I have stayed in dozens of Airbnb’s throughout the years. This by far was my worst experience. When I first arrive I parked in the first street parking that was closest to the Airbnb house/apartment. There was a very small parking lot in front of the house but The host mentioned there was a vehicle parked all the way to the right that did not ever move. I didn’t want to block up the entire path to the parking lot and I did not know if I was allowed to park within the parking lot., So I messaged the host to ask where it was appropriate to park. My host told me to park in the parking lot but instead I parked in the parking spot behind it because I did not want to block off the driveway completely for the parking entrance where it looked like people entered. After that I had carried all of my belongings into the Airbnb. I started unpacking and was about to get in the shower literally had just stopped in for a minute. When I hear a bang on the door for a good five minutes. I tried to yell to hold on multiple times and a woman extremely rude who did not say she was the host said I need to move my car immediately. I blocked her pathway to her parking lot I told her I would move my car I was just getting in the shower if you could please give me a little bit. so I called the host and I told him I was a bit confused I thought I was allowed to park in the driveway. Now apparently he says don’t park anywhere near the Airbnb house.
Not to mention this is the worst neighborhood and most unsafe neighborhood I have ever stayed in in the entire bay area. there’s a reason why you do not see a picture of the exterior of the house it is extremely creepy and you have nothing but scary people that will bother you living on the street.
After about 20 minutes God forbid I had to take a shower and did not jump out wet and start moving my car naked I had already had the woman come back and the host had already called me and I told him I was gonna be right up to the vehicle. I am so confused by now because there’s two people telling me what to do one thing to do one thing and another thing another but I am also confused that the woman is not the house yet telling me I cannot park near the premises and that the house completely changed where I could park. So I spent about an hour trying to find a parking spot near the Airbnb on one of the worst streets and most unsafe streets in Oakland. As a traveling nurse I’m trying to relocate back to the bay area and one of my reservations have been canceled and this was the first one I could check into but the pictures look great it looks like a nice little studio. The host needs to update his listing and be more honest this is not a studio it is a room with a kitchenette and a bathroom. There is no couch or sitting area, and there is no TV at all in the entire unit it is very small. Although it’s very small it does look cute and renovated still quite misleading in many ways. But the neighborhood is completely unsafe and scary. After I finally was able to park, I had to park at the end of the street almost 8 blocks down or if not more.
By this time I had waited for my husband to go with me that way I was not having to walk back by myself and carry in any more of our belongings.
The house also sent me a message saying please don’t leave anything in the car because this is a Bay Area and it’s unsafe to leave things in the area but I have stated many Bay area locations such as Castro Valley, Pinole, San Mateo, Burlingame, San Pablo, Piedmont and Montclair hills, Alameda and only time once in once in Oakland which i actually had a great experience and felt very safe and the house was extremely amazing and the listing was 100% accurate.
After getting approved for this day, I was able to see the listing from the exterior and the area, which is hidden from you for a reason until you actually pay for your Airbnb stay. After seeing the listing area and exterior of the house/apt’s?? I immediately contact the host and attempted to cancel, Due to the unsafe and scary neighborhood and the misleading description I’m only showing a renovated place and not the outside of the place you’re staying, once you see that you can easily tell it is an unsafe neighborhood. Not only that it was going to be far from where my interview was which was in Castro Valley The listing did say the owner does not accept cancellations but I did mention to him how it was quite inconvenient for me to be in that area because my interviews were out in Castro Valley. Location and area are hidden and any exterior photos. On the hosts page it did state no cancellation but I had mentioned to him that the interview and purpose of my stay was going to be quite far of a drive back-and-forth each time and with the minimal parking it would be so Quiet and convenient. So I did ask if I could at least change my stay to 1 night stay instead of 2 since he did not do refunds. He agreed but only agreed to refund about 35% of the entire cost. and he said I could not change the date that I was using the Airbnb it had to be check