Have you ever seen those pictures comparing “Instagram” to “reality”. Well that pretty much describes this experience. Including FALSE ADVERTISING, HIDDEN FEES, and SAFETY CONCERNS. Let’s start from the beginning...
BOOKING- The hosts of this apartment work for a travel company. Immediately after you book, and through to your stay, they will use your email provided to Air BnB to spam you with emails from their company.
CHECK IN- As stated in their advertisement, check in is at their office. What they don’t state is that their office is a 20 minute boat ride from the apartment. And that they also manage many other Air BnBs, which means you will need to wait in line for 45+ minutes at their office before you can finally check in.
HIDDEN FEES- they insisted that we need to pay them a “tourist tax” prior to giving us the keys. This tax could only be made to them directly in cash, and no receipt was provided. It was a bit strange. The biggest hidden fee was the cleaning fee. They have you sign a contract stating that if you do not clean the apartment and take out the trash (to a trash boat which is a decent walk away from the apartment, and is only available in the early hours of the morning) that they will charge you €100! Absurd considering we already paid $55 for a cleaning fee via Air BnB...
FALSE ADVERTISING- when we walked into the apartment, we were expecting to see a cute and clean purple couch, cozy throw rug, and clean kitchenette. Instead, we were met by an old tan couch which was covered in brown and grey questionable stains, no rug, and a kitchen with sticky cabinets and peeling paint. We then walked to the bathroom, which was pictures as sparkling clean with adorable touches. The bathroom was not clean, had brown stains in the toilet, smelled funky, and the shower was full of MOLD! The large comfortable bed that is pictured is actually two small beds pushed together. There was no fitted sheet, only a flat sheet which slid off during the night, so we would wake up finding ourselves laying on a bare mattress. The photos also show a desk/vanity area in the bedroom, which was not actually in the apartment.
SAFETY CONCERNS- Most concerning to us is that the electrical outlets are not secured to the wall, they just hang there with exposed wiring. With 240 Voltage, this is extremely dangerous if children were to come into contact with them. Also notable is that you need to climb three flights of narrow, uneven, concrete steps to get to the apartment. This is common for historical areas, but should be better explained in the ad, as it is not accessible for those who have disabilities or difficulties.
I’ve been using Air BnB for years, I love the convenience and personal touches. However this experience has me wary about using it again.
I also noticed the “host” argues with people who post honest reviews, so I would like to state that I took pictures of everything. If only Air BnB would let customers upload honest pictures of the places they stayed to the reviews....