Good location, weird, aggressive and disorganised hosts.
Firstly the location of this property is very good, with lots of nearby shops, a tram and a supermarket.
Accommodation itself is functional, the living room nicest area with bedrooms being more like a hostel, thin carpets etc. Everything had been superficially cleaned and was OK, if a little tatty, as long as you didn't look under beds or sofas.
Three showers, none are great. The top shower's drain leaks through the ceiling below, and there's a gap on the top of the electrical shower unit allowing water in. I'd hope that the internal electrics are sealed within the unit, but some guests refused to use that shower because they didn't feel it looked safe. Two toilets but one has been crammed so tightly into a corner up against the wall you'll likely have to sit on it sideways. There's not really enough bins for a property that can sleep 20 and they were already half full. Facilities mixed, there was an abundance of some things but only 6 mugs. To be fair as soon as I raised this more cups were provided, I presume by the woman we returned from a day out to find inside busying herself in the kitchen after letting herself in. Oven not very hot, TV nice and big.
Now the hosts, eesh. Originally booked this for 16 guests, 6 bedrooms, 20 beds. Was added to a WhtsApp group with "4 colleagues" and told this was the place where I should post updates and questions. Next few weeks I was mostly repeatedly asked for my email address, even when the last message I sent giving my email address was still on screen, indicating that maybe the colleagues in the chat weren't actually reading my messages - you'll see this becomes a theme later. I asked in this chat about additional guests because there would be up to 19 of us staying, and also asked if there would be any additional charge for this. A reply told me that extra guests could be accommodated and just to let them know the final numbers. I replied again asking if there was any extra charge and how much and got no reply. So, as instructed, I told them the final numbers were 18 guests staying. This was seen by all those in the group chat, as indicated by two blue ticks and even quoted and replied to by a user with the WhatApp name "Chill-My-Places."
First sign something wasn't quite right was being told our check in time might be later than agreed, that they'd try and get the property ready for 4pm as agreed but it might be more like 5pm. Was then informed I would be doing a self check in and asked for photo ID. As I was on the M62 hundreds of miles from home, and I wasn't asked for this until 4:40pm I didn't have my passport with me. The My-Places agent in the chat then asked if I could call someone back home in Newcastle to go get my passport and take a photo of it(!?). Eventually another guests reluctantly let me photograph his ID and they accepted that. I'd hope there are GDPR policies in place where the four mobile phones which now have an image of the passport are encrypted and documents are automatically deleted within the legally defined time.
We arrived and headed out. I went to bed, then woke up to find that two of our group had slept on the sofa because one of the six bedrooms was locked. I asked about this and was told that this was to save money on cleaning and basically we should be grateful they'd even opened up 5 rather than making some of us share double beds. They then demanded I transfer about £350 to a bank account for the "extra" guests. Of course these weren't extra guests because I informed them about guest numbers weeks ago in the chat they TOLD ME TO USE to inform them of such things. Any time I showed them the screenshot of this, they just ignored me. They said if I paid up now they'd unlock the extra room, but if I didn't pay now they'd leave the room locked and still demand payment later anyway. AirBNB advised against sending money to directly to banks. They also said that my booking was for 6 bedrooms and all bedrooms should have been unlocked for the whole duration of my stay. My-Places presumably called AirBNB themselves to check this, because suddenly someone was heading over to unlock the 6th room. I then had a call from AirBNB basically saying My-Places had complained and tried to get my account suspended so I needed to provide screenshots to prove my side. This meant I had to stop playing disc golf, have several long phonecalls and supply screenshots proving I'd informed them about the guests numbers etc, which did indeed stop my account being suspended, but pretty much ruined my afternoon because I had to waste so much time proving I was telling the truth. I made what I felt to be a very reasonable offer to pay £175 to cover the two "extra" guests for the second night only, seeing as they hadn't provided adequate accommodation for them on the first night. I was told they wanted the full amount and they made an idle threat that they'd charge me £99 on top of that for their "time" if they had to make a claim through AirBNB. The fact AirBNB were great, apologised for our experience and repeatedly informed me I owed no money and could refuse their claim explained why they wanted to threaten me with extra costs to try and dissuade me from resolving it through them, so make sure to always use the resolution centre when dealing with My-Places. So all sorted now but after several days of harassment, inc messages at 2am, 4am etc.