Well, Where do I begin? My nightmare began just one day after I checked in. I was looking forward to a nice and quiet holiday as I always have done in previous years, but It soon turned into a nightmare. For me, one of the joy of being on holiday in Spain is to be able to cook fresh fish. But that joy was taken away from me and completely spoiled my holiday.
I was asked by the host how often I was going to cook, that I would inconvenience other roommates because they also needed to cook and therefore the timing will be a factor. I made it very clear to him from day one that I would only cook simple dinners every other night ( three times a week). I was told not to cook anything to do with fish, seafood or meat because they smell bad, not even chicken, and to top it all off, not to use any cooking oil!
The first meal I cooked before I was confronted, clearly by a double standard « house rules », was a simple prawn dish, tossed for 5 mins in a frying pan as they don’t need a lot of cooking and a green salad. Naturally, I used all manners of common sense to minimise and disguise the smell of food. Moreover, I sprayed air freshener and cleaned the kitchen spotlessly before I even ate my dinner. I never heard the end of it, I was told off by the host and was given an ultimatum. Apparently, two roommates who were of Chinese origin, just like the host, complained about the unpleasant smell of food, and yet they, themselves, cooked Chinese food which is known to have a lot of spices, seafood, fish sauces all kind of meat etc…
Ironically, their freezer compartments were full to the brim with frozen meat and seafood including prawns.
When I booked the room, It looked spacious in the picture but in fact you couldn’t swing a cat in it. I was never told that I would be sharing the apartment crammed in with four other people in a small apartment with two main bathrooms. Every room was occupied even the living room is turned into a makeshift bedroom which has two doors with lattice glass on each side of the room, and because of this I was told on the first day as I was shown around the premises that I mustn’t turn the light on in the corridor at night! And so every night I had to stumble around in the dark to reach the bathroom.
If this wasn’t bad enough, one week after I arrived, I received a text message from the host telling me and three other roommates to use one bathroom between the four of us, as for the other bathroom it’ll be used by only one privileged person, « the new tenant ». No explanation was given, and of course I made no attempt to complain to Airbnb because my previous complaint fell miserably on deaf ear, they simply couldn’t care less.
I remember on a couple of occasions, I was so desperate for a wee and unfortunately one of the roommates was having a shower and so I had no option but to urinate in a bottle, and yet the other bathroom was empty.
There were other incidents like hiding the iron so that I couldn’t iron my clothes. My room was never cleaned for a whole month and the bedding was never changed, I had to put it very early in the wash so that it dries and I could use it the same day… but first I had to find room in the utility room to hang them it to dry, that’s another story.
It was simply the worst booking I have ever made through Airbnb and the worst host I came across.