Hugely disappointing, I booked Silvia’s Airbnb as it was perfectly located for visiting my son, looked charming & had v positive reviews ( I later realised that the most recent review was 2 years ago).
On arrival I found that the property was lacking cleanliness throughout, I live in a character property myself & I know that sometimes things have been cleaned but they still have a bit of a lived in look but this wasn’t the case. The kitchen was particularly bad, the worktops had not even been wiped, they were covered in crumbs & the fridge was sticky & had old food stains, even the drinking glasses were grubby. It was v disappointing, particularly in view of Silvia signing up to Airbnb’s COVID 5 step cleaning process.
In addition to this, Silvia’s photographs on Airbnb were misleading, there was no sofa in the living area but there was a huge, unsightly IKEA unit in the living area packed full of box files & general office stuff. When the host had told me in her arrival notes that she was storing some books in her home as she had to close down her office, this is not what I expected!
To be honest there were loads of little things that just indicated a lack of care, the hosts clothes & shoes were everywhere, including the bathroom even though their listing says their personal stuff is stored in the 2nd bedroom, we were only told that the tv only works with casting (even my teenage kids don’t know how to do this!)in the arrival notes. These things in isolation wouldn’t have been a problem but coupled with a lack of cleanliness it just made us feel really cheated.
My initial reaction was to find somewhere else to stay but after checking out alternative accommodation I realised that nothing suitable was available last minute with good proximity to our son’s apartment.
When I contacted Silvia & expressed my concerns she replied with a string of messages telling me that the cleaners had not turned up & that she & her partner had had to clean the property themselves, that there was no sofa as a previous guest had broken it, that she felt uncomfortable, that she would prefer us to leave & that she would refund us. I found her reaction to be defensive & somewhat hostile.
I’d already explained that we would also prefer to leave but we couldn’t find anything in this area last minute so we intended to stay.
Silvia told me that she was contacting Airbnb which turned out to be a v positive intervention.
I was contacted direct by Airbnb, explained the situation & also provided photographs of the condition of Silvia’s property for them to make their own assessment.
After looking at everything Airbnb apologised to me for any inconvenience caused, compensated me & told me that they would take forward the issues raised direct with the host Silvia.
I can see from previous reviews that Silvia has been a good host in the past so hopefully she will take on board this feedback as her property is undoubtedly in an excellent location but I personally found this to be a v stressful & negative experience.