This was the worst experience I've had after being an Airbnb Superhost for 2 years in my own home, and many stays in other hosts' homes. I expected a clean, quiet place for my colleagues and I to share while we attended a conference. What I got was a dirty, poorly-maintained home and a host that was using surveillance cameras to check on my group and demand more fees.
I rented this property so a group of my 6 colleagues and I could share a home for a conference we were attending in the waterfront. We arrived late the first night, and one of my guests brought her coworker to share one of the bedrooms. Another of my friends contacted me late and asked to crash on the couch for one night since his hotel reservation had issues. That brought our guest total to 8. I thought it would be no big deal, since the listing claims to accommodate 9 guests. In fact, I had increased the number of guests on the reservation from 4 to 6 without additional cost, so I figured I'd message Marina to adjust the reservation and all would be well.
SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS
The next morning we left the house early for the first session of the conference. Before we had our lunch break, I received a text message on my personal phone from Marina AND a message on Airbnb that she was demanding an additional $440 for the remainder of our stay. Apparently she had reviewed the security camera footage from the morning and decided that there were 9 guests (actually only 8, more later), she was going to charge an extra $55 per guest, per night. Confused, I asked where this extra guest fee was listed, since changing the reservation from 4 to 6 guests was free. There's a little section on the bottom of the listing page called "Additional Fees" that includes this information. Nowhere is the amount listed in the listing description or the house rules. And why does it only apply to the 8th and 9th guests, when the listing fee covers guests 1–7? Why the huge extra charge?
EXPENSIVE FEES
So, despite this listing claiming to accommodate 9 guests, Marina only wants 7 guests, and she will charge you an expensive fee if you want 8 or 9 guests. I paid about $155/night for the first six guests, which comes to only $25 per guest, so paying 1/3 the total nightly fee for just one more guest who was sharing a bed is ridiculous. I made a counter offer to Marina for $110 to accommodate the 8th guest (who slept on a terrible, old couch) for the first night) and include the 7th guest for the rest of the stay. She took that money and continued to demand more because according to her, there were 9 guests at the listing. Despite me clearly identifying only 8 guests leaving the house in the screenshots of her own surveillance footage, she continued to insist that there were 9 guests the first night.
Exasperated with all the time this was taking away from my conference and faced with the possibility that another of our colleagues wouldn't have a place to stay, I offered to pay the expensive extra guest fee for an 8th guest so she could share a bed. This time, Marina didn't want the money and flat-out refused to adjust the reservation. This really felt like she was rejecting the reservation update out of spite because I challenged her to find a good explanation why the 8th guest fee was 1/3 of the total fee.
UNCLEAN & POORLY MAINTAINED
The home was dirty and not worth the price. I also paid a $165 cleaning fee. Now you'd think that with a cleaning fee of that price, Marina would have professional cleaners in the home after every guest. That was definitely not the case. Here are the issues we noticed:
–Black mold/mildew in multiple windows, which is a major health hazard.
–Every kitchen cabinet had food stains and crumbs in it.
–The light switch in the bathroom for the master bedroom was broken, and didn't turn on the fan.
–The “Master bedroom” was a converted garage, so it had no heat (we were there in February, and it gets cold at night).
–Towels flat and worn, pillows old and flat, duvet/comforters flimsy and cheap. No extra bedding put out at all to help make ourselves comfortable.
–Beds were all very poor and uncomfortable, one squeaked so loudly every time the sleeper moved, it kept waking them up.
–Every door in the house squeaked, so we always knew when someone was getting up in the middle of the night
–Living room only has one sad sagging couch and an armchair, not enough to accommodate the 9 guests the listing says it can accommodate
–No plates, bowls, or any cooking utensils. Just silverware and some plastic cups.
–Kitchen cabinets filled with random scraps and things left behind by previous guests.
–Gray smudges around every doorknob and light switch
–Filthy baseboards
–Overhead light in master bedroom burned out
–Tile grout old and disgusting–Back patio overgrown and sad, patio table covered in broken placemats and very dusty
Additionally, the house has no street markings on the sidewalk, it is hidden up a crumbled, unlit driveway. There's a house behind the listing that other people live in, so they walk up the driveway and right by some of the guest bedrooms at all hours of the day and night to get to their home.
NO RESOLUTION
Despite me clearly identifying that there were only 8 guests the first night and not 9, Marina continued to insist that there were 9 guests and refused to refund me the extra $55 I paid at the start of our issues. Then, when I requested she refund the $165 cleaning fee based on the photos I shared of how dirty and run-down the listing was, she also refused.
My advice? Stay