I stayed here for about 10 days the earlier part of this month. I've had almost all great experiences with Airbnb, but this one makes me think twice and be more careful and to move out when things don't seem right.

First the good. It's close to the subway station and there is a 24 hour doorman.

And a lot of bad. The building itself was well maintained, but the apartment itself had a lot of wear and tear. The bathroom had mold here and there. Very dusty and unkempt. It's obvious the place is used only for rent and no care goes into the place. The worst is the bed. It's on the second floor alcove and it is basically a 3 inch piece of foam. I didn't sleep well through the whole stay. And the gym and pool are not free, but has to be paid for each use.

There were incidents as well. A few days into the stay, Taipei had one of the worst Typhoons this decade. Around 4 in the morning, water, a substantial amount, began to leak into the apartment. I spent about 2 hours moving the furniture away from the window and constantly mopping water away. I don't blame the landlord as this was a Typhoon, but his only response was that his windows don't leak.

A few days later, I fell as I was walking down the steep staircase from the alcove at night to go to the bathroom. The alcove is low and you have to really hunch down as you step into the stairs. There is no guard rails on the left side and as I was losing balance, I reached out for the top of the dresser which was to the left of the stairs. The dresser wasn't secured to the wall and both I and the dresser fell to the ground. The glass broke, the back of the dresser broke as I fell on it, and luckily, I only had some scratches and bruises on my legs.

I contacted the landlord and he wanted me to pay for the dresser. I looked around the furniture shops and saw an almost identical new one for NT$6,800 and some similar used ones for NT$2,500 to 3,500. But instead of replacement, he wanted NT$5,000 in cash so I gave that to him.

After we checked out, he started emailing complaining that some other furniture was damaged by us. I guess since I agreed to give him cash for the dresser, he would try his luck to make us pay for past wear and tear on his apartment and furniture.

Stay clear of this landlord and apartment.