STAY AWAY -- I've resided at multiple Airbnb's throughout the years, and I have NEVER had an experience like this before; it felt like I was in a thriller movie. Grab some popcorn and get ready for this. I'll do my best to keep it concise:
FORGOT TO SEND CHECK-IN INFO. From the first day, everything started off wrong. I informed Max of my planned check-in time days in advance and reminded her to send me the check-in instructions. Regardless, I was never given the check-in information and was stranded outside the Airbnb's building in DTLA for an hour while Airbnb support tried to help me sort things out. There was a door code to the bulding so I was unable to get in, and nobody was coming in or out of the building. I also didn't have the keys to my unit. Two hours after the agreed-upon time, I received a call from the Host's partner who began to make up excuses for why they forgot to send the check-in information (they were on vacation in Europe). I received a partial refund for the late check-in and the inconvenience it caused me; this partial refund is important to remember for later.
POOR CLEANLINESS. Upon finally entering the Airbnb, I noticed the place was dark and dirty. The windows point out to the bottom of a light well, so barely any natural light got in. There were small pebbles all over the floor, some coins, and the floor was heavily damaged. I wiped a damp napkin on the floor and it turned black instantly. The furniture was cheap and shoddily put together. The dishes and silverware had food baked onto them and looked unusable. There was barely any toilet paper, little soap, and no paper towels. I reached out to the Host for help and they even admitted that the cleaning lady forgot to do part of her job. The AC battery was not replaced and thus, the AC was not functioning properly upon arrival.
AGGRESSIVE/UNREASONABLE HOST. She sent threads of messages (12+ paragraphs at once) about how angry I made her. It was honestly quite scary. There are so many instances of Max being unreasonable, but this one below is probably the most interesting. Max reached out to me, confused about how I could not enter the Airbnb without any check-in information. For context, the building has a gate, a door code to enter into the building, and the unit was locked. Check it out:
"So basically when you got to the building, why did you not just take the elevator to apartment #[CENSORED] and knock on the door? Like a normal person would do? Even If you did not know how to operate the Intercom, that’s not a problem at all because people walk in and out of the building all the time - Nothing was preventing you from going to the door of the apartment in knocking on the door? I mean: before telephones, that’s what people used to do: you get to your target/ address and then you knock on the door. I don’t understand why the entire check in process was dependent on me picking up my phone. Like: when you go visit a friend and you have their address, do you also stay outside of their door and wait until they call you back or do you actually knock on their door / ring the bell? I’m quite confused about that"
THE HOST WAS MAD I GOT A REFUND AND KICKED ME OUT FOR IT. Remember that partial refund I mentioned earlier for not getting my check-in information? Well... check this out too:
"Airbnb wants to deduct money now because you did not just go to the apartment and knock on the door. This is upsetting me so much that I want you to get out of my apartment immediately. I do not feel comfortable hosting you anymore. I communicated this with them. I would like you to move out ASAP!!!! They are deducting money because you got to the address, you had the unit number, but you were not Proactive enough to just go to the door and knock on the door. To me, this is completely unacceptable. I understand that he would have preferred to talk to human but in the end of the day, when you have an apartment number and an address, every normal person would just go to the apartment and knock on the door. It doesn’t matter if you know how to operate the Intercome or not. The building has people coming in and out all the time."
This one too is a little disturbing:
"When I rent at my apartment long-term to somebody, this person should be able to act like a human and results small issues like dead by themselves. I am not a house for babies cool want to have a 24 seven concierge on the phone for anything all the time nonstop. Please leave my apartment and find something else"
CONCLUSION. I ended up leaving the Airbnb early because Max wanted me out so badly and I was starting to feel unsafe. However, Airbnb support was amazing throughout this whole process and made sure I walked away thoroughly compensated. I definitely would not recommend anyone to stay here in the future. There are plenty of other good options around!