The apartment itself was great, but the checkin experience and customer service was a nightmare. For reference, a normal airbnb checkin would look like:
1. book reservation
2. host sends you address, info, and door code. The end.
Checkin for this property was as follows:
1. book reservation
2. host sends a link via airbnb chat to upload travel documents
3. link goes to website that requires 2-factor auth via email
4. 2 factor auth doesn't work. request a new link from host. apparently the link expires after 30 minutes.
5. upload travel documents to the website.
6. get an automated email telling you to follow another link requesting a $300 deposit.
7. Follow link. pay deposit.
8. Continue to receive automated emails requesting this info that you've already submitted.
9. Finally, once travel documents and deposit are processed, get another automated message instructing you to download an app.
10. download app
11. create an account on the app with your email
12. Another 2 factor authentication
13. App is very buggy and you can't really tell if you've uploaded all your stuff correctly. At this point, you are getting automated messages on the app, on airbnb, and via email, all from seemingly different people. I started to suspect I was being scammed 😂
14. Finally, you are able to view your numeric door code via the app. Honestly, why make your guests go through all of this?
After all this, we showed up to the apartment and the code didn't work. After 45 minutes the very friendly property manager showed up and let us in. Apparently the number pad outside the apartment was out of batteries.
Everyone we dealt with was exceptionally friendly and professional, but organizationally, this airbnb is like dealing with a large airline. Rather than speaking with a local property manager, all messages are filtered through a representative who is unfamiliar with the listing or with our situation. It was basically impossible to reach someone who could actually help us. I hate leaving a negative review because our stay was mostly positive, but our dealings with this company were just overwhelmingly negative and they need to step up their customer service if they are going to charge as much as they are. It seems like they've tried to outsource and automate the entire checkin process and failed miserably.