My stay was unfortunately disappointing for a few reasons - though to be fair, I do need to give context as to why:
To start though, I do need to say that the flat is a nice enough flat. The host has shown a lot of attention to detail and as the space is very small, has made excellent use of the the space. It's clean, modern, reasonably comfortable, safe, in a nice building with a lovely rooftop pool area and is very close to shops, restaurants, a walk from the sea etc. Had I been there for a quick weekend just wanting a comfortable flat for a night or two or had I been there for business, I would have been happy.
However, we were there for 4 nights as part of a much needed vacation. We wanted somewhere with a real holiday feel and top of the list was our need for a view. When we arrived at the flat though, we realised that the only view is from the roof-top pool. I relooked at the photos and realised that there were no photos of a view from the flat and at first thought it must have been my error - but then re-read the listing and saw that it very clearly had the icons for "sea/ocean view" and "mountain view" -- as a result, it had been our expectation that the flat was a higher up one and had views -- however, it turned out to be on the 1st floor and the only view was the driveway of the parking lot. In fact we were often the view as some people walked past and could see us sitting on the couch and would stare as the wandered past.
In addition, the bedroom is tiny and has no outdoor windows or view - the only window is a glazed one that opens partially / slightly as it opens up onto the corridor of the building. So, for privacy, that window can't really be left open, so it felt claustrophobic and didn't allow for airflow (as it's a narrow long flat and for airflow either the bedroom window or flat entrance needs to be left open). And it was a very very hot day, so the flat was also hot.
We contacted Manon to explain that the flat had not lived up to expectations, that we had expected a view, were not happy with the fact that the bedroom window opened onto a corridor and explained that we were on holiday and that all we wanted was somewhere that had a holiday feel to it and a view, which this unfortunately did not.
We understand the cancellation / refund policy is a strict one and that we did not qualify for a refund at that stage, but appealed to him, offering to:
- only stay 1 night, but pay for 2; and
- rent out one of their other accommodation units (even if double the price - we made it clear that cost was not the problem) that did have a view and more of the feel we were looking for.
Manon's response was simply that he was "saddened" to hear of how we felt, but did not budge on the fact that he would not refund us and rather focused on the fact that he did not agree with our view that the listing was not accurate in that if a listing has "sea / ocean view" and "mountain view icons" the view should be from the accommodation unit itself, not somewhere else in the building (as the view is only from the roof-top pool) and did not seem to think think that the listing was unclear about the fact that the bedroom opens onto a building corridor or see how that could be an inconvenience or disappointment.
He then simply referred us to Airbnb to lodge a complaint so that he didn't need to deal with us any longer. We pointed out to him that he didn't seem overly saddened as his actions and sadness didn't seem aligned.
What really angered us though, besides the fact that he clearly was not interested in whether or not his guests were happy, was that when we said we would be happy to stay in a more expensive unit of theirs, Manon's responses was to lie and say that he didn't have any other available listings. We had literally just seen several listings online before we asked him the question and they did have the qualities we were looking for. Please also keep in mind that if Manon had accepted our offer, we would have then paid for 2 nights in the first apartment and 3 nights in the second apartment, a total of 5 nights, whereas we were only staying for 4. So he would not have lost out.
Instead, he just did not want to bother with the effort, didn't really care that we were not happy there or how that impacted our holiday and clearly just didn't want to assist us as he had probably already made up his mind that we were difficult and didn't want to be assisted. Though, if you read every other review of mine as a guest, you will see that difficult is not a word that has ever been used for me as a guest.
I did refer the matter to Airbnb by the way -- who as a result of my explanation, agreed to refund me 50% of the cost of the stay. I refused their offer though as I didn't feel Airbnb should lose out; I feel the host should have been more accommodating and if anyone should have offered a refund, that's the person who should have. We have a guesthouse ourselves, and have never not offered a refund to an unhappy guest. As explained to Manon, who seemed to think the best solution was to refer us to Airbnb, we would never have let a complaint