AVOID THIS HOST - This is the first bad review we give after having traveled to four continents with Airbnb since 2014. We were treated with deception and lies. So much so, that Airbnb issued a credit for our next trip the same day we left this property. If you want to know the details read on.
We spent 9 days on Eleonora’s property and from the first day, there was no hot water. The property manager sent a plumber to review the situation and we were informed afterward that the issue would not be resolved for at least a week and suggested we opened a case with Airbnb to see if they could find us alternative accommodation. We were assigned a service representative as we wanted to move out immediately. There were no other places available in Rome on such short notice so we had no option but to stay.
The host offered us to refund 50% of all the nights we stayed without hot water and communicated this to AirBnB customer service.
We were super cooperative and understanding with our host:
- During our stay, we had to let the plumber into the property 3 times (delaying our plans for the day) to fix the boiler.
- We couldn’t sleep one night as the air conditioning was making constant noise that they had to come and fix. They sent someone to fix it
- We were asked daily if we could help with emptying a bucket of water they had on the balcony under the air conditioning so it wouldn’t bother their neighbors below.
When it was time for check out, we were still on the property when the cleaning lady arrived and we let her in while we were finishing up, picking up the usual, the kitchen and the trash, and some balloons we inflated as my son turned 14 while we were there. The cleaning lady took pictures of the dirty dishes, the balloons, and the trash while we were still there and sent them to the owner. On our way out, all was cleared but the pictures were already taken without us noticing.
After we left, I got a message from AirBnB saying that Eleonora claimed we had damaged the place, that apparently we had thrown a party, and that we had left trash and the kitchen dirty, so the host would no longer refund what she promised to compensate for the days without hot water. This was very troubling to us since we were being accused of something we did not do.
The following two weeks after we checked out, we had to constantly respond to messages from Eleonora trying to negotiate with us the amount of refund that she would provide by sending invoices of extra cleaning, extra laundering, and a wall repair that again we had nothing to do with. She keeps thinking that we care about the refund that she claims will be refunded conveniently after the review period is over, but we are more concerned about posting this review to avoid more guests being treated like us.
After all this ordeal, we are happy with AirBnB's response but very disappointed and frankly vexed with our experience with this host.