I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING THIS REVIEW BEFORE BOOKING.
This has to be one of the worst Airbnb’s and experiences I have ever had starting at the check-in.
We walked down a narrow liter-filled basement and used the self check-in, I’m surprised I made it passed the check in door because once we opened it, we were met with a loud bang and behind it was a table with a chair on top of it so the door only opened half way, not to mention a fire hazard.
Once we squeezed our 4 pieces of luggage through we were met with another door, please bare in mind the table and chair was still behind us.
Once we opened that door, we were met with the smell of damp, Mould and mildew, damp on the fire alarm (another hazard) and walls and a half naked man doing his laundry as the laundry facilities were in the hallway, looking at us with a surprised look…
After giving the gentleman a surprised look back we went through another small door, dragging our bags when we finally made it to the room, with the smell of mildew and mould following us or the room smelt that way, at this point it was hard to tell.
The air con was fully on possibly too disguise the smell of mould and like an ice box, so I decided to look around.
To try and get some fresh air in to the room, I proceeded to open the back door, pointless, because the door was locked with no key, (another fire and health and safety hazard, and a window that opens only a few inches from the top, so in the event there is a fire, possibly from the damp in the hallway, we would have to walk through a fire to get out or worse, be trapped in the room, the bed had dust on it and the sheets looked like they were trying to changed themselves with dirt on the headboard.
Trying to forget about it and because I was working from home I proceeded to connect to the WiFi, now i I got 1mgb, I would have been happy, it didn’t even connect to any of my devices so at this point I was worried as I had work the next day.
Behind a chair there was damp and blown plaster that was falling off the wall and the renter did their very best to hide it with a chair. At this point, I’m starting to feel slightly conned and concerned from my well-being, we thought it would be best to contact the renter first and after a 7 hour flight from the US, we just needed to lay our head and get some sleep, if it wasn’t for the smell of mildew keeping us up. Got up really early, no response from the renter, so it was obvious with the no WiFi, I wasn’t going to work that day, so we called Airbnb straight away. You would think calling Airbnb would be a simple task, if you have ever had to, you will know it really isn’t. After being hold for over an hour, calls unanswered or disconnected, we finally spoke to someone after the 10th call.
The first person we spoke to insisted that this was unacceptable, they will not tolerate listings that doesn’t abide their rules and any people staying in a health and safety hazard will be fully supported, however, to get this resolved, we would have to speak to an “ambassador” so another 45mins on hold, we finally spoke to someone who said they will deal with this and not to worry, that they would only need 1 hour from the time they make contact with the renter to have this sorted. 3 hours went by and nothing from Airbnb but a message from the renter saying, Airbnb had made contact and they we wasn’t happy. We briefly explained why and we didn’t get much back, which broke any trust at this point. We went back to Airbnb, another hour in the queue when we were transferred to another “ambassador” while on hold we received a message from the previous “ambassador” to advise us that she had gone home for the evening, lovely.
We relayed this message to the ambassador we were now speaking to and he said that’s unacceptable. By this point it was coming to early evening and there was, from my understanding many back and forth’s between Airbnb and the renter were the renter refused to accept any liability so the ambassador asked for pictures and videos. Once he saw these, he said the renter has another hour to respond to these or will deal with this ourselves. All the while the renter was incessantly messaging us which was boarding on the intimidating side to the point he fully admitted that they knew there was a problem with that room with the mould, WiFi, damp and back door and they rented it out anyway, which is frankly illegal all the while denying these problems to Airbnb.
The ambassador saw this message from the renter and said we will now deal with this as this is concerning. Worried as we were feeling slightly ill from the smell, the ambassador told us to go out and get a coffee and he will call back. After another 2 hours we were concerned as we didn’t know where we were going to sleep when the ambassador called and said, “I want you out of that place straight away, so we are putting you in to a hotel for the night and refunding you your money in full which could take up to 15days to get back however don’t worry, we will support you, however you just have to leave this instant”
Frantically running back to pack and find somewhere else, the renter is still messaging us saying he can put us in another room which was actually next door, I think