Unfortunately, I don’t have many nice things to say about this stay nor the host. The highlight of this apartment is the location in the heart of the Gothic; we were able to walk literally everywhere within the city and there are some really cool bars directly below the apartment. The rest, however, is as follows:
• The apartment furnishings are arranged differently than in the photos & the quality of the items is much poorer than you can tell in the listing. For example, the bed sheets are old granny flowery design, the futon in the living room has buttons falling off and many gross stains (urine, drinks, food?), the dressers next to the beds are wobbly and don’t close properly
• The apartment felt very dirty. There were shoe marks and dirt stains on the white walls, hair and dust balls on the floor, as if they didn’t clean or disinfect from the previous family that checked out earlier that morning.
• Yes, the apartment has a washer & dryer, but the host does not provide laundry soap? We had to go out and buy it ourselves. In the bathrooms, we were only given a tiny bar of soap and a little tube of body wash & conditioner. For almost $1k over five days we thought we would be provided with more.
• Again, for almost $1k you think the host would leave a water bottle in the fridge or a bottle of wine, but the kitchen was completely empty. There was a coffee machine but we had to to buy our own coffee and tea from the store. There wasn’t even paper towels or dish towels to dry our hands…
• Only 1 bathroom towel per person was provided. No extra bedsheets were provided. There was an extra blanket in the armoire, but it was covered with hair and dirt stains so we didn’t use it.
• We arrived for check in with all of our luggage, but had to wait outside for about 10 minutes before the cleaning lady could let us inside. The host’s liaison met us at the apartment about 20 minutes later and apologized for running late as he had approximately 14 other check ins that day alone. This statement leads me to believe that the host has too many properties for rent across the many various websites not limited to Airbnb, and this is evident in the lack of soul & personal touch that Airbnb is known for. The apartment felt like an empty & heavily used hostel dorm room. I will say that the guy who met us for check in to give us the keys was very nice and gave us great recommendations for dinner. He was fantastic.
• Lastly, and the biggest problem of all: EXTREMELY LOUD CONSTRUCTION outside of the apartment down below on the street for the entire 5 days we were there. They were running new piping below the cobble stone streets and the jackhammering/tractors moving rubble began at 8am every morning. We couldn’t sleep at all and could literally feel the vibrations through the walls and bed. I messaged the host, Jutta, asking for at least a partial refund considering the amount of money we paid and the fact that construction wasn’t mentioned once in the listing. She replied in a defensive way stating that “anything happening outside of her property is not her responsibility and no one else has complained except for you.” There were literally signs posted on the construction fences outside of the apartment that construction will be happening 2/14-3/11 and she claims that the city never told her this and she had no idea. Of course if we knew this my girlfriend and I would’ve booked another stay somewhere else. I don’t believe this host’s excuse and feel that she is being very shady, but even if her reasoning is true, don’t you care about your guests’ experience and comfort in your home? If I was in her shoes and it truly wasn’t my fault as a host, I’d still offer at least some sort of refund to compensate for the terrible experience!
Overall, location is great, but everything else sucks and I’d highly recommend booking elsewhere in the Gothic. Learn from our mistake.