Summary: In my 7 years of being an airbnb guest, my experience with Franck's airbnb is the worst. I booked for a 3 weeks stay, but had to cancel this reservation 3.5 days in. I am in a different continent and had to make last minute plans due to the below incompetencies (check in inefficiencies, wifi connectivity issues, AC unit malfunctioning, roach infestation, and denial followed by unresponsiveness from the host). I do not recommend that you stay at any of Franck's locations. He is unresponsive and does not care about the guest experience; he only cares about the income he generates from his multiple airbnbs. Once you receive the keys, you are on your own with no support.
1. Check in inefficiencies.
Franck lives 3,000 kilometers from his Lisbon Airbnb, a fact that he mentioned several times. Paula is listed as a cohost and thus is on the same Airbnb message thread. Franck told me to reach out to her with my flight information via Whatsapp. Keep in mind that Airbnb encourages guests and hosts to only use the Airbnb messaging platform, but I didn't think it was a big deal and reached out to Paula via Whatsapp (I found out later that the Airbnb customer service team can read the messages, next time I will only correspond via Airbnb messages). My original flight got cancelled so I had to rebook another one. I arrived on Monday at 5am instead of the Sunday at 5pm as originally planned. I communicated this as soon as the changes were made. Paula mentioned that she cannot meet up with me and give me the keys until 9am on Monday. Which meant I had to wait for 4 hours in the airport for someone to hand me the keys.. something that can be resolved if there was a box by the entrance with a key code. The check in process was inefficient. Paula was nice in our interaction and apologized. She mentioned that she had several airbnbs to manage and had to give the other folks their keys. Again, if one is running airbnbs at a large scale, isn't it better to have a box by the entrance with a key code that is reset often?
2. Wifi Connectivity Issues. On Tuesday, when I logged into my laptop and had my first meeting of the day, I kept seeing notices from Zoom stating that "Your internet connection is unstable." I am an engineering tech executive working remotely so FAST internet is a MUST. I immediately reached out to Franck about the concern as I only had one device connected to the wifi. Franck disregarded my concern and said I'm the first person that has complained in 5 years, instead of trying to troubleshoot the issue. I even sent him 3 screenshots with the message, and he did not respond at all. I had to troubleshoot the issue myself and finally resolved it.
3. AC unit malfunctioning. The AC had being blowing out hot air since I arrived, however I thought it was because I didn't know how to work the appliance. Using Google lens, I was able to find out the AC model and find the instruction manual. Keep in mind there were no "how to guides" in the apartment. After multiple tries and Youtube searches, I reached out to Franck and Paula via Airbnb message on Wednesday. I stated that there is an issue with the AC unit and I needed someone to come and troubleshoot, as I had done all that I could do. I also mentioned that the person should please bring additional a dish towel and paper towels, as the one i found in the apartment had finished already. Franck told me that there is a nearby grocery store where I can buy dish towels from, that the AC unit works fine, and that he is 3,000 km away. I sat back in disbelief. I paid 2,100 Euros for this stay and the host was being so unhelpful. It is 35 C/ 95 F and this host wants me to remain in a hot apartment at the peak of summer! Also, there were water marks leading from the AC which suggests that the AC has had issues before. After stating that I would l leave the apartment if no one comes, he said i should reach out to Paula via Whatsapp. Mind you, Paula has access to Airbnb message and responded to me via Airbnb message before. I reached out to Paula via Whatsapp. Paula, I'm assuming is the property manager, said she is not in Lisbon and won't arrive in Lisbon until next week (date unspecified). I was in shock. How can a person (Franck) have multiple airbnb apartments in Lisbon and not have a single person on site to help the guests??
After this, I reached out to Airbnb support on Thursday because enough was enough. Airbnb support said they would reach out to Franck and if he doesn't reach out to me in 2 hours they would cancel my reservation (keep in mind, he had not responded in 14 hours). Franck reaches out 4 hours after I talked to Airbnb support. He said that he can video call me TOMORROW (Friday) to troubleshoot the AC. Unbelievable.
4. Roach Infestation!!! I wanted to take a cold shower since I had been sweating because of the hot apartment. As I reached for the soap, I saw a HUGE roach. I hate roaches so much. Roaches are a sign of dirtiness. If you see one roach, there are 50+ other roaches hiding somewhere. I killed the roach, took a picture and sent the pictures to both Franck and Airbnb support. Franck did not address the roach. A previous guest has commented that the apartment was old and that the bathroom emitted strange/bad smells. I wish I listened to him before booking this apartment. Something is rotten somewhere in that bathroom and it needs to be fixed ASAP.
5. Denial