Have you ever been on a first date where the person didn't look like their profile? Well, here is the AirBnB version of this. Don't get me wrong, my girlfriend and I were grateful to have found a rental in a good area of Santa Monica last minute. There is a lot to do in the area and the beach is walking distance. However in terms of what was provided, we were left wanting more.
To start, the unit is small and dusty with outdated furniture. The pictures online suggest a much more upscale rental and we frankly felt misled. There's a noisy mini fridge 6 feet from the bed. There were black smudges on the walls highlighted by ugly overhead fluorescent lighting. The bed is hard, springy, and uncomfortable. The bedding and towels were clean, but shabby and outdated. There was no bath soap, shampoo, or conditioner. The Roku remote was broken with half removed tape on it. There was also an empty air freshener plugged into the bathroom. Unfortunately even if filled, this would have done very little for the musky smell coming from the apartment hallway.
The worst part of our experience was actually from the garage parking spot provided 5 blocks away from the rental unit. An awful smelling thick red sludge oozed across the ground in the basement blocking the spot. It reeked so bad we almost barfed when we exited our vehicle. My tires were slimmed upon parking making it difficult to exit the basement without taking a "running start". This dangerous hazard was not disclosed prior to booking, yet in talking to the manager upon check out, he and the owners were well aware of the sludge issue.
I hope better effort will be put into improving hospitality as this was easily the worst Airbnb we have ever stayed at and Mike was the opposite of a super host.