I booked Rajesh's place for 3 weeks for my parents that were traveling from abroad to visit me in London. Both my parents are over 65 years old and I was told that although the apartment was in the 6th floor, that there was a lift in the building.
It turns out the lift was broken for the whole 3 weeks I was there. We were told 1 week before checking in (I booked 5 months before) that the lift was not working, but that it would be working after 1 week. It wasn't the case and my parents, who have issues using the stairs, had to stay there for 3 weeks as it was impossible to find another place in similar location in less than a week.
Then Rajesh accepted to discount 15% for the issue, except that 2 weeks afterwards, I haven't received the reimbursement. I have called AirBnB 3 times, and they always say there was a problem on the host side, and that they will contact them and get back to me, but I haven't heard back until now.
To summarize:
- Host is often unreachable, or takes a long time to get back to you.
- Building management has no commitment to dates it announces and lift seems to be a common issue there, so don't count on it. Host takes no extra responsibility or involvement with building management.
- AirBnB doesn't guarantee any payment or reimbursement, even if the host has agreed with it in the system, and continues to be paid for reservations in the system.
- The quality of the apartment in itself was ok, no issues inside the apartment.