Now I cannot fault the accommodation or the location. What I can complain about is the lack of professionalism and heart the owners of this property.
We stayed at the property for 4 nights with no problem. Our last night was the same as the other nights. We stayed in and cooked dinner. I went out around 7:30pm to buy what we needed for dinner. We had dinner around 10pm and we got our bags ready as we had a flight to take the following day. The bags including our handbags was left in the lounge room. My daughter and I slept on the sofa bed in the lounge room and my mum and son slept in the bedroom. We went to bed around about midnight and made sure the door was locked before going to sleep. There is only one lock. No chain or hooks from the inside. My mum woke up around 6am and noticed the door was unlocked but thought nothing of it. We left the apartment at 11am and proceed to the reception area to check out. We left our luggage at reception and went to the close by cafe to have breakfast and that’s when we realised that we have been robbed. My mum panicked and we all went back to the apartment to notify the owners.
My mum informed them that we have been robbed during the night and the person that has a key to the room was the cleaner. Because we didn’t notice any damage to the door we thought that whoever stole from us must had a key. The owners would not listen to us. When we asked them to call the police they told us that the police does not go to the property but we will need to catch a taxi to the police station. The person who I was conversing to on WhatsApp by the name of Melena also told us to catch a taxi and to go to the police station. We were shocked by how they were treating us. They ignored us and continued to clean the apartments while we were seating in front of reception. They did not even offered to take us to the police station. We did not have any money for the taxi. We messaged Melena if they could take us to the police station and they did. We later found out from the Police that the owners should know the procedure when a crime has been committed that they needed to contact the police and the police will go to the property.
We explained to Melena through AirBNB messages that she needs to interview all their staff that had access to the keys to the apartment and to conduct their own investigation. Because money and jewellers has been stolen. She accused us for insurance fraud. That we were only doing this because we want to claim it on insurance. Little does she know our insurance policy does not even cover cash theft!!! Such accusation is absurd. Why would we put ourselves through stress? They won’t accept the fact that a crime happened on their property and that they need to take safety measures such as installing CCTV, put more locks on the doors or ensure spare keys of the rooms are out of reach from criminals to avoid such crime in happening again.
Melena question why my mum carried so much cash. I told her my mum is old and likes to carry cash when she travels. That’s her preference. She said why we didn’t put our cash in the safe. I thought cash are put in the safe when the people are out and about not when they are in the room, ready to leave the following day.
The owners lack professionalism, concern and empathy. Accusing us for insurance fraud. Wow!! That’s how they solve issues by turning it around on their guests who has been a victim of crime.
Future guests... sleep with one eye open. Because if you get robbed they are not going to help you. A simple phone call to the police they won’t even do for you. You’re basically on your own.