WORST AIR BNB EXPERIENCE EVER! Myself and my partner stayed at this property for around 10 days in February. It’s a small place and the host Alessandra started off very sweet but just as she gave us the keys on the first day, she mentioned as she walked out that the electricity tends to switch off from time to time and we would need to go down and flip the fuse. Ok that’s one problem we thought and we can manage that.
That night, when it got dark, we found out that multiple lights up the stairs to the bathroom did not work. We contacted Alessandra and she told us they were broken and could not be fixed. Ok, another thing, it made it quite difficult to go up and down stairs at night whilst being safe but we could manage it. Indeed the electricity did cut out that night.
We had planned on using the WiFi in the apartment to work from home during the week and were assured that it was able to be used. However it was incredibly slow and kept cutting out multiple times a day. During this day as well, the electricity cut out again. Ok there are a few more issues but Alessandra is trying to help us out so we can appreciate that.
A few days later, the WiFi has become completely unreliable and we are not able to send emails. We have to pay to work in a local coffee shop. At this point (around one week) the electricity goes off and does not come back on. We figure out that the boiler is causing a short circuit. Now we are without hot water, electricity and WiFi one week into our one month rent. Alessandra calls the plumber to fix the hot water who arrive the next evening. She says we need to be present in the apparent for some reason whilst the plumber comes to fix it. After calling the WiFi company, she says that it is also going to be fixed at the same time. After putting in a new modem, she says it is good to go - it does not work. The electricity is still cutting out. We are starting to get a bit annoyed now.
It has become apparent that we cannot stay in this flat. None of the WiFi, hot water, lights or electricity were reliable. We said to Alessandra that while she has tried to rectify the situation and we agree it is not her fault, it is her responsibility. We said that we would pay up until the weekend but we would like a refund for the rest of the time we had paid. She agreed and we thought to have left quite amicably, even leaving her a bottle of lemoncello to say no hard feelings.
It was when we requested a refund that things started to get nasty. Alessandra wanted us to cancel the trip from our side which (with the added fees of doing so) meant we would have been paying quite a lot of money for staying in a flat which was unliveable. We said that actually we would like about 2/3rds of the entire amount back which more than overpaid for the daily rate we stayed plus all the Airbnb fees. We had agreed to bring back the keys on Sunday after we had moved out our stuff. Alessandra then threatened to call the police if we did not give her keys back immediately rather than the evening of the Sunday which we had agreed. Of course we ran back to give them to her and were met by grabbing them and shutting the door.
Alessandra then refused to the refund and blamed us for checking out early and would have to cover the extra cost of doing that. It really became a very upsetting experience.
I can see all these reviews say that she is a lovely host and indeed she is if things are going her way. As soon as there was any problems though, she completely turned and became quite threatening. That fact that she rented out her apartment with known faults is, I believe completely unethical. Whilst she did try to rectify the situation, that was whilst we were currently living there and even after days of attempts, she was no further along in rectifying any of the issues. She needs to take a couple of weeks to fix all the issues in the flat before renting it out again but I fear that the next poor suckers will be in the same state as us. I would really avoid this place as it is a dangerous, not up to standard accommodation with a landlady who has no intention of ever accepting the blame for that when you come to question it.