As with all my reviews, I write this with complete honesty and transparency. I did not feel fully comfortable at this stay. In this Airbnb experience, there was an overtone and feeling that I was imposing; that I was in someone else’s space. This is no doubt subjective yet was true for my experience.
I travel extensively and have stayed and lived in all kinds of situations and it is rare that I come away with that feeling. For that reason, when I was there, I stayed in my room nearly all the time during my one week stay, and so I could do my online work undistracted. Covid-19 concerns or not there were a lot of house rules, which I always respect wherever I stay. Most, if not all rules spoken or unspoken, I already respectfully follow in my personal lifestyle and hygiene habits.
Although I was given a “larger room” when I arrived it was not the room I had booked, and not the one that was in the Airbnb photos which was more ‘off the street’ and in the back of the apartment. I would have preferred that room if given the choice. The room assigned to me in the apartment was on the corner of an intersection. The main road was busy from early morning and into the night so it was not as peaceful as I would prefer. Also, when shown my room I was told to not use the in-room portable air-conditioner while I slept at night. Thankfully the nights were cool enough.
I work online and it is critical to have a reliable WiFi signal with a decent speed. The WiFi was on the slow side, at best 4Mps but usually 2 - 3Mps on average. It also intermittently had periods where it slowed down a lot or dropped out for an hour or more. At times I had to resort to tethering to my phones hotspot as much of my work is time sensitive. I see more AirBnb hosts are becoming aware of this and sharing WiFi speeds in their listings so guests don’t need to ask before booking. It would be nice to see AirBnb standardize this in all listings.
There is no way to lock and secure the interior door to the room when leaving to go out. One time I had placed a bottle of water to be chilled in the refrigerator. I went out and when I returned to get it the bottle was not there. It sat empty by the sink. The host had entered my room when I was away and put another bottle of tap water by my beside. I was confused as to why it was switched out and another put in my room. Also, typically some space in the refrigerator would be offered to store any food and drink items when staying at an Airbnb but not in this case. And no weekly discount was offered. I feel it was not a good value overall for what was charged.