When we first got to Rome I wrote to Omar to ask what the check in details were as we had not yet received anything and were on our way. He was quick to respond and indicated that we would need to go to a near by café and tell the host that we were there to pick up keys. They provided us keys and showed us the door to enter. After a few minutes of us all trying to make the keys work I wrote to Omar, who again was quick to respond. He indicated that we just needed to play with the keys a bit and that it should work. Unfortunately for us at this time it started to rain. I look at the address again and realized it was at a different location from where the host at the café sent us so we quickly ran over to the proper location. These keys provided us access to the lobby but next we needed to find the actual unit. Again Omar was quick to respond but it would have been easier if we were provided details in advance so we did not need to keep writing each step of the way.

The listing indicated that there were no security cameras on site but when we arrived there was a camera in the unit. This made us all a little uncomfortable, especially my mother-in law. We asked about the camera and Omar indicated that it was not hooked up or recording – we could only take his word for it.

One of the first things we noticed was how hot the apartment was. The listing did indicate that there was AC, which there appeared to be AC units but they were either not working or not nearly powerful enough for the large apartment. Also the ceilings were really high so we couldn’t reach them to check if they were actually blowing cool air. Most of our trip we did not have access to AC so when we booked this place we really were looking forward to having some AC but that was not the case.

Overall the unit was not very clean. There were large hairballs on the floor, the showers were dirty and there was some sort of brown food/liquid frozen on the inside of the freezer.

The listing indicated that there was breakfast included, but this was not the case, I am not certain if this has since been updated on the listing or not. We wanted to have a few quick meals in the unit so we bought a few groceries. We were unable to get the stove working – Omar said it was working and provided us instructions on how to make it work but between four adults we were not able to turn it on so we were not able to make some of the meals we planned and threw out those items. The first meal we did make we ended up losing because the top of the dining room table was broken and when we placed our items on the table the top flipped up and everything fell to the floor.

We reviewed the comments before booking and one person indicated that the light in the bathroom was not working, which I assumed it would have been fixed but this is not the case. It was not a light bulb burnt out but instead the light would flicker and then quickly turn off. There were no windows in the bathroom so we ended up showering and using the washroom in the dark or with our phones. We notified Omar after the first day but it still was not fixed.

The listing indicated that checkout was at 11:00AM but at 10:00AM we had a knock on the door. My mother in-law answered and there was a women there saying it was time to leave and she was there to clean. I showed her the booking on the app indicating that it was 11:00AM and she ignored me and said she was calling Omar and then turned her back to us.

We were only staying for two nights so there was not a lot of opportunity to have the issues resolved. We did try to have the issues resolved after the first night by using the partial refund request, which Air BNB recommended we do. Omar was defensive that we did this (though Air BNB suggested we use that method) and said we should have asked him to fix the issues. We were really uncomfortable in trying to have the issues addressed and accused of just trying to get a refund. Eventually Omar said that he would refund the cleaning fee and taxes but asked that we provided banking information for the refund, which we were uncomfortable doing and Air BNB recommends against as they have secure features within the app to do that. Eventually after going through Air BNB we received a small refund.

Overall it was a bad experience. There were a number of issues, and by trying to have them addressed it accomplished nothing and presumably we will be rated low as guests simply for trying to address the significant concerns that we had. This place has a lot of potential but really needs a lot of work before I would recommend it to anyone on Air BNB – it felt more like an over priced hostel that one would go to for a quick nights sleep.