My mother, my sister and I have booked a flat through Airbnb for a vacation in Rome, Italy. We have chosen Airbnb for the pure reason of finding something individual, local and unique, something that suited our budget and needs.
We have found Mirko’s flat at a reasonable price and a great location. We have been asked to pay a deposit, which we have paid before hand, then the rest was left to be paid later on, on May, which we have paid on the date we were asked to.
Before the 17th June (a night before the date my mother, my sister and I were arriving in Roma, Italy) I received an Airbnb message from Mirko saying that his flat got flooded. After I talked to him, stressed and worried of the situation, I have asked Mirko to send me a few pictures of the flooded flat. All he has done was sent me a ‘?’ (question mark) ... I wanted to see if that was true and I was not just ripped off or lied upon. He has not sent me any pictures whatsoever.
He has assured me though that he has found an alternative flat where all three of us could spend the next 10 days in. That was very realiving, it was as if someone took a stone off my heart.
Next day, in Rome, he has sent me the address and we got checked in quite quickly which was a great experience.
My issue with the alternative flat was that it was not a 1 bedroom flat but a studio flat with a double bed and an extensible sofa, bathroom and a kitchen, it had a nice balcony but we were not allowed to use it for some reason... the location was different, quite far from the flat we paid for in the first place.
Bare in mind, I have not met Mirko when we checked in, or any other time whilst I was in Rome. This takes me to the next issue I had with this flat. When we checked out (before 12 am, 11 am to be more exact) the lady who checked us in has ONLY asked about the TV remote, nothing else, she has not checked if the flat was by all means damaged or if anything else than the TV remote was missing.
Now, after 5 days, I get an email from Mirko requiring an extra charge of £26.87 for apparently damaging a chair in the alternative flat, that I or my family have broken?! To be fair, the chairs and the table were not stable at all from the first day we arrived but we have not done anything else but had breakfast at the table.
It is unfortunate to think that someone could do something like this when you have actually paid the full amount of money on time, got given a studio flat instead of one 1 bedroom flat and have not met the actual person who arrabged all this! My family and I have also left a new box of cereals, fruit and some brand new toiletries in the flat purely because we wanted to show our greatefulness for the landlady.
To end this review with I want to say that Mirko has offered us a ride to the airport and said to contact him 2 days before our departure time so he can organise his time. I have tried to contact him through text messages but no reply! What a ditch!