Before making the booking, Francesca the host was very prompt in responding to my inquiries, which was one of the reasons that made me decide to choose her apartment. The apartment is nice, spacious, well located, and with lots of natural light coming in from the windows, however it is lacking of the functional amenities and “comforts” advertised in the description on Airbnb.
From the time of check-in, Francesca had no clear knowledge of how the many appliances worked, the TV, the Wi-Fi, the kitchen stove, the washing machine, etc.
From the time of check-in the kitchen stove was not fully functional, as only three out of four burners worked. Francesca acted surprised as if she was not aware of that. The worst is that for my entire four-week stay she did not fix the stove.
When I checked-in and Francesca showed me around, I also noticed that the oven rack was all encrusted. I did not complain about it at the time because I was not planning on using it. With hindsight though, I wished I made note of it, because Francesca later accused me of creating that encrustation. Very dishonest and disappointing!
Under the furniture and the fridge there was dirt from previous guests. I just did my best to clean it up myself because I did not think it was a big deal after all. Bad decision! Francesca used it against me and accused me to have been the one leaving the apartment dirty.
The dishwasher is so tiny that looks like it is made for Barbie, but the worst part is that is not operable. I notified Francesca a few times but she kept denying the evidence!
The washing machine was the worst of all appliances: a very old piece of junk that does not wash the clothes but keeps spinning and spinning water for hours without end results. I asked Francesca to fix it or replace it. Instead she came to the apartment without warning and inconvenienced me with her presence for hours pretending she wanted to verify that the washing machine would work. She finally had to leave with the machine still on. When I took my clothes out, they were dripping water and still dirty! For my entire four-week stay Francesca kept denying that the machine did not work as if by continuing to lie I would accept her truth. I had to bring my clothes to the laundry mat or wash them myself by hand in the bathroom sink. So what did Francesca do? She came to the apartment few times without me knowing and when I was not in, took pictures of the clothes I was drying off after I had washed them in the sink and used the picture as false evidence that her washing machine was working. What a lie and what an invasion of my privacy!
When I checked-in, Francesca had just installed the Wi-Fi that same day and she did not know how to operate it. I had to figure it out on my own. The worst part though was that, apart from being extremely slow, it was going off constantly.
The apartment is in a very old building so it’s very noisy. You could hear neighbors’ breathing and water flowing inside the tubes in the walls. I cannot blame Francesca for that. However I do blame her ineptitude for the continuous water leaks happening in the bathroom and for accusing me of clogging the shower, which is obviously false.
With the excuse of fixing this or that, Francesca kept coming to the apartment unannounced, by herself or with her husband, depriving me of the peace and space for which I paid a lot of money. Not only I was not free to enjoy the apartment, she later also accused me of having clogged the shower.
The experience at Francesca’s apartment became so unbearable that I even stopped letting her know anything that was not working because I was tired of having to complain all the time and even more of her frequent unannounced and unwanted visits that lasted for hours.
The apartment has many potentials, but Francesca should worry more about making it functional and comfortable.