This review is for those who are traveling to Rome by train mainly.
Every other type of travelers probably will have a better experience than us.
We had a pretty bad experience and we didn’t actually get to stay here. The host asked us day before what time we would arrive, because we were traveling by train from Florence, we checked on google maps to see how long the train ride would be (1.5 hrs). Based on that we estimated we would be at her place by noon, so that’s what we told her. At 10 am (day of travel) when we finally bought our tickets, our train actually had a stop off where we had to transfer trains adding about two hours to our trip. I let her know in that moment that we would actually be arriving around 2 pm and asked her to confirm that was okay with her. She said “that’s fine.” Now this is where the series of unfortunate events occurred. When we boarded the second train, it was having major issues but for some reason Trenitalia still ran it. We were stopping in the middle of nowhere literally every 10 min. The over-com kept saying that we’re stopped due to mechanical difficulties and said we were running 30 min behind schedule. The host actually reached out at about 1:30 pm and asked where we were, I let her know what was going on with the train. I was extremely apologetic. I honestly felt so bad! I hate being late to stuff, honestly it’s the worst feeling. She didn’t respond after that. Eventually, I think Trenitalia gave up on the train and actually had everyone get off the train and board a new one which set us behind another 30 min. At about 3 pm we communicated again what was going on. She asked how far we were and I panicked and found the closest person who can tell me how long it would take to get to Rome from where we were. I could sense she was upset from her messages. We were told we were only 10 min away however I knew that from the station we would still have to take a 15 min cab ride to the apartment. Again, I let her know this.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS BAD.
She said that she had been waiting for us since 12 pm (which I didn’t think was fair for her to say cuz we did let her know at 10 am that we would arrive closer to 2 pm, and she confirmed it was okay). She then said that if we weren’t going to arrive in the next 10 min she would have to charge us €15 for her to wait longer. She basically told us she has stuff to do and couldn’t wait around for us all day. I apologized immensely, and sent her $20 usd via Airbnb app. She didn’t respond to me after I sent the money.
We actually arrived to her place at 4 pm. I sent her a message when we got to the terminal and when we got into that taxi to keep her updated on where we were. Lastly, I sent her a text when we arrived. She responded 10 min later finally and told me she was far away from the apartment now. I asked her if we should wait outside for her and she responded (5 min later) saying no, we should go “around Rome” and we’ll figure out check in sometime later (didn’t specify a time). I asked her if there was somewhere we can leave our luggage meanwhile and she never respond to us after that.
We had 3 pieces of large luggage along with two small back packs. (Rome was our last stop of a 3 week long euro trip, we packed a lot) We really couldn’t go anywhere hauling all that luggage. We waited outside for about an hour before I contacted Airbnb and let them know what happened. They canceled the reservation for me and advised me to book another, so that’s what we did. We took another taxi to our new booking and that was that. I requested my money back from her and still haven’t received a response. Airbnb advised they haven’t been able to reach her either. The claim is still open and we can’t get anything resolved until Airbnb can get ahold of her.
I understand the train stuff was not her fault at all but at the end of the day, we paid. We were very communicative with her and even paid her to wait for us. I honestly don’t even know what to make of it. I’m just sad she thinks she didn’t do anything wrong.