Before I say anything else, I was able to get a full refund from Airbnb (even against the host’s strict refund policy) because the Airbnb rep agreed with me on how unclean, scary, and dangerous my room was from the photos I provided. The photos are inaccurate!! Hopefully that gives you an idea of how my short stay there went. The host has a million rules and fees so be careful. The check-in time is at a completely unreasonable time, it’s at 9pm, and while you can leave your luggage there and even shower, there’s no place you can just chill and cool off. The entire place is humid and stuffy, and the only place that’s air conditioned is the bar, but it doesn’t open till night.
Once it was check-in time, his employee from the bar helped us check in. But the host makes his employee take us on a pointless historical tour of the building and of the host’s life... and we genuinely don’t care. We’re tired, stuffy, and hot from waiting for our rooms for hours and hours. The employee was also kind of creepy, there were just weird things that ticked him and the whole thing was just uncomfortable. They made me and another guest write something and take a picture, which was again really uncomfortable.
When it was FINALLY time for me to see my room, I was literally shocked. It was up 5 flights of stairs, and the stairwell towards the top of the building has no rails and you could easily fall 10 feet. It’s also dark, creepy, and unclean. I didn’t bring my luggage up there because I ditched the place before even sleeping in it, but with heavy luggage I can’t imagine how I’d get it up there without risking injury. The room itself is at the end of a creepy hallway. It is depressing. It is tiny, the floor moves(??) because it’s covered in layers of cardboard (which is sketchy for the top floor), there’s a bunk bed, implying that they might have more than one guest there, and it is UNBEARABLY hot and stuff. They provide two, tiny broken-looking fans. One of them is actually a desk fan lol. The employee honestly echoed my sentiment and basically said I had to deal with it.
I decided to leave as soon as I was showed my room. I didn’t even care about a refund at that point because the place was so creepy and unlivable. It took forever to just get the employee’s attention to tell them I was leaving, because he was on the phone with the host about another issue they were dealing with. Basically, another guest was planning on living there for a month, took one look at his room, and was like dude I can’t live here for a month. Again, the photo was inaccurate. So the host put him in a slightly better room for free, but when I finally was able to tell them I was leaving, the host tried to kick the other guest out of his new room and give it to me. What the hell? I tried asking for a new room directly, and he said he couldn’t because new guests were coming into the other room in two days. And I tried asking the employee to help me talk to the host, because I can’t write or read Chinese, but the employee was like no. This is between you and the host.
Anyways, I left, found myself a sketchy but still way cleaner and safer hostel, and called Airbnb. It was a really terrible night, honestly, I was basically temporarily homeless for the next four days in a foreign country. But I got a full refund quickly, and I know it’s not Airbnb’s fault, and the host’s grandma is actually very sweet, but this place is really not worth the cheap price. Really, guys, just go to a hostel! Meander Hostel is so so nice, nearby, and still really affordable.