Up until this particular Airbnb stay in June 2020, I had been faithfully using Airbnb as a wonderful travel resource since fall 2014. While I had heard the occasional "horror story," I had never personally experienced one.
This Airbnb I recently stayed at in Covina, California was SO filthy and unsanitary, that I was physically nauseous for most of the duration of my stay. Given the fact that I was in town for five days taking care of an urgent family matter, I did not have time to deal with the situation while I was on-site, and had to wait until returning home in order to begin dealing with it. I also could not figure out how to call or to contact Airbnb directly during my stay, as I had never needed to do so previously.
Even if we were not in the midst of a global "pandemic," there are certain minimum standards of cleanliness which are expected of Airbnb hosts, but DURING the covid-19 situation, I expected these standards would certainly not be compromised so egregiously. The issues I encountered in this Airbnb include but are not limited to the following (I also took 34 pictures to serve as documentation in order to support these concerns):
1. ALL baseboards of the house (in EVERY room that I had access to) were covered in dirt, grime, dust, and some browish-yellow, sticky substance.
2. The kitchen was SO filthy and covered in oil, grease, dirt, grime, food stains, spills, etc., that any sort of food preparation was not even possible. I could not take pictures of the top of the stove/oven area because it was black (cast iron burners on a black underlying surface) and the photos did not turn out well enough to show how bad it was, but I took pictures of the front of the stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator area. (The countertops were dark in color, so you could not tell how dirty they were until you placed your hand or other items on top of the surfaces, so this too did not show up in pictures.)
3. ALL doors in the house were filthy (the doors were light in color, so this was easy to see).
4. ALL doorknobs were very unsanitary and dirty.
5. My bedroom smelled either of some bacterial mixture (from dirty cleaning supplies...or of FISH). I also stepped in maple syrup while in my room.
6. Also in my bedroom, every surface was so dirty that I became physically ill, and continued to feel very queasy for the remainder of my stay.
7. The bedroom closet was dirty and the desk was dirty. There were cobwebs on the ceiling and in corners of the room. All baseboards were extremely grimy and dirty. Nothing could be safely touched without gloves.
8. In order to get by as a short-term "solution," I took several stacks of white towels of various sizes and laid them out ALL over my entire bedroom (including the closet, desk, and other areas), and covered the floor and all of the surfaces with them, so that I could SOMEWHAT more safely touch said surfaces, lay my luggage and gear down, and step upon the floor.
9. Going barefoot in this extremely dirty house was not possible. I specifically stayed at this Airbnb because of the no-shoes policy, as well as how clean everything APPEARED in the pictures. Unfortunately, the listing for this Airbnb is very misleading with regard to cleanliness.
10. Dirty and sticky smudges found on doors and walls.
11. The bathrooms were FILTHY. Very unsanitary. Pink mildew was EVERYWHERE. Grim, water damage, mold, mildew, and human filth was found throughout the bathrooms.
12. Sometimes there were tiny bugs (possibly fleas) seen crawling on top of the white towels I had laid on the floor.
13. The bed (which LOOKED clean) had some sort of flea, bed bug, or other biting insect, as my feet got covered in insect bites (which I also took photos of). I was only barefoot while in bed, so this is the ONLY place I could have sustained the bites.
14. There were FOUR bedrooms in this house, and they were fully booked during my stay, so there were four to five people staying in the house at all times. This would not necessarily have been a problem, had the house not been so filthy and unsanitary.
15. While I was there, nothing got cleaned, so the situation was never improved.
16. Thick dust was found in many locations.
17. A STRONG chemical odor was present on ALL bedding. This chemical (or combination thereof) got all over my clothes and my hair, to the point that it irritated people that I came into contact with outside of the house. My sinuses and nose swelled up a lot as an allergic reaction to whatever chemicals, detergent, or fabric softener was used on the bedding. For this reason, it was very difficult to breathe for the entire duration of my stay.
18. In addition to all of the violations with regard to cleanliness standards, there were also some other issues. Two of the other customers were VERY loud with TV, music, and phone calls, even late at night, which made it very difficult to sleep at times.
19. The street out front is also highly trafficked at all hours, so this issue was layered on top of the cleanliness and safety issues.
To reiterate: At ALL times it is expected that Airbnbs are to be be clean and sanitary. This is a given. But during a global pandemic, this is even MORE essential. Under no circumstances is this Airbnb currently safe or sanitary. This location should absolutely be shut down IMMEDIATELY, or fully (and consistently) overhauled, cleaned, and sanitized before these hosts may be permitted to even potentially entertain the POSSIBILITY of being allowed to ever again host guests in their home.
Due to the fact that I had a family emergency and had driven six hours