First off, I want to say that the on-site hosts (Kelly’s parents, I believe) were very kind and did what they could about the situation. Kelly herself was not there and did not respond to the issues we faced staying here, instead punting immediately to Airbnb itself who took days to give a final ruling and by then we were not able to recoup our costs.
The room itself was fine, though there were ants by the mini fridge, but not so many that it really bothered us. The problem was the other lodger, who seemed to be living there long-term. The walls are thin and our main wall connected to a young mother with two small children and a dog. She played music loudly, the baby cried and other child ran around while the mother talked loudly on the phone. This occurred early mornings as well as afternoons and evenings. Cupboards slammed and kitchen noises, dog barking—all of this woke us up and made our stay there impossible.
We informed Kelly of this and she relayed the message to her parents (saying nothing at all to us via the Airbnb app). The kindly mother spoke to the tenant, but this did not solve the problem.
Children and pets and thin walls just don’t mix, so after trying to live with it, I contacted Kelly again and said we could not stay. She responded simply with “contact Airbnb.” We did and were told someone would get back to us. In the meantime, we checked out and let Kelly know. We did not cancel at this time since we were waiting to hear back from Airbnb about a resolution. We left the place tidy and informed Kelly once we were out. Two days later Airbnb finally responded and said there was nothing they would do, that the host isn’t responsible for the noise level of the other guests. As for a refund, we were told to contact Kelly. She never responded and so we were left with the default cancelation policy—and were charged fully for the days we weren’t even there. We received half of one day refund, which was the minimum default.
Throughout this, Kelly never apologized or offered any kind of understanding despite our thorough communication. I’ve used Airbnb since 2014 and this was the first time I’ve had an issue like this and Kelly was the least communicative and least helpful host I’ve encountered. Again, the parents on-site were kind and I hesitated to write this review because of them, but felt I had to be clear: if that other tenant is still there (and she seemed thoroughly moved-in, with reusable diapers drying on the porch), you will not get a good night’s sleep or peaceful trip here. If there are any issues the on-site parents can resolve, I believe they will, but Kelly will do the the bare minimum and will punt to Airbnb customer service.
Our intended weeklong stay ended up costing us far more headache and hassle—and for only two nights as it turned out. This was a terrible way to start a vacation, and though we ended up having to spend a lot more to stay elsewhere on short notice, at least we had some peace and quiet at our new place.