This is my first time writing a negative review on an Airbnb and although I hesitated to write this since I want the whole incident behind me, it’s worth sharing for the rest of the Airbnb community. First let me start with the positives:
(1) the building is nice and the unit has a great view. It’s open and airy with tall windows
(2) Striv does a good job of communicating expectations and being clear in instructions
(3) they provide light snacks (granola bars and oatmeal) and coffee and shampoo and conditioner and laundry soap.
Negatives:
(1) there was no spare key or remote in the unit and I communicated both issues right away. It took a day for them to address the issue with the remote so it was disappointing for my father who is elderly and needed to stay back and watch TV to entertain himself.
(2) parking space is tight if you have a SUV as you will have two SUVs parked on either side of you. It’s 3 levels of circling to get down to the spot so it’s a little inconvenient
(3) we had to search for the remote everywhere which required looking under the couch cushions. The unit seems clean on a superficial basis but when you overturn couch cushions to find crumbs and hair, you realize the cleaning is very superficial.
(4) pungent odor when coming into the unit of cleaning chemicals so we had to leave the window open the entire stay so it made for loud nights of light sleep since you will hear typical city noise
(5) many many homeless encampments on the immediate blocks outside the building which you have to walk past to go anywhere
(6) already knew about the issue of going through the parking garage to avoid the front desk lobby since they are being hush hush about the Airbnb situation
(7) pool access under construction
(8) the staff let me know upon checkout that I would be getting a 5 star review so that if I had any concerns instead of writing a negative review, they wanted direct communication. I did that re remote and asked for adjustment and they turned me down
(9) after complaining about the lack of remote, they decided to ask me about a spare key which apparently the cleaning staff had taken a pic that it was there before my arrival. I had to remind them I never got spare keys and asked about them and then it made me realize perhaps there is a building security issue since it now seemed someone had come into the unit to take the remote and the spare keys. (Take note that the door has to be manually locked… doesn’t lock just because you close the door).
(10) I spent a lot of time communicating with them over a remote and spare keys and would never choose to rent from them again because of how they responded.