“Take off your shoes!!” My shoes were nice and clean but that was our welcome words at the Anthony’s tiny flat upon our arrival.
The last leg of our travel from Paris was late and we were a litle ahead of our planned arrival time, although we had warned him about the late, he seemed to be in a rush and the reception was weird. Our smile and attempt to apologize for the delay was not matched, a agitaded behaviour instead.
The flat is cozy, well located, clean and very commercial, but far from spacious. Listed as a 3 bedroom, in fact it is a 2 1/2, the ‘3rd’ bedroom is a claustrophobic space containing a bed with enough space only to a person enter and lie down on the bed that takes 80% of the space..
The unlucky one chosen to sleep there will have to dress up in the shared bathroom or in the corridor of the entry room and leave luggage outside.
Speaking about luggage, beware if you are, like my family, travelling in 5 (me, my husband, son, daughter and her friend) around Europe for almost a month and finishing the trip there, with an average of 2.5 suitcases per person including large and hand luggages, this is not the place to stay at all.
The ‘super host’ (one of the pre requirements for choosing the place) didn’t stated any baggage limit on its listing house rules and was incredibely inappropriate in his manners using low echelon words refering to our luggage. He accepted the stay, after I said we were in 5 travelling in Europe, so it’s not our fault if the apartment is not as large as appeared in the photos and the description is not accurate and doesn’t reflect what he expect from their guests, otherwise we’d chosen a larger one.
After helping with some of the luggages, he simply disapeared. After the shock we atempted to call him to leave the place imediatelly but he ignored our calls. My family witnessed something we never saw, specially from a man of a country culture we know very well, for having friends, family and business relationship, a culture known for its cordiality and politeness, what we’re accostumed and didn’t find there. As if that was not enough, he still writes us an email supposed to appologise but saying that his apartment was not a hotel nor a ‘luggage storage’.
But, trying to understand his behaviour, we think he was in a bad day or having some sort of problem, because most of the reviews were good and all of this people doesn’t seem to be lying, but nothing justifies the kind of treatment my family had. We didn’t respond in the same level and simply reported Airbnb, which gave us an exemplary support. Airbnb advised us to stay there but unfortunatelly we didn’t have the same experience as we had on the previous places during our terrific trip: a little farm in Tuscany whose the host ended up becoming our friend, a cinematographic apartment with an elegant host and breakfast waiting for us in Paris (what Anthony called ‘another level’ in a derogatory tone putting himself and his flat above without knowing) and a stunning apartment in Aosta Valley with a incredible view facing the frozen mountains. None of them complaining about our shoes or luggage, with a nice and warm welcome, what in fact is expected and it is the real mission and core values of Airbnb, that is to be nice and treat the guest with its due respect, above all.