My worst Airbnb experience, ever.
It started with a disastrous checkin experience.
We followed the convoluted instructions for checkin but the keys were not in the indicated box. Actually that box was wide-open and empty….
So we called the number indicated - a fixed line with no possibility to use WhatsApp in case you only have a data plan. After a five minutes’ wait, someone picked up and asked us to knock on the flat’s door to check if the cleaning lady was still there (at 9 pm, really?). I did as instructed, called again and was then told to check under the doormat. I must have replied a bit abruptly (but who wouldn’t have when there’s no doormat to speak about in front of the door… and at 9 pm, you are blocking a rundown building entrance with your luggage, and your wife and 2 kids in tow are all cranky and tired from a long trip?) because the person asked me to lower my tone if I wanted to get the keys. To cut a long story short, we had a shouting match during which Charly (that’s his name) renewed his threats not to give us the keys (and even told me he had no clue how long it would take to send the keys to us as he’s not the Uber driver….).
Yes we did get the keys after a one hour wait but 1) I find such threats totally unacceptable knowing that you are hosting people, they have travelled from far and can’t enter the property at 9 pm 2) more disturbingly we felt unsafe knowing that someone had likely stolen the other set of keys.
We spent the next four days in fear as the host never contacted us to inform us what had happened to the missing set of keys. It’s only on the last day after repeated attempts by Airbnb to contact the owner (because we wanted to shorten our stay and go somewhere else) that we learned that apparently the cleaning lady had forgotten to place the keys in the required box. Oh, and of course, the flat owner denied our request to cut short our stay… But anyway it was already too late: our first family vacation in Paris post COVID had been definitely marred.
Of course it’s hard to remain objective with regards to the flat itself after such a horrendous checkin. I’d just say that:
- it’s been recently renovated (IKEA-style) and things tend to work.
- Although advertised as a 2-bedroom, it felt very small even though we were 2 adults + 2 kids.
- Due to the flat location in a ground-floor corner, there is very limited sunlight flowing in at any time of the day so that lights must be switched on at all times. As Paris was in a midst of heatwave, this was a saving grace (albeit the only one) but at other times, I certainly wouldn’t have liked it.
- There’s major renovation work ongoing in the building next door. Noise starts from 8 am.
- Finally the flat is in a rather rundown building (even by the standards of this Republique neighbourhood where I used to live)