We booked to stay here about 2 months prior to arrival. We were told to contact the owner to arrange a check in. I tried to email her but wasn’t replied to once. The bnb manager who run the account said messages would not be replied to, making it very stressful for us.
Eventually, 48hrs before our arrival, I decided I had no choice but to call her international number (which cost me to do so). When she answered, we were told there had been a mix up as the boat is having maintenance and she told bnb manager to cancel our booking. She offered us to stay on a boat she uses for her own use, which is not on Airbnb, instead of leaving us with no accommodation at all.
As it was such last minute, we didn’t want to risk being without accommodation for our 5 day trip. The owner said she would give us €200 back due to the mix up, for the inconvenience. We were reassured that the boat had all the amenities we would need to have a great stay. I did request to see pictures but my message was not answered.
The boat we were taken to was not accessible, we had to climb over the boat which we were supposed to be on to get to it. There was no secure lock on the door, the toilet stank, there was only 1 toilet roll. There was dust and dirt everywhere. I suffer with asthma, and felt my chest getting tight due to all the dust. One of the group has severe allergies and there was bird feathers and bits of unexplained rubbish on some of the blankets and pillows. This was absolutely nothing like we expected. We were so disappointed, as we had spent £999 in total. It was like being in a dirty, cheap hostel, but for double the price.
We contacted Airbnb to complain and explained to the host it wasn’t what we expected. After 4 hours of liaising between bnb manager and Airbnb we managed to get the refund we deserved so we could move to somewhere secure and clean.
As we were about to leave, we noticed some men sitting on the decking of the boat we had originally booked. They were drinking beers, so we asked when the work would be done, thinking they were the maintenance people. They told us they were guests and were staying for vacation in the room we had booked. Therefore the owner had double booked her accommodation, and lied to us and the bnb manager. She didn’t inform us of the double booking at all, which would of saved us a whole day of our holiday trying to sort it out ourselves.
If you are thinking of booking this place, don’t. I’ve been to Amsterdam 3 times and I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Save yourself the stress and worry and just book anywhere else. Literally anywhere.