Be careful before you book this place. We got attracted by the nice pictures of the apartment (which in fact is a nice, modern place, like in the pictures). Check-in process was easy, Brian seemed to be a nice host who met us in the apartment and explained everything.
However, the following day at 8am we were woken up by what seemed to be a "war zone". Pneumatic hammers, hammers, drilling, the noise was unbearable, even with all the windows and window shutters closed. Impossible to have a conversation let alone sleep or relax. I looked out from the window and saw an army of workmen putting down one of the walls on the ground floor (just beneath the apartment as it's on the 1st floor). I went outside and realized that the entire ground floor of the block is under construction and there were various works going on with the use of heavy equipment, trucks going back and forth carrying rubble. The construction did not start overnight as it must have been going on for the number of weeks or even months.
None of the above was mentioned in the property description. Instead, it says "Enjoy your vacation or for business travel reasons, after a long day is the perfect place to rest. It becomes his home." - it's impossible to rest there unless the sound of pneumatic hammers, clanking of the hammers and noise of drillers make you fall asleep.
Me and my partner felt deceived, as had we known what's going on in this building and that there's a full out construction/renovation of the floor underneath the apartment, we would have never ever booked it. I don't understand, how owners are not making any reference to this in the property description to give people an option to book or not.
I quickly contacted Brian and told him about the issue and the reply I got was that the workers were not allowed to start this early. Basically it didn't mean that they would stop, it meant that they might have started at 8 instead of 9 or so. Of course, doesn't make a much difference to someone who wants to enjoy a nice holidays, if the construction starts or 9 or 10 or 11 as we booked the place hoping for a relaxing stay throughout the entire day, and not only when we go to sleep, to be woken up to the tune of a pneumatic hammer.
At that point it was obvious that the construction wouldn't finish at any time during our stay so we decided to leave the place immediately. I contacted Brian to let him know that given they failed to mention anything about the construction situation we would be leaving and he agreed and said that he would contact Airbnb to arrange for the refund and that Airbnb would contact me. I was not presented with any proof of such communication, however since multiple times he told me not to raise it myself with Airbnb, I felt that something was not right there, as there's a very simple process for requesting a refund during the stay, and everything can be sorted out online.
Therefore, I decided to request the refund via Airbnb form, where I explained the situation and attached pictures of what was going on in the building. Hosts have 1 hour to act on such a request, however neither Brian nor Olga acted on it. Instead, they kept on telling me that they contacted Airbnb to solve the situation and that "it's better to do it this way" (I had no idea what they mean by this). In my communication with Olga via Airbnb chat, I made multiple references to my refund request submitted, however she failed to respond to my questions and simply ignored them, telling me to wait for Airbnb to contact me at some point (it wasn't clear whether this would be the same day, or next week or in 2 months).
Given the situation, I decided to request Airbnb customer service to mediate in this case and within an hour from my request I got contacted by their staff, who - to my surprise - told me that the hosts were not willing to cancel my reservation at all (completely opposite to what they were telling me as they were assuring me that they were happy to do so).
I was asked to send all other evidence such as additional pictures and videos to Airbnb which I did, and my case resulted in being paid out the full refund for the stay so thumbs up to Airbnb for taking the only right decision and thank you for sorting it out promptly.
When I pointed out to Olga that she lied to me in her messages saying that they were fine with refunding me, she said that she felt she should not be penalized for the whole situation as they would need to incur more fees for cleaning the apartment after our 1 night stay (shall I be penalized for her not telling the truth about the constructions going on in the block?)
Again, think three times before you book any property managed by those hosts as you may end up with your holidays ruined or money lost. We wasted the entire day to solve the situation, and additionally ended up in a stressful situation where we had to find an alternative accommodation at a very short notice, while holidaying with a small child.