DO NOT BOOK!!
I’m sure clients who actually get to stay here enjoyed their experience. My family was fully expecting to enjoy our week in Paris with this apartment as our home base.
Instead, upon our arrival in Paris, we got a ride to the Airbnb’s address and, after messaging the host that we had arrived, promptly received a notification that our stay had been CANCELLED. No other messages were sent, no explanation provided and no responses to my messages asking what had happened. We were effectively homeless in Paris with all of our luggage.
In our previous communication with the host, we had received an address for the Sweet Inn Office so we decided to walk with all of our luggage for the 30 min walk through the cobblestone streets of Paris to get to this office. It took closer to 45 minutes with our luggage and due to the fact that I am also recovering from hip surgery. When we arrived at the office, there were three people there. The first gentleman asked how he could help us, the other two did not acknowledge that we were even there.
When we explained our situation and asked for an explanation as to why our Airbnb was cancelled the gentleman essentially said “oh well, not really our problem.” Upon our pushing further, he eventually shared that the woman who was supposed to clean the apartment prior to our arrival never showed up. I said that we wouldn’t mind doing a later check in if they needed more time to get someone there to clean it. He said no, that they didn’t have ANYONE else who could clean. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe that this business couldn’t find a single person in the entire city of Paris capable of cleaning this apartment for a day.
Incredibly frustrated at this point, we asked what he suggest we do - reminder that this whole ordeal meant we had no place to stay for an entire week. He gruffly suggested we go find another apartment on Airbnb. And that he couldn’t help us because it was “not their problem anymore.” After continuing to express our frustrations with him, the man eventually called a hotel he used to work at and told us they said they MIGHT have a room available for us. But he couldn’t confirm so we had to go there on our own. He didn’t offer to help us confirm a room over the phone, he didn’t offer to help us get an Uber there with all our luggage, he just sent us back outside with all our stuff.
Beyond aggravated, we stepped outside and called Airbnb. They offered a refund for the stay and sent a list of other apartments, the majority of which were FAR outside our price range and all of which were outside of the city center, where we had planned to stay. We decided our best shot was to try and find a hotel and, considering that the man at the office did not sound confident we would be able to get a room, we called every hotel we could research within a walking distance and could not find a room anywhere. Mind you, at this point we had been traveling for nearly 16 hours. We were starving, exhausted and so incredibly disappointed.
After not being able to find a hotel, we put our bags and myself (still recovering from surgery) in a tiny Uber and drove the 25 minutes to the hotel that the man from the office used to work at. My family walked for twice that amount of time to get there. We were lucky enough to get one of their last rooms for the one night (at a higher nightly price than the Airbnb was purchased at) but would have to switch hotels in the morning.
We switched to a different hotel the next morning and are able to stay here for the rest of our trip. We are grateful to finally have a place to stay for our trip but we missed a FULL day and a half due to the ordeal. Not only did we have to skip our plans for our first day in Paris because we had to find a place to stay, but we also had to miss a full day tour we had booked for the second day because of having to switch hotels. This tour was non-refundable and cost us over $300. On top of the $100+ in car rides/ubers around the city to get to the initial Airbnb and then to the hotel, AND the additional expense of the hotels that were more expensive than the Airbnb we booked, we are out over $500 due to this whole situation. Beyond the money, these are two whole days of our first family trip since the beginning of the pandemic that were essentially written off due to the lack of care, customer service, and common sense from the host and Airbnb itself.
Amongst sharing all this info with AirBnB, they offered us $200 on top of the refund - a far cry from making up for all this, if you ask me. $200 does not compensate for two days of time and more than $500 of actual money. I have been a customer of Airbnb for years, as have many of friends, and I have never been treated like this before. However, it makes me question where the organization’s values truly are and I doubt the sincerity of their claims to help “anyone belong anywhere.” We certainly did not feel any sense of belonging for the first two days of our trip and have not felt the “humanity” that the company is supposedly known for.
I write this not only to express my frustration, but to warn other users to be aware of the potential risk you incur by booking through a platform like this or with this “super host.”Evidently,