This was probably one of the worst air bnb experiences we had. We had a late arriving flight to Athens (landing 9.30pm) and so I specifically looked for apartments that did not have a restricted check-in time. Unlike other apartments which had a check-in time frame (like 3pm-8pm), Zain’s apartment was listed as check-in from 3pm. I still messaged prior to booking to ask if an 11pm check-in was okay and I was told this was no problem and so proceeded to book the room.
I received no further messages (normally hosts ask flight and traveller details etc.) and three days prior to the flight, I messaged him if he needed any info from us. He did not respond and 24 hrs before the flight, simply asked what time we’d get there.
Unfortunately on the day of the flight, our plane was delayed by 2 hours. I let Zain know prior to boarding the flight that it would be late. I received no response. Again unlike other hosts, Zain did not request our flight details so he was not able to keep track of our flight while we are in the air.
We landed around 10.40pm and updated him again that we were late due to the flight but were on the way. I then received a message saying “be earlier please”. He did not seem to understand that we literally can not get there by the original time discussed. Despite trying our best to get there as fast as possible, around 11.50pm when we are two stops from his place, we got an annoyed call from the host telling us they’ve been waiting ages for us and his friend who would check us in, wants to go home. My husband tried again to explain our situation but he was just unsympathetic and rude in response. He had no sympathy for the fact the flight delay was not within our control nor any patience for us trying to navigate ourselves in a foreign country.
Panicking we then jump in a taxi and ten minutes later I receive messages saying can we check-in in the morning (despite knowing we are a few minutes for the apartment). Again he did not seem to care that we’d be left stranded without a place to stay in the middle of the night. When we finally got ourselves to the apartment (12.30am), Zain’s friend is waiting for us. We are greeted quite coldly with a “I waited two hours for you”. We explained the flight was delayed and we had updated Zain as we travelled. It then transpired that Zain did not inform his friend we were late at all. His friend then took us to the room- we were told wifi is on the router and were handed a bunch of keys, before he left. The wifi on the router was not the correct option and we were left with no instructions. I later found wifi instructions on the airbnb app. There was also no instructions for air con either.
Other than that, we weren’t provided with enough toilet paper to last our trip (we did ask for more but didnt get a response). The wifi was quite bad, it sometimes wouldn’t work at all (although this seems to be a common problem in Greece). The toilet had a pretty bad odour and we also had an ant infestation on the last day as a trail of crisps crumbs were left behind the bed from a previous booking. On the plus side, the location of the apartment is pretty good and the rest of the apartment is quite nice and secure.
I wouldnt not recommend this place especially if you have a late flight. The host made us feel extremely anxious and upset from the first hour we landed. The host does not communicate well and is quite unorganised with his bookings. We only had a short stay and his behaviour with us put quite a damper on our trip.