When we arrived, it was 96F plus degrees outside, even hotter indoors. We contacted Fred and requested a fan. Staying in the apartment without one was intolerable. He refused to provide it.
(3) Therefore, don’t expect any amenities from Fred. Again, shortly after arriving, I decided to take a cold shower, due to the heat. There was no soap. We contacted Fred once more. He replied that, because he doesn’t state explicitly on Airbnb that he provides bath soap, he wasn’t required to and suggested we go to a nearby grocery and buy some. Likewise, Fred advertises that he has a Nespresso machine, implying thereby that he also provides the Nespresso coffee modules. Not so. We have stayed in 18 Airbnb accommodations throughout the US and Europe in the past two years. Fred is the only host we’ve had so far who provides a coffee maker but not the coffee to go with it. Again, he suggested we go to the store to buy some. Fred, in fact, is not a host but a manager of more than one apartment-turned-Airbnb in Paris. Simply put, in spite of Fred’s quirky account page profile picture, don’t expect the same kind of salutary treatment from him that one customarily receives from an Airbnb provider.
(4) Don’t expect the apartment to be ready when you arrive. We arrived promptly at check in time after a long day of travel. The housekeeper was still cleaning. As the bed sheets hadn’t been washed yet and as the apartment was too small to stay in with the housekeeper moving about, we left and came back two hours later, just as she was finishing up.
We were booked into Fred’s apartment for four nights. We stayed two because it took us that long (liaising with the Airbnb support team, not Fred, who we never heard from again) to cancel those nights remaining without having to pay for them. We are still in conversation with Airbnb about a full refund for the two miserable nights we did spend there.
In summary, then, if Fred doesn’t explicitly state that he’s providing a service or amenity on his Airbnb account page, don’t expect it to be in the apartment–and don’t expect him to do anything about it. In addition, don’t expect him to be an accommodating host if you have any problems. Finally, don’t stay at this location in the summer unless you’re willing to put up with the heat with no means of circulating the air with a fan.