My wife and I originally booked this apartment for a 4-month-stay. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our stay was shortened to 2.5 months. We would like to share our experience so that prospective renters know what they are getting into and could hopefully avoid the unpleasant experience that we have.

The apartment is alright, as you could tell from the photographs. It’s not that new and not that well-built but these wouldn’t be major problems if the property manager/host Stefan has been responsible and responsive. Unfortunately, he is neither and that presents some major inconveniences to any people who rents this place.

First of all, unlike other well-managed Airbnb properties that I have stayed at, Stefan does not provide a basic information sheet on both the house’s operation and the neighborhood. There’s nothing on wifi password and other household appliances. We figured those out later on our own. But there’s also nothing on how to operate the thermostat of the heating systems (for the apartment and a separate one for the bathroom). Apparently, Stefan doesn’t know too. That’s a hint of how little he knows about the properties he managed and cares about the well-being of people renting his properties.

Second of all, the apartment is not well maintained and, though quite new, already has a few problems—the freezer door of the fridge is broken, a few knobs of the dishwasher is missing, one of the faucets was loose, and a light bulb doesn’t work. These can be quite minor as they can be easily fixed IF the landlord or manager is around. But when Stefan was informed of them, he first denied that these are problems and he blamed us instead. He ignored the fact that things wear down if not properly maintained. And this apartment is definitely not properly cleaned and maintained because when we checked in, the electric water kettle was half-filled with dirty and stale water saturated with limescale. When Stefan was shown the photographs of these problems, he took ONE AND A HALF MONTHS to finally come to our apartment to fix them. He is apparently not based in Munich and he only comes in once in a while to the city for meetings. And the renter’s welfare is very low in his priority. You have to try to fit into the free time slots between his scheduled meetings. It is as if he's your client and you are providing a service to him and not the other way around. That’s why it took him ONE AND A HALF MONTHS to finally come to the apartment to fix these problems. So for those of you who intend to rent this place for a shorter period of time, good luck! You are unlikely to have your problems fixed and your grievances addressed during the duration of your stay.
Even after he came to the apartment, a few of the problems remained unresolved even by the end of our stay. He didn’t have the spare light bulb to replace the one that doesn’t work. So he ask us to buy one ourselves and install it! Be prepared to be Stefan’s handyman if you are to pay him to rent his apartment. And even when he promised to replace high stools for the dining counter (note this is not your regular dining table but an uncomfortably tall counter with bar stools) “soon” as one of them has a broken leg, he did not do so for the remaining month that we were there. Besides a broken high stool, there are also three rusty outdoor furniture in the balcony—two chairs and a table that are so rusty that if you sit on them, your clothes will be stained with rust. The bad choice of furniture and the decision not to replace them despite their state show how much the property manager could not care for the comfort and welfare of the renters.

The final straw in our very unpleasant stay was when the covid-19 pandemic broke out and the institution that I was attached to recommend that my wife and I leave for Singapore before Germany and Europe enter into a lock-down and travel ban in late March. I tried to talk to Stefan about the situation and suggested he allows us to change the dates so that we can end our rental period earlier. We understand that the pandemic is not something unexpected and neither of us should shoulder the responsibility so based on Airbnb’s current policies (formulated not for the crisis time of covid-19), we will pay for 30 extra days from the day we change our dates. After that change, we would only stay for about 1 week, so we are in fact paying for 3 more weeks that we are not staying. In that sense, the financial loss is borne by both parties—us and Stefan. However, Stefan refused to approve the changes we proposed. Instead, he delayed for another 7 days before telling us that we can cancel directly through Airbnb. When we cancelled, the 30-day policy applied too and as a result we paid for another extra 7 days even though we were leaving then. This just goes to show that Stefan is not only an irresponsible, absentee manager/host who does care about the comfort and welfare of his renters, he is also a greedy manager/host who is all too willing to exploit his renters.

Should you rent from such an irresponsible, greedy, and exploitative person? Obviously NOT as I am sure you can find many other much more responsible and fairer Airbnb hosts. For the sake of your well-being, I strongly advise anyone NOT to rent from this person. You should avoid him like the plague or, if you will, the coronavirus.