First, I’d like to say that I’ve stayed in over 50 Airbnb’s over the years and only written a bad review once. I’m also a super host in Brooklyn, New York, and have been a part of the hosting community since 2012!
Mr. W is the cohost, and we communicated mostly with him. He seems to have a monopoly on the area, co-hosting several apartments in the area, often in the same building. The apartment boasts soap, shampoo, and conditioner with his moniker and likeness.
Anyway, communication was terrific in the beginning. We had several issues when we first arrived, and he responded quickly.
Issue # 1: the apartment was infested with mosquitos, and we were eaten alive on night one. We killed at least 20 mosquitos the first night in the apartment. There were no windows open when we arrived - just mosquitos living in the apartment waiting to feast. My husband and I had at least 20 bites apiece. They were crazy uncomfortable and lasted for about a week. The following day we messaged our host, and he sent mosquito floggers to the apartment.
Issue # 2: the pictures had a desk in the bedroom, and then there wasn’t one when we arrived. This was only an issue because my husband and I were working remotely and picked the apartment to work in separate rooms. When we reached out, Mr. W apologized and said he would order a desk on Amazon and deliver it in a day or 2.
Issue # 3: there is no mention in the listing that the unit is directly over a restaurant. When you walk into the building, you share the same space as the restaurant — the staircase is open to it, and you can watch people eating at their tables. You can hear music, guests talking and smell the food cooking throughout the day. The apartment is directly above the kitchen, and between that and not having any blinds in the live room windows, the apartment became an oven during the day. There is no AC.
Those were the three main issues we experienced at the beginning of the trip. We got a quick response, and the issues were seemingly taken care of. They should have been issues in the first place, but nonetheless. At that point, I still would have left a positive review.
My biggest complaint and the reason why I’m leaving this negative review.
We found out that we had to fly home early to take care of a family situation. I reached out Tuesday morning to the host to explain and ask if I could alter the reservation. Our checkout was on a Saturday, but we needed to fly back to the US. We ended up taking a 7:00 am flight that Thursday morning. It was a very busy weekend in Mexico City (Formula1 racing weekend), so the assumption was that he could easily alter our reservation and most likely it booked it again for the weekend. He asked me NOT to change the reservation on Airbnb but to let him rent out his place on Airbnb (he has many Airbnb’s in the area) for the weekend, and he would stay at the place we rented. He said if he could rent his place, he would refund us one night. We agreed and flew on Thursday morning. That was the last we heard from Mr. W for the next two weeks. I sent several messages asking if he was able to rent his apartment… but nothing. He ghosted us. I also reached out to Airbnb support. They attempted to contact him for a week, but he did t respond to them either. The whole thing seems shady, and I assume he rented out one of his many other apartments in Airbnb and kept our money. I have no proof of this. But considering the circumstances and the level of communication before we departed, the fact that he went silent after we left and ignored our messages speak volumes.
Overall the experience was not great. The apartment was infested with mosquitoes, not a great value (it was overpriced), not exactly as depicted in the photos (no dedicated workspace as pictured in the bedroom photos), was tiny, loud, hot, and smelled like Thai food. The worst part was the host that ghosted us in the end. He eventually responded to our many messages after two week simply with, “I could not rent my apartment.”
I won't be staying here, or any rental Mr. W cohosts.