TLDR: Not hygienic & a dishonest host.
I booked Alex’s spot to host family from out of town during my wedding weekend. Was looking for something clean and close to my house. Alex advertised his place as a Beautiful spot. When we checked in late to get my family to bed, I was really shocked and disappointed to find the condition of the apartment was generally not very clean. The kitchen had a couple of bottles of condiments for use that were open and filled with dead fruit flies, the pillow smelled of sweat and there were large and numerous stains on many pieces of furniture. The beds that had been advertised to be two queens and a king actually appeared to be two fulls and a queen. The issue that I found most disturbing and least tolerable was the issue of old and dirty mattresses. I found this b/c I suggested a quick check of mattresses by pulling back the sheet in one corner. We were really disgusted to find that the mattress in the “king” room had massive brown stains all across the top and what looked like mold stains along the side. We looked at the other two mattresses and while they were not as deeply soiled or moldy, they did have bits of leaves and other debris on them. I am assuming Alex pulled these from a dumpster as I can’t imagine how else they had come to be so dirty and stained. The mattresses also didn’t have mattress protectors, which is generally unhygienic for a place that has multiple people coming through regularly.
I messaged Alex immediately and let him know and asked for a mattress protector for the ‘king’ so we could at least try and sleep there. The next day we noticed a luxury vehicle parked in the driveway and Alex had bought a couple new pillows and the mattress protector and expected that would be the end of it.
My family was not at all comfortable staying at the house the one night they stayed there, or anything beyond that, mostly because the beds and condition were disgusting, filthy and unsanitary. We checked out after one night and asked Alex for a refund for the nights we didn’t stay. He refused and cited that his other beds were new and that he had a mortgage to pay and that I had asked for a mattress protector and got it and he considered the issue resolved. He offered me three free nights at his place, which is not any sort of compensation as I have no interest in staying there for all of the reasons cited. Alex’s approach was dishonest, misleading, unfair and I wouldn’t recommend staying with him unless he can prove he’s changed his ways about how he treats his guests and can prove that his place is clean and hygienic. Note: that it was my wedding weekend and I didn’t have lots of time to help Alex think through possible solutions, hence I suggested a mattress protector to start.
More detail if interested:
The two full beds which Alex advertised as queen sized had debris on the mattress as seen when the sheet was pulled back.
One of the full beds: (the room on the north side of the house) the springs could be felt when lying on the mattress and it made loud squeaking sounds with any movement.
The pillows in that room were heavily used and smelled strongly of sweat.
The couch and computer chair have blankets draped over them to cover up the numerous & large stains on the furniture itself just underneath.
There were many dead fruit flies in the bottle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil that were meant to be complimentary condiments in the kitchen.
The 'king' bed mattress had actual mold stains and other massive brown stains all over it.
Note: Getting a mattress cover was a very short term request to at least allow for someone to try to sleep on the bed for one night because we had nowhere else for them to sleep. It's not sanitary to have guests sleeping on a mattress that had what appear to be mold stains and massive stains in general.