This was my worst experience in Airbnb and one of the worst experiences I have ever had staying somewhere (I travel a LOT since many years). I made a booking for this property for the 1st of January for 1 night for me, my sister and another 2 relatives (4 of us). The booking was indeed made for the same day, at around 15.00. I wrote a message when the booking was made informing we would arrive at around 20.00. I waited till after 18.00 and since there was no response I phoned. The host was surprised to hear from me and said she had not seen that a booking was made. She immediately informed that she could not host us as part of the property was occupied by her and recommended a cancellation. As the booking was done for the same day of staying, I would not have got any refund. Although it was her responsibility for the issue, she told me that she didn’t want to cancel from her end as this would look bad for her with Airbnb as a host and asked me to make the cancellation on my end she would unofficially refund me the money. Although I would have no guarantee if I was to cancel myself, I agreed to do it to help with her clear distress. We had started to make our back to another city on the island when she phoned us saying that she had made a mistake when she told us that the property was not available because she got confused with another property that she has in another town of the island and that the property we had booked was actually available (and ready) and if we were not to go, she would not refund the booking Despite the ‘kind warning’ from her and after discussion among us, we decided to spend the night at the house since we had anyway paid for it. I therefore told her that we would arrive at round 20.30-21.00. At around 20.15 I phoned saying we would be there in ~30-45 min. I phoned again at ~21.00 saying we were there. She asked us to go to a tavern to wait for her because she was at the house getting it prepared (had already told us at 18.30 it was ready for use!) We waited until about 22.00 when she arrived. We followed her to the house with our car. The house was in a location inside the fields with no light what so ever. We had to use our mobile phones to see. We walked in that house and:
-although since 18.30 she was telling us it was ready (and therefore we would lose the money if cancelled), the house was quite untidy
-the sink was full of unwashed dishes/glasses
-dirty and absolutely full of spider webs on every single wall
-strong smell of humidity and mold
-the house was freezing (in January)
To our question if there is hot water she responded: “I do not know, the house has a solar water heating system, although the weather is not good, I think there was some sunshine today in this area so I think there is hot water…” Note: the day was very rainy and cold and cloudy everywhere on the island
To our question on what heating the house has, she informed there is a small electric heater and we told her that this is completely inadequate for the size of the house in January. She also pointed to a wood heater. She lit the fire in the heater and a very strong smell of burnt paper came out. We asked where the wood is to keep the fire and she (shockingly!) responded that there was no wood in the house because wood is very expensive and she would have had to have a big booking first in order to have enough money to order wood. She encouraged us to "steal from the neighbor’ ourselves…!" That was the last straw; it was impossible (not healthy) to stay there. We complained to her (strongly) and left the property. She refused to refund us the money (formal communication took place via Airbnb) and even accused us of verbal attack (later, in written form) because we complained which was completely untrue, we just expressed our complete dissatisfaction about the condition of the house The property is rustic, simple and in the summer maybe ok to stay but it was completely unsuitable (unhealthy) for people to stay in winter, at least under the condition it was presented to us.