Nice home but experience destroyed by Cockroaches and a Bad host:
Good stuff: Check-in was a breeze. The instructions were perfect. The home was ideal. The host checked in on us and confirmed everything was ok! Coming in I actually liked how prescriptive the host was in terms of do’s and dont’s.
Problem # 1. On the 2nd night of our stay we saw multiple full sized COCKROACHES creeping around on the stove in the kitchen. I took pictures and alerted the host. This was a creepy experience!!!
Problem # 2,: The host replied that cockroaches were expected because the home had only recently gotten fumigated and roaches show up post fumigation.
So it seems he knew but still chose to rent this place out soon after the home was fumigated knowing well that those cockroaches will likely show up. Clearly he could care less about guest experience!
Problem # 3. When I asked him how he could help us with this cockroach situation, he said I had two options.
First option - Just use Raid! In other words just grin and live with it. Like it was no big deal at all.
Second Option - I could leave in the next 12 hours (by 11 am next day) find another place. He will thus “not charge me” for that one extra one day of stay left on the contract. But I HAD to leave by 11 am the next morning and that time limit was absolutely non-negotiable.
Now picture this, he is asking a family on vacation at 11 pm the previous night to pack & move out in the next 12 hours. He implicitly expects them to sidestep all their work plans & vacation plans for the next day, pack and move elsewhere. All because he put out a home that was not ready to be rented out. Implicitly he expects the family to spend time on the street from 11 am until 3 pm because that is when hotel accommodations open. So a total of 4 hours without a home and luggage in tow! Clearly we were not ready to pull that off.
Conclusion: This was a horrible experience not because it was a bad home but because we ended up dealing with cockroach infestation and a very inconsiderate host. Cockroach infestation itself is a huge deal and the bad attitude made it worse.
The home itself was really nice, spacious and very well equipped. The neighborhood was nice barring some crazies at night. So watch out if you plan to walk around after dark.
Net/net : I have used Airbnb for many trips in recent years. Not every experience has been perfect but for every sub-optimal experience the hosts have always stepped up, been fair and very accommodative to help me help them. If there was a problem we teamed up to solve it. While there was inconvenience the gracious attitude of the hosts made up for it and I was only happy to work with them. That is why I adore the Airbnb platform and love to bat for hosts and help them be successful.
But this one was an exception. This host could care less about the stresses and inconvenience his guests were going through. We faced an issue and he offered a one-sided solution all in his favor! He forgot that we were visitors from out of town. He simply wanted to hit his revenue numbers regardless. He was ready to put us on the street if that’s what it took.
Very distinct and bad experience here. Never again with this home and this host.