The apartment is not at all as pictured. A lot of the furniture (the yellow TV stand, plants, black coffee table and chairs) that made the apartment look charming in the photos were not in the apartment at all. This was particularly upsetting given that we planned on staying here for the entire summer (a total of 70 days). Upon arrival, the apartment was not only cold, dark, and dusty, but it was not equipped for a long-term stay. This would have been acceptable if it weren’t significantly overpriced. While the apartment is well located, the location does not justify the high price for misrepresented accommodations.
Additionally, the apartment was not clean. The floors had a thick layer of dust/dirt, and my roommate and I found spiderwebs in the kitchen and bedrooms, and even trash under one of the beds. One of the windows in the kitchen was broken, which led to mosquitoes entering the apartment. We also saw a number of spiders and other bugs in the apartment during our time there, and a very large cockroach in the hallway.
While the host was initially responsive (for example, the stove was not working when we moved in but they fixed it two days later), they ignored communications from us as soon as they realized we were considering cutting our stay short. Airbnb policy dictates that for long-term stays, the first 30 days are nonrefundable after check-in. In hopes to reach an agreement, we submitted a request to modify our reservation that went largely ignored. When we finally heard from the host, he told us that his hands were tied and that it would be up to Airbnb to modify the reservation. This is not the policy and we knew it, but in hopes that Airbnb would clarify the policy to him directly, we reached out to them. Only after Airbnb reached out to the host (this took days of bureaucracy) did we learn that he had no intention of accepting the change in reservation. This was particularly frustrating because the 30-day clock starts from the day of cancellation.
In summary, the place was thoroughly misrepresented (it seems like the building is full of similar airbnb apartments and therefore pictures appear to be recycled) and the host’s actions left us feeling that he was not acting in good faith. We ended up biting the bullet, cancelling, and moving to another apartment. We are both on scholarships and not only did this make for a very stressful first week in Mexico City, but it also severely impacted our finances.