I arrived at this place after flying internationally. It was night time, pitch black and 0 degrees outside. My daughter and I tried to enter the apartment for 15 minutes and finally started texting the host that we could not enter. Because we had just arrived from the States phones were not working great and because of the extreme cold it was hard to use phones and receive information. I work in real estate rentals for a job and I am familiar with how locks work. We couldn't get it. Finally, after 20 minutes it opened. We went inside dropped our belongings and left for dinner. We had not gone 10 steps when we realized I had forgotten my purse. We turned around and tried to re-enter the apartment. Again, we could not get the door to open. The key was turning in the lock but door would not release.
We began texting the host again and he kept saying "we just needed to put the key in the hole and turn the key, pull door towards you and you are in." This problem was exacerbated by the extreme cold, darkness, lack of wifi/data connection and language. The texts would come in German part of the time. He continually texted back that no one has problems. We were clearly in distress and asked for help. He said he couldn't help us because the lock worked. We also called Air BNB and they said they would call us back in an hour - which they never did either. Finally, I exclaimed after not getting a response from him for over 10 minutes, Do I need to call the police? We literally did not know what to do and the neighborhood was completely dark. I finally get a response at this point.
He said, "Why police ? You have the keys and you can open your apartment".
Twice he says, "I can offer to check out today and get full refund , because i can not assist you two days long with every small things where nobody else need to be assisted," AND
"we never has this problems, if you dont like to stay here - you can contact airbnb and find another place , sorry . I can not help you where is nothing to help. I can not assist you two day long with every small things.
So you can leave if you dont like the apartment now today please and get the refund your money back, but please understand me , the door working normaly"
We were in disbelief as he claimed entering the apartment was a "small thing". Finally after 30+ minutes - which seems like an eternity when you are exhausted and freezing, he says there is a lower entrance... a cellar entrance. We do not know why we didn't see this in his earlier text, but think it is that it was at the bottom of the thread and again we were struggling with data connection. At this point we enter from lower entrance and gather our things and leave.
Then 2 days later he claims that we broke the lock. Again, I am in disbelief - how do you break a lock if you don't break the key in the lock? And the thing about things breaking is it just happens... phones stop working, cars, whatever, but you deal with it. The fact that he was ok with us in distress outside for such a long time and offering no solution or assistance is horrible. He also admits that the lock which he claimed was working - was in fact not working - and it was because we broke it. We did not break it, it simply was broken upon our arrival.
Then to make matters worse he changes his mind and refuses to give us our refund as he said he would. I have been on the phone with Air BNB and they keep saying they will help, but just sent me an email saying that the host refused to give us our money back. Air BNB has been absolutely no help even thou this guy says twice he will refund but then changed his mind. By the way, the whole downstairs also smells like sewage from the downstairs bathroom where the cellar entrance is. I think it is because neighbor washing machine right next to it.
This has been extremely stressful and time consuming. We learned many things and at the top of the list is using Air BNB is a total gamble .... if something goes wrong... you are on your own, and essentially too bad. Never say never, but I doubt I will ever use Air BNB again. If I did, I would make sure the host meets you and also speaks your language. We are now trying to work with the credit card company to get our money.
I would never recommend this place and also caution people using a service that does not help you in the event of host not keeping their end of the agreement. It is so traumatic to be treated this way and then to have the company - air bnb - to be so unavailable and unhelpful - as if hoping you will just lose the energy to deal with it and then problem goes away.