We really did not enjoy our stay here. Although Henrietta was nice to us throughout our stay, Billie was extremely racist with comments that he openly shared with us. For example, one of the remarks he made was that African slaves were lucky to be brought to civilized countries, such as England and America, and that he feels racially superior to Africans. We were clearly shocked and disturbed by this comment, and Billie later knocked on our door and told us to go complain to Airbnb if we had a problem. This made us feel very awkward and uncomfortable from day one. This coupled with union jacks hanging all over the house made us feel like we were not in a politically neutral space as we would expect from Airbnb.
The photos of the bedroom were misleading. It was full of clutter and the double bed was actually two single beds pushed together. The photos listed on Airbnb are much brighter than the room we stayed in. There was also another lodger in the house, however we had never been informed of this before booking our stay. This meant that there were five people living in the house.
The kitchen was very dirty and full of so much clutter that there was hardly any space to cook. While the host kept on apologizing for the mess, there was no real attempt to clean it.
The house was also very cold all the time, most of the time the heating was not on at all. It was only one night when the host had a dinner party that she decided to turn the heating on for the day. We had to often ask to turn the heating on just for a short while in the evenings in the middle of winter (February), and the host would often point out how expensive heating was which made us feel uncomfortable. Considering the price of our stay and the fact that central heating was listed as an amenity on their Airbnb profile, we were disappointed by this.
I understand that the host likes lots of objects in the house, but Airbnb is advertised as a politically neutral and open space that should be made hospitable to guests. We certainly did not find this here, and would suggest the hosts try to make their home more politically open and accepting of other races, cleaner and warmer considering the price they are charging.