Being new to Airbnb, I hoped for a great first-time experience. Correspondence between me and the host leading up to my stay seemed well thus far till the first day of my and my friend’s stay. On July 14, four days prior to the first day of our reservation, I politely requested, through the Airbnb private messaging platform, Annette whether it would be alright for my friend and I to solely drop off our belongings at her residence early in the day, irrespective of check-in. We were to volunteer for San Diego Comic Con and needed to arrive early to go through registration and obtain our assignment for the day. We would not be able to lug around our overnight belongings or place them in a safe, designated area at the convention center. I acknowledged and respected our host’s check-in time between 4PM-8PM, and therefore reasonably proposed to only drop off our belongings at a secure area outside of the room and house but still within the residential premises, and return at the time requested to formally check-in. To show my appreciation for the small accommodation, I promised to update her consistently on our ETA with the aim to arrive at her residence no later than 12PM, which I upheld. She promptly replied “yes” and further elaborated her willingness to accommodate us, stating the following: (15 July, 8:02AM) “The only thing is you may not be able to bring your things in the house (we have an enclosed front yard with a block fence that your luggage can be stored in safely) because I’ll probably still be cleaning. But I can at least hand you the keys and show you the room.” I gladly agreed to and was completely aligned with her requirement—we were on the same page—and I thanked her, looking forward to meeting her soon.
On the first day of our reservation, I proceeded to correspond with Annette via text and notified her that morning at 9:49AM that we were just leaving our city and would be on our way. My friend’s father kindly took the time out of his morning to drive us to SD and needed to head to work immediately, afterwards. Again, we would only drop off our belongings, NOT check-in. She replied promptly; however, things took a sudden turn. Her reply was: “The earliest I can allow you to check in is 2PM. So once you get in the area maybe you can have some lunch or hang out and then come by. Sorry I see that we discussed you coming about noon. I will see you around noon then!” I was confused for a moment and replied to her, reiterating our previous discussion to only drop off our belongings and that we aimed to arrive NO LATER THAN NOON to do so and that she was fine with us leaving them in the designated area, but that I would check-in formally at the time she desires. She then stated her understanding and for us to make it (check-in) close to 12, which again, I agreed. I then told her that we would be making some stop overs and that it would be some time anyway, but that I still wanted to keep her updated, as promised. With all that being said, I asked her once more for clarification whether it was still okay for us to JUST drop off our belongings. She said, “Yes of course.”
Upon our arrival at the front of the residence, I called Annette to let her know that we’ve arrived to drop off our belongings, expecting to proceed what we’ve discussed. She then goes on a tirade saying that I did not listen to her, that I overlooked her request, that I was PUSHING her with my agenda, that the host is the primary body who makes all the rules, and that her personal reasons prevented her from accommodating us. I was FLOORED. As she ranted, I could not get a word in, and figured repeating myself and what we discussed would do no good, because she clearly forgot what she agreed upon (that we WEREN’T going to check-in, but simply drop off our belongings in the designated safe area of her property), despite the many times I asked in clarification and she giving the affirmative. In exasperation, she then tells me to go through the gate and wait for her downstairs. I was very upset and confused after all that time communicating, and I felt even worse that my friend’s father would be late to work. We waited awhile till we figured that it would be best not to further exacerbate the situation and just return at 12. Out of obligated politeness, I texted Annette that we would return at the desired time and apologized for the misunderstanding. The twisted thing that occurred upon returning was that we ended up doing what we were supposed to do earlier, but we WEREN’T shown the room and the designated “safe area” wasn’t as expected—her gate doesn’t have a lock and thus our belongings would simply be in front of her door, exposed to the public who could easily meander through the gate. Annette handed me the keys and had us lay out our luggage outside of her door—again, which could have been done earlier without being checked-in, as we discussed and what I emphasized repeatedly in our correspondence. Further adding salt on the wound, she had the audacity to be derisive towards my friend’s father when he approached her gate to greet her and politely remind her to be careful coming down the steps. Telling him that she knew more about it than he did in the tone she resonated was unbelievable. Overall, our time was wasted that morning and it set a tone of avoidance and discomfort for me and my friend during our stay. There weren’t any disagreements or arguments following day 1, but the experience added unnecessary stress for me, especially being new to Airbnb.