PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING!
Nice place, absolutely TERRIBLE and HORRIBLE host. She completely disregarded our privacy and made me and my fiancé feel like second class citizens.
I encourage all of you who are seeing this review to stop and please read it before you book this airbnb.
I live locally in San Diego. I had a pipe burst in my apartment on Wednesday before the Labor Day holiday weekend. My fiancé and I have been hopping around from hotel and airbnb because the holiday weekend had limited options for us to book one long stay at while construction is completed. I mentioned to Jennifer the local neighborhood we we live in and why were staying at her airbnb when we booked. I will circle back to this in a moment as it plays a HUGE role in why I feel I was treated VERY differently than other guests.
I saw this listing and the reviews and quickly booked it on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (it was slim pickings and this looked like a nice option) I needed a place to quickly book so my fiancé and I could work since we had already lost days of work from the flood. We both work remotely and just needed a place to station our laptops and sleep.
After booking I realized they had a no pet policy. For the record, that was completely my oversight and I own that completely.
I decided to email and call the host to see if she had any flexibility with the policy to have a work emotional support dog (I work with children with Autism and PTSD patients)
I thought I would just ASK and if it was not an option NO PROBLEM, we have a pet sitter (my mother-in-law) who would happily watch her for the weekend.
When I received a reply from Jennifer she stated that she has an aggressive dog towards other dogs (different reason than what’s stated in the listing) and the no pet policy was stated clearly in her listing. She then proceeded to say “this was her home so please cancel now”.
Again, we didn’t need to cancel, we were just asking so we could either board our dog the night before in the event they were not flexible with their policy. She was FULLY aware we lived in San Diego. Rather than recommending to cancel (if we couldn’t find an pet sitter), instead, she preferred for us to immediately and fully cancel our 3 night stay. I thought it was weird that a host wouldn’t attempt to keep their customer, especially if they were local, booking it on a holiday weekend (rates are higher) and could easily board their dog.
When she told us to cancel, I asked her if it would be a full refund. She said she couldn’t guarantee the service fees etc.
It was more trouble for us to cancel, find a new place for us to work (on a busy holiday weekend) that allows dogs, rather than just boarding her. I didn’t want to waste more time from our work hunting for a place to stay (after already a very stressful week) when the solution was very simple. So I replied back and simply stated, “no need to complicate we will just board her.” My mother in-law could only watch her up to Tuesday so we adjusted our reservation accordingly.
We received a generic instruction message from Jennifer later Saturday night with instructions on how to access the pool house.
In her message she also stated that her and her husband like to greet and meet their guests. I messaged the host just before 3pm on Sunday to let her know we would be arriving at 3:30 that day so they would know when to come out and greet us.
When we arrived we could tell they were home in the main house (garage wide open and car parked) so we waited in our car to see if they would pop out and say hello. We thought maybe they didn’t know it was us so we decided to grab our luggage and wait a few minutes outside for them to greet us. Nothing.
We proceeded let ourselves into the pool house. I immediately contacted Jennifer to let her know we arrived and that the latch to the pool gate wasn’t latching. I wanted to give her a heads up because I know she has a child and it posed a safety hazard to her child and her dog. I also asked her if there was anything she could offer for additional privacy as we noticed the curtains that covered the entrance French doors (that lookout to the pool where her and her family could easily see us) are sheer. Also, please note, the current photos on her listing do not show the sheer curtains.
Her reply was “no”. No hello. No welcome. No offer to provide a sheet or anything to give us privacy or make us feel more comfortable like her listing advertises.
Nada. Nothing.
Not even a thank you for sharing our concern about her child and dog’s safety.
At this point I immediately started to feel like a second class and unwanted citizen in her home. I looked at my fiancé and said I need to contact airbnb to see what to do next. As I was on the phone making my complaint about our experience thus far with the host, we noticed the pool window was wide open and wouldn’t shut (it was jammed). We also noticed a Google HOME (located in the bathroom? Not listed as an amenity) that was plugged in and kept turning on when we would talk. For those of you who don’t know, Google HOME can be used as a baby monitor / listen into other rooms. I immediately unplugged it when we finally discovered it.
I was and still am mortified. She could hear everything I was saying on the phone (either