To reiterate our experience with this Airbnb, we received a last minute message the day of check-in prior to 3pm advising that our “checkout might be later, maybe between 3-4 as house cleaning still needs to clean our room and provide items such as a duvet.” I called the property management team who, after I expressed my frustration, advised our rental would in fact “still be ready by 3pm”. Confusing and unnecessarily stressful for starters.
At 3pm there was major confusion regarding check in. No clear instructions were provided regarding the multiple keypads that one needs to access in order to enter the building. No one could answer if our room was ready yet or even where we should wait beyond standing in the lobby behind a coded and locked door. During this time my wife and I observed housekeeping team members unloading a mountain of duvets in the lobby that they were clearly rushing to try and get into individual rooms. Also at this time we observed approximately 5-10 other people or groups attempting to check in to their Airbnb studios as well. Everyone was confused and frustrated as there was no clear communication regarding this process.
Finally at 3:18pm I received a message through the Airbnb app that advised our studio was ready. A door code and studio number were provided. The assigned door code did not work on the second inner lobby door so someone let us in. We went upstairs to our assigned room and our room door was already cracked open. We entered but immediately closed the door with my wife inside while I tested the assigned door code, which did not work.
We quickly observed the following within the studio:
-for starters, this was a completely different apartment than the one pictured in the listing. The original listing was one floor, this was a small less-open space with a small set of stairs and a bed in a loft area. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STUDIO
-the small couch was ripped
-window seems to be stuck open
permanently and was drafty
-Tea and kettle provided but no cups
-Kettle is filled with dirt and/or possible mold
-no dishes
-No dish soap or sponge to clean dishes
-No trash bag in trash cans
-Duvet had been “dumped” straight out of the bag (unwashed) onto the bed
-No pillows for bed
-Toilet not scrubbed (just cleaner sitting in it)
-Human hair (appeared to be pubic hair) on bathroom towels
I reported all of this to the contact number and spoke with three separate people, who each time promised to call back with an update or solution in a timely manner but never did. I was told a manager was on the way to look at the apartment but nobody ever arrived.
Finally two housekeeping associates entered the studio while I was using the bathroom without knocking. This was wildly inappropriate. They apologized and provided mugs, plates, and pillows but we are still without dish soap or a way to clean any dishes. No linens were swapped out and still no manager ever arrived.
I phoned customer service multiple times and nobody could provide assistance. Finally the case was escalated to a manger who advised “there is nothing we can do tonight because the entire building of flats is booked but we can work on resolving tomorrow”.
Nobody returned my calls the next day so we nice again I spent a good portion of my morning trying to figure out if we could switch to our actual pictured room or be compensated for the previous day’s headache. Finally the best resolution STK could provide was a £25 refund, which felt degrading.
Having flown to London to spend my 40th birthday and no longer wanting to spend my vacation time dealing with what is certainly the worst Airbnb experience my wife and I have ever encountered, I essentially just gave up.
Throughout our 5 day stay, our trash can obviously filled up. On the final full day I requested a new trash bag at 8:45am but received no reply until roughly 12 hours later, at which point we were told “our ground team is no longer there but we can assist you tomorrow”, even though the next morning was our 10am check out.
Initially I was frustrated and wanted a refund but at this point in time I simply want anyone who is looking at this property to know that staying here is an absolute nightmare. STK pretends to have this great customer service team but don’t actually fix or resolve any issues. We spent our entire stay in the entirely wrong room and sacrificed valuable time that should have been spent relaxing on vacation dealing with incompetent and deceitful people who made little effort to actually right any wrongs.
My wife and I travel frequently and have stayed in Airbnb in several parts of the world - we are no strangers to Airbnb - and this was certainly the absolute worst stay/experience we have ever had. If I could rate this AirBnb a “0”, I would.