I have traveled often to Airbnbs and this was by far the worst experience I've had. We booked this Airbnb last minute because the original Airbnb we booked warned us they had to do some construction and suggested we find another option as they couldn't guarantee the noise level.
We found this Airbnb and were quite happy to arrive until we opened the door and realised it was very dirty. The surfaces had not been cleaned, there was dust everywhere, sofa is stained, outside table had not been cleaned at all and had bird poop on it, previous occupants had clearly smoked, and the outside space downstairs had this substance all over it smelled extremely bad. I immediately contacted the owners who apologised and said it was the fault of the cleaning company. I believed them and a new cleaner arrived the next day free of charge (of course). It also turns out that there was a sewage issue, and sewage had come up from the toilet and the outside area, depositing what I can only assume to be feral sewage into the outside area, hence the smell + the downstairs toilet did not work due to that. So right off the bat, very dirty apartment, smoke smell, substance + horrible smell in the outside area, non functional bathroom. This Airbnb also has clearly been really used by airbnb people, the walls + some of the floors are scuffed, the owners have not been taking great care of their property...
On the 2nd night we came home, I saw a cockroach in the entry way in front of the front door. I took pictures but did not say anything to the owners as I thought ok, this is in the stairs, not the apartment. 3rd night we come home, we try to take a bath and turns out the hot water does not work. My boyfriend loves baths and we had chosen this due to the bath and it did not work. At this point, my boyfriend has had it and is screaming that is the most unpleasant experience ever. There are 2 bathrooms in the upstairs area, the master bedroom has 1 bath that does not work, and one shower that cannot be opened (owner explained that due to construction next door, the ceiling had gone down a little so door could not open anymore). My boyfriend then shows me a video he took the same day of a cockroach *inside* the apartment and says we need to get reimbursed.
I then message the owners at 1am, really mad and disgusted by the apartment, I message the owners saying this is outrageous and we want to get a refund. We were supposed to leave Lisbon on Saturday, it is Wednesday night at this point. The owner messages back the next day saying they will reimburse us but need us to leave to disinfect. Except we are both working remote Thursday/Friday and have meetings the whole days so it is hard to move. They did suggest we go to a hotel of their friend but since we have meetings, we cannot work in the same room due to our jobs + need desks. At this point they are getting mad at us to leave! I am trying to explain that I am a software engineer and work California hours so cannot move last minute + my boyfriend cofounded a tech startup and is always in meetings, but they keep insisting that nothing can please us. At this point, we were so exhausted with this horrible experience that we booked new flights back to Paris that very same night and just left.
The cherry on top of everything, is that they had the audacity to message me after we left to say we had left the place in disarray, sending me 3 pictures and insisting we pay for housekeeping. The 3 pictures they sent were:
1) The bed unmade with the decorative pillows on the floor to the side. Did they expect we make the bed when we leave?? Do they know wash everything???
2) The towels we used on a chair, on the side of the bathtub, hanging on the wall of the shower. Once again, how is that disarray, are we supposed to wash the towels???
3) When we arrived at the apartment, the lights were unplugged so we could not figure out how to turn on the light at the dining room table so we moved to another light a bit further. Because we were force to leave super last minute after finishing work, we did not move the table back
They then suggested we were scammers saying how did you find a new flight so last minute and do a PCT test even though to go back to France we only needed to do a quick antigenique test (15min) at the pharmacy. They went to apologising about their disgusting apartment to trying to blame us for it. They will respond to this post saying that they refunded us but that is not the point! I went to Lisbon for a wedding, I *wanted* to pay for a nice Airbnb which I did, and turns out it was a horrible horrible experience. I have never left a city like I did Lisbon, we just packed our bags and left and were so relieved to be home.
If you want a clean experience, stay away. I have pictures to prove everything I said + conversations with the owners acknowledging everything.