We booked Iman's place because we needed an extended stay of 31 nights where we could work comfortably and use some of the specific amenities and features that this place provided. However, there were a number of issues that affected the quality of our stay and as a result we ended up spending most of our booking period staying elsewhere, which defeated the purpose of our booking. Ultimately we checked out several days early.
PROS:
- Iman is a very responsive host and was easily reachable when we had issues (see below for a list of these issues). He made efforts to address our concerns and was good at providing updates on the status of some of the requests we made.
- The apartment is very spacious and has plenty of room for people to stay comfortably. This, however, was impacted by the issues below.
- There is secure entry with a coded door in the garage and out front, and there is secure underground tandem parking on-site.
- The place is very ADA-friendly, with a wheelchair lift on the stairs in the main lobby. This was more relevant to our stay than it may be for others.
CONS:
- This apartment did not meet any reasonable criteria for cleanliness and by no means could be considered as "Committed to Airbnb's enhanced cleaning process" despite this being claimed on the listing page.
- On arrival it appeared that the place had not been cleaned in days, there was dust all over the floor. We ended up mopping/wiping down the place ourselves. Note that there is a cleaning fee charged for this listing.
- On opening the dishwasher there was an entire load of dirty dishes in there with an extremely foul smell. There were dried, dirty rags around the sink and in the kitchen cabinets. We ran the dishwasher and unfortunately this flooded the kitchen overnight, which we had to clean up. To his credit, Iman sent someone to repair the dishwasher, which then worked fine.
- Related to cleanliness, there was a broken lamp on the balcony with broken debris on the ground, which again we had to clean up to allow safe access to this area.
- The wifi was very slow and spotty with download and upload speeds of 0.63 mbps and 1.18 mbps respectively. Fortunately when we mentioned this to Iman he called the internet company to have this fixed.
- During the sunnier days there was a smell that we eventually identified as coming from/near the skylight in the master bathroom. Iman sent someone to have this looked at and it did seem to eventually resolve.
- This place is advertised as having a washer/dryer. The problem is that the washer gasket was completely coated in the pink slime that grows in wet tubs and bathrooms, rendering it completely unusable. The same person who fixed the dishwasher strongly advised us against using the washing machine until this could be fixed Again, Iman did try to have this fixed but unfortunately the part(s) required for this repair did not arrive in time to be installed during our stay. During a month-long stay we were unable to use this amenity and had to go to a nearby laundromat.
- Of the two bathrooms with a shower only one did not pour cold water. I say this because the master bathroom had lukewarm water from the shower only. This may be more of an issue with the building as a whole but is still an issue that makes the 2nd shower unusable.
- There is an area in the living room where the lights flicker with each step you take in the room, possibly fixable with new bulbs but if not then it will make for very irregular lighting.
- There are very minimal towels or sheets for use in this apartment. Iman very kindly brought some new towels for us to use when we informed him of this.
In summary, this listing has several enticing features but the reality is not nearly as appealing. Perhaps the worst part is the overall cleanliness, which during any time but especially recent times is an important part of any stay at an Airbnb or elsewhere. Iman’s responsiveness as a host did resolve several issues but many of these issues should not even exist at a listing that costs this much and is supposedly held to strict Airbnb criteria.