Our stay in Valencia was not as expected nor as advertised. From prior to our arrival to our very last day, Denia was inaccessible and failed to preform their duties as a host.
Denia, contrary to their airbnb description, did not have a one hour response time & was very difficult to access during our stay. On multiple occasions, the response time took several hours. A day prior to arriving in Valencia, we contacted Denia to inquire about an early check in time as we were arriving in the city quite early. The host did not reply and we were required to follow up to prompt a reply. Upon arriving, Denia indicated that they would provide us with the wifi password, however, failed to do so. We had to contact Denia and only two hours following their commitment to provide us with the password, did we receive it. We also had no information on how the utilities worked such as the heat and cooling - this was extremely frustrating and again, after contacting the host for further instructions we only received a response the next day. There was also construction taking place right outside the house - NO information on this nor a heads up was provided to us. The construction began early in the morning and throughout the day which not only made it difficult to sleep but also difficult to enjoy the property throughout the day. The main attraction of this listing was the terrace - however, in light of the noise due to construction, we were unable to enjoy this feature. The host could have informed us of this construction prior to arriving which would have given us sufficient information to decide whether we wanted to stay at this property - however, the host withheld this information.
Finally, no information was provided to us regarding the check out process. We were not told where to leave the keys or take out the garbage. However, we were told if the garage was not removed we would be charged an additional penalty, despite already paying a cleaning fee. We contacted Denia the night before to request this information and received no response. Given the lack of response, we showed up to the host’s office the morning of our checkout at 9am - the time they indicated that they opened - and waited in the pouring rain, however the host did not arrive. We emailed and called the host’s contact line and also received no response.
We also needed to access Denia to obtain information regarding taxi services in the city to get to the train station, however they were inaccessible. As a result, we walked in the pouring rain to the train station. While I understand it is not always the host’s job to facilitate things like this for their guests, in this case, the host made it explicitly clear that they are available for any and all questions. Again, this was untrue.
As a frequent user of airbnb and someone who travels often, this experience was extremely unprofessional and unsettling. As a traveller to a foreign city, you depend on the host to provide you with sufficient information to make your stay seamless, however, this was not the case. It was upsetting to have to contact the host at least once a day for information that should have been already provided & follow up due to the lack of replies. We were unable to benefit from the property as adequate information was not provided.