This is my worst airbnb experience so far. Book at your own risk. Problems with the flat:
- There are very steep stairs to get to it. It's the 3rd floor I think.
- the neighborhood/street looks a bit dodgy
- no aircon in the living area
The main two issues I had were:
- aircon in one of the rooms was broken. Was planned to be fixed but it wasn't clear when. Lady in the flat said 1/2 days, host on the phone said next day.
- host was extremely rude over the phone, cutting me off and being rude in general, until she told me to "shut up", at which point I decided we couldn't stay in the flat.
The host will likely reply to this saying that I was late for check in and that I didn't have with me the 30 euro for late check in. This would be true, but I also explained to her that I was 20 min late because there were road works on most roads around the flat (she didn't tell me this in advance or gave me a detailed map to avoid the closures) and didn't have the money because the ATM in the airport was out of Euros (I eventually got the money for the check in lady from an atm 5 min walk from the flat). Despite these 2 issues being very minor she was completely worked up about them and kept excoriating me for that, even though she was wasting more and more time on the phone. I'm sure she did it to distract (or even try to balance) the fact that the aircon was broken and the flat was boiling hot at 11pm. When I said I was going to get the money from an atm nearby she even sarcastically replied "an atm at this time in Palermo?". Not sure if she was making it up to make me feel bad or she's never been to her flat as as I said it wasn't difficult to find one nearby.
I didn't stay in the flat so can't comment on other things. Your mileage might vary but with so much offer in the city this is one you might want to avoid. It's put me off from ever usin airbnb again tbh.