I booked Mindy’s place in February. Mindy messaged me the day I made the reservation and said she was looking forward to meeting me and the other members of my party (3 others.) Two days before our trip she sent me pictures of the entry/gate and WiFi codes. The day of, we sent Mindy a message asking if we could check in an hour early and she didn’t get back to us. It wasn’t a big deal so we just found other things to do and arrived by 3pm.
The pictures that were sent did not always match what was actually there. They may not have been updated from previous stays? In some of the pictures sent there was a lock box on the gate that was not there when we arrived. The check in details showed a picture of a lock box on the actual door leading into the stay which was there.
We were able to get through the gate because there was no lockbox. When we entered the code given to us, and tried to open the lock box it would not open. We tried multiple times, looking up videos online to make sure we were operating it correctly. We looked up the directions to the specific lock box. We could not get in. We tried messaging Mindy. After a few minutes we tried calling, and left a message, waited a little longer and tried again. By 3:30 we called AirBnb to report we couldn’t get in and we were told to wait until 4:15.
We waited back in the car until 4:15. Someone from Airbnb called us back and tried to find a place that was comparable to it. Mindy’s place was $89 a night- there were none comparable, the next closest had us paying $300 more. We decided to get a refund and find a place at a local hotel instead.
I understand taking your time to respond to questions like checking in early on the same day. But I expected someone to be around to at least answer questions at check in- when a problem is most likely to occur! I am thankful that we were right on time because if this were to happen later at night we might not have been able to find a place so easily!