Horrible airbnb experience.

We were given check-in instructions to use a lock-box to let ourselves into the house. We had a long journey into LA, arrived about 9.30pm and went to find some dinner, got to Jame's house around 11.30pm and could not find the lockbox. Re-read the instructions many times, kept checking we were at the right place. Eventually messaged and called the host around midnight, unfortunately they had gone to bed.

Ended up with nowhere to go and had an awful night trying unsuccessfully to get some sleep in the car outside the place. In the morning we noticed a woman come out of our airbnb with the lockbox, placing it back where it was supposed to be.. So it turned out for some reason the host's wife had decided to sleep in our place and removed the key, leaving us stranded for the night.

The host was very sorry, apologized and gave us a full refund and allowed us a few hours of use of the place in the morning. I appreciated that but at the same time it was the least they could do. I accept the apology but I still have to say it was completely unacceptable and resulted in a horrible experience for us. There is no excuse to remove the keys without any communication to let us know or ask us if we are on the way. We couldn't have anticipated a late check-in would be an issue as we were told any time after 3pm is ok, and we simply had to obtain the key from the lock box.

I cannot believe the host could do this without a simple check in with us to see if we were on the way. Due to airbnb's policy even though we were given a full refund of the host's money, airbnb still retained their fee so we were still left out of pocket.