With a fee of 6,500 dollars for a two month stay my husband and I arrived, after a 22 hour journey through 3 countries by taxis, bus and planes, to find not even one single bottle of water in the fridge.
For a two month stay we were left:
1 small bottle of dish soap
1 small hand wash
1 shampoo
1 conditioner
1 bar of 1$ Costco soap (to shower with for 2 months) and
3 toilet rolls!
There was no oil, salt, pepper.
No coffee.
Nothing...empty cupboards like Mother Hubbard's house.
We were left PLASTIC glasses...picnicware! ....no glassware, no wine glasses, no corkscrew, no milk jug, no sieve, no salad bowls...aargh. We are retired professionals....
In this era of Covid particularly there were no products to keep the kitchen sink, counters and tiled floors clean....no sponge for the sink, no kitchen paper towels, and just 2 tea towels.
Similarly there were no products to keep the bathroom fittings and floor clean.
When I enquired about cleaning products I was told there was a vacuum cleaner and a dustpan and brush. So we had to purchase cleaning products, paperware, toilet rolls, toiletries and glassware et al at our own expense.
And ladies, there is no hairdryer?!
As for the cleanliness of the apartment...there was a huge stain on the headboard as photographed by our daughter who opened the flat (this was cleaned before we arrived ...which we did, 4 days past our due check-in date as our flights were re-sceduled by the airline - all part of the impact of Covid). Under the bed was thick with dust. The vertical blinds were grimy. The floors had obviously never been steam cleaned.
There was no Information booklet...nothing to explain how any item worked.
I informed Julia and Joe that the ceiling fan was not working. The reply was 'I believe there is a clicker' ...in other words they had never set foot in the place to inspect and check on the property.
If they did, they would have realised that the broiler did not work.
There was no change of linen for the bed.
In the intro email we were informed that there was on-street parking. However, a neighbour of the owner informed us that the apartment had an allotted off-street double parking space on the block's forecourt. Interestingly included in the final email was a paragraph which stated:
'If you acquired parking:
Please remove your cars from the garage.'
We were not offered this option, yet the parking spaces, directly below our bedroom window, were filled for the whole of our stay.
There were however a list of rules citing the hundreds of dollars of fines that would be imposed if, for example, candles were used.
Although they knew in advance that we would not be arriving on our due date, due to no fault of our own - and they had the option to rent out the flat for those days, we were not offered any discount nor was our request to stay an extra night accommodated. Yet by 5 pm on the day we moved out the apartment had still not been cleaned!?
All in all we do not feel that these managers appreciate the original ethos of Airbnb - the sharing of a property, a home from home for travellers.
We visited a number of other properties in the surrounding streets and found a much more welcoming and better outfitted situation in each of them - and all of them said we deserved a discount!
This was the equivalent of the In'n'Out Burger chain..1 or 2 day stays (3 toilet rolls)!
We left change on the counter and a note for them to buy a bottle of water for the next client. We certainly did not feel like guests.
We are experienced travellers and have stayed in a number of properties in the Palms and Culver area and we have never encountered such a poor welcome. Perhaps the owner should consider changing the management company.