I made a booking a month for a week in Paris. On the day I booked I informed the host of the approximate time I will be arriving at (10:30 pm) which is not late for Paris. I was met with automatic messages from a concierge service asking me to use a different app to tell them what time I will be arriving so they can secure the access to the property. I was then also met with an automatic message sending me instructions that resembled the feeling of a treasure hunt curated by the DGSE to go to a different location to pick up the keys from some shop. I complied. 3 hours before my arrival the host changed all these directions as they were (not aware) of my arrival and that it was too late for the first location of the keys so they had to move them (they have known when I will be arriving 3 weeks in advance).
The host refused to compensate me for this last minute change, however due to the nature of the area, I had to go take another taxi to a different location with a different set of instruction to pick up they keys and return to the apartment which costed me an additional 50 Euros.
When I finally finished playing spy treasure hunt for this concierge service; I returned to the apartment to be faced with the reality that they just left me the WRONG key which was not opening the apartment. When I called the concierge service the host was extremely rude and implied that I was an idiot who didn’t know how to use the keys up until they finally confirmed from their cleaners that they left the wrong key. Their solution was for me to cancel the booking or call airbnb, because they do not have anyone who can come and give me the right keys. Their rudeness extended to the degree whereby they understood that I was stuck in Paris alone without any place to stay and at the time when i went back and forth to the apartment it was almost 2 am in Paris in an area that is not extremely safe, and yet rudely asked me to return the WRONG keys at 2 am to the place i picked it up from.
Thankfully Diane from Airbnb saved my life.
And now the host want their keys, and is not willing to inconvenience themselves to get what is theirs but instead they are harassing me with threatening to call the police and report the keys as stolen. I have told the host when I will be available and for them to contact me on their way. I will no longer inconvenience myself even for a single second for these people.
My life was in danger the first night, due to their lack of responsibility i was faced with many racial slurs in the area due to me being stuck on the street and at some point my life was in danger up until two kind Egyptian and Algerian strangers helped me out.
I finally got to a hotel at 4 am and went to a different airbnb the next morning.
This has caused me to go into my interview extremely fatigued and disoriented, the host made no effort to go out of their way to help me in any way even though I offered to go to the cleaners to pick the right key, they responded with absolute disregard.
Now that they want the keys that are technically not theirs they have suddenly become extremely sweet but then when i tell them I am not available during the day, they proceed to threaten me with calling the police. I have again compromised this morning (Friday 10th of June) and told them I am available between 8-11 am for them to send someone to pick up the keys. Otherwise I will only be available after 10pm from sunday til I leave on thursday 14th of June.
As I said earlier, I will not move an inch from where I am again for these people, I gave them the location for this morning to come pick it up. If they do not come today they will have to wait until Sunday.
I am extremely upset with this treatment and harassment especially after my life was put in danger due to their incompetence, now we do things on my time, otherwise if they cannot submit to some inconvenience they will be the ones who did not make enough effort to get back what is theirs and I will leave Paris with them just constantly shouting at me without any proper solution.
I am in Paris with an extremely busy schedule and I cannot send them the location of where I will be during the day because I am in long meetings until 10pm. This is a MAJOR inconvenience for me, I have spent a lot of money due to their incompetence and they have been nothing short of horrible.