I was disappointed with the whole experience and with this host. The apartment I booked was not available for me. I got to the location at the agreed time with the Host and once there, they phoned me claiming there was a mishap and the place didn’t get cleaned. They offered me an alternative apartment which was not walking distance and offered no taxi refund or transportation.
Had they told me before (I was in touch with them as soon as I landed in Malpensa), I could have gone to the new location directly. Given it was already late in the evening and I had luggage, I was really not happy about having to travel more by public transport to another location. After insisting, they sent someone with the keys of the new apartment and they drove me there. The new apartment was similar style to the one I booked and everything looked ok, although there was no information at all about the place. it was very new and quite a few things were missing like towels, hangers, hairdryer. Thankfully the people who handed me the keys were able to provide those items. However there was no information at all, No print out with wifi code, or any number to call in case of emergencies. Fate was not on my side. As I was ready to go to sleep, a pipe from the bathroom sink burst open and started flooding the entire bathroom and apartment. Water was coming out with huge pressure. I tried contacting the host on two numbers they provided and both were going straight to voicemail and no answer. I started texting them to alarm them of the severity of the situation. It was extremely stressful as I was not able to stop the water and no one was picking up the phone. Finally they started reading the texts and picked up the phone. after many calls, someone came and we managed to stop the water. A handyman also arrived later to fix the actual burst pipe. I looked everywhere for the valve to stop the water at source but the valve closing the water source was so tiny and hidden it had been impossible for me to locate it. Even the first person that arrived had trouble to locate it. At this point the entire apartment had about 2 cms of water everywhere, in all rooms. The host refused to move me to another apartment claiming they didn’t have any alternative available (bear in mind this is a professional company not an individual host). The person that came to my rescue had to dry the entire apartment with towels. Finally at about 2am I was able to go to sleep although the entire floor was still wet and huge humidity in the whole apartment. The following day I had a super busy day with work, I left very early. I asked repeatedly to the host if someone was going to clean the apartment since different people walked all over it but despite asking more than once, no one ever came to clean the apartment. The dirty towels used to dry the floors remained there for 3 days
Despite this being very bad luck and I don’t blame the host or company for a burst pipe (the alternative apartment seemed never used and new) the handling and communication was very poor. The numbers I was given to contact were many times in ‘quiet’ mode and there was no information whatsoever. When an emergency like this happens, I realised how important a professional host is. This host needs to improve their communication and information provided to clients. They claim to have hundreds of apartments on Airbnb but it felt very amateur.
I was extremely busy while in Milan, both for work and personal commitments. and this experience caused extra stress which I didn’t need.