Before booking my staying in Ralitsa's place I was checking the reviews about the place and I found them trustworthy and positive. I didn't expect that anything will go wrong.
As a disclaimer: this is my experience and I'm happy that majority of other guests didn't have any bad situations. At the same time, I would like to share the story behind my stay.
On the first day, me and my partner came for check-in, where Ralitsa explained the house rules. They're rather extensive and you cannot use many home appliances (like a dishwasher). We're discouraged by the rules to cook, but it was something that we're prepared for. The first uncomfortable feeling appeared was when I asked if we have any dedicated space in the fridge. Ralitsa replied: "Why do you ask? Do you think that I will steal your food?". I explained that I just don't want anyone to take our food by accident, because it may naturally occur when you don't have your own shelf. She added: "People are rather stealing food from me". So on day 1, I felt like a thief that tries to steal food from someone. But I shrugged it off thinking that we have various experiences, so it might be justified for her to say that.
The very next day we went out for sightseeing and locked the doors to our room. When we got back from our trip around 7-8pm, we went upstairs and tried to unlock our room. I tried to open it by turning the key one way, but it didn't move at all. Okay, I thought it maybe a different type of lock, so I changed the direction. Something was moving, but it didn't open. So I tried to move it once again, but unfortunately, I couldn't. The key was lock in the door and I couldn't even get it back!
After few tries, we gave up to open the door. I went down to inform Ralitsa about it and she asked me in impolite way: "What have you done to the lock? Why did you break it?". I answered calmly that I just tried to open the door and I wasn't doing anything fancy, the key just got stuck. I asked if something like this has happened before, but she said that no. I asked her for help, but she replied that she doesn't know how to help. She then asked harshly: "What would you do if I weren't at home? You would destroy the doors, wouldn't you?". Again, I felt like an intruder with malicious intentions, but I replied keeping my cool that: "No, we would just call you." After few minutes of asking her to help, Ralitsa went upstairs and tried to open the door. Unfortunately, she couldn't do this as well.
I asked then what should we do? Our passports and luggage were there, so we want to get inside. She answered that she has no idea and she cannot help on that. I was very confused by that. I asked if maybe she knows any handyman that she can call. She said that she doesn't know anyone that would help during that hours (between 8 and 9 pm). So I suggested that maybe she can call a locksmith. She refused again by saying that she cannot afford it. I asked if we cannot call Airbnb and they will refund her the locksmith, but she also refused as "they don't refund fully and they're not willing to help".
Basically, we received no options from Ralitsa. I realized that this is going nowhere and as we needed our passports and wanted to go to sleep as early as possible (Adele's gig wa the very next day), I said that I will pay for the locksmith (which was a huge mistake, on that lated on). She agreed on that. I needed to call the locksmith on my own, Ralitsa only helped on providing the address of her apartment.
The locksmith came and it took him around 2 hours to change the lock. The first issue was that the doors were from Bulgaria and the lock was from Bulgaria as well, so it was hard to find a replacement for that. Fortunately, the locksmith had some lock that would destroy the doors (they were too small and fragile for UK locks). Another issue was that the doors were made "out of paper" (as the locksmith said), so it was harder for him widen the hole for the lock. When he was handing Ralitsa the keys she pointed out that she needs three pairs of keys, not two. He told her that she can make copies almost everywhere. She showed her dissatisfaction, but as she summarized: "I don't have any choice, do I?". In the whole situation I was feeling that she's unwilling to cooperate.
After changing the lock, I asked the locksmith if that was my fault in any manner. He answered that not, the lock and the doors were bad quality.
The bill for the service was over 500 £ (GBP).
I reported the issue to Airbnb the very next day. I was assured that I will get the full refund. After almost 1,5 weeks of talking with Airbnb support, I received only 20% refund of the cost (majority of that is covered by a coupon for future stays on Airbnb).
So at the end of the day, Ralitsa was right about Airbnb policies. But I want to point out that Airbnb didn't provide me the full refund as Ralitsa didn't agree on it arguing that she offered that she will fix the problem, but I refused it and insisted on calling the locksmith. This is simply untrue as she didn't offer any solution during the event. She refused calling Airbnb. Furthermore, the lock eventually needed to be changed as even the locksmith couldn't find any other solution and had to work really hard to unlock the door in the first place.
To summarize: I felt