Our experience with Emily was the worst experience we have had when using Airbnb.
To start with, we were told by Emily to not speak to the neighbours and to never mention Airbnb to anyone. Not only did this make us feel uncomfortable, it also gave us the impression that something unlawful may have been taking place.
During the first 24h of our stay, we informed Emily of poor internet signal, blown light bulbs, flickering electricity and a washing machine losing water. Emily informed that she will do something about it. Emily did send a “handyman” (who was not wearing a mask during a pandemic) that replaced some light bulbs but could do no more.
The internet issue was the most significant to us, as we needed to schedule important work video calls and this was not possible with such poor internet, so we informed her that if the issues were to continue we would have to report them to Airbnb. Her reply was that she would schedule a visit with the specialist. At no point during our stay did Emily organise a specialist to fix any of the issues described above.
On the 6th night of our stay, my partner and I unfortunately experienced a power cut mid way through my 30th birthday dinner. After checking the switches had not tripped, we tried to contact Emily multiple times, but she was not reachable and she had not provided a working emergency number to be called.
We therefore contacted Airbnb support who also unsuccessfully tried to contact Emily.
The basic amenities (heating, hot water, cooking, refrigerator, wifi) are all powered by electricity in Emily’s apartment, meaning the power cut left us without them and ruining my birthday. Emily was not responsive for almost 12 hours. As a result, at 4am Airbnb chose to cancel our remaining 3 weeks with Emily, leaving us just a few hours to find a new Airbnb and pack our bags before checkout at 11am.
When Emily finally responded late the next morning, we were met with disrespectful and defamatory comments, falsely insinuating that the power had been cut because we had been playing loud music and also that we had been taking drugs in her apartment.
By checkout time, we had not managed to secure our next booking due to AirBnb support delaying the release of our refund voucher. Therefore we were still in Emily’s apartment after checkout, under the instruction of Airbnb support. Emily asked why we were still in her apartment and we explained our reasons, which included that during a pandemic we had nowhere to go, that due to us relocating to London we had significant amount of luggage, that we had a number of food items in the fridge from my birthday and that we would not have been in this situation if Emily had ensured an appropriate emergency procedure was in place at her property. Emily thanked us for our explanation and at no point asked us to leave. Following our departure, Emily demanded late checkout compensation through the Airbnb platform.
For all the above reasons, we would not recommend booking to stay at any of Emily’s properties.