We appear to be the first review of and first stay at this place so feel extremely important to share for future renters: TLDR: there is a roach problem in the kitchen (and maybe other areas). We stayed for ~ 2 hours in the unit and we went to buy groceries for our stay and as soon as we saw roaches in the kitchen, we left and told the host and Airbnb. Host has not been willing to be reasonable and understand that we had NO choice but to leave and left at NO fault of our own, except for being reasonable humans who do not want to live with roaches (especially after paying close to $1200 for a place). Host has kept ~ $800 for a 2 hour stay. Disappointing and unfair situation and sad welcome back to travel and rental stays. Hope Airbnb and the host can do the right thing here and exercise fairness and some compassion.
My husband and I arrived after a long international flight to kick off our honeymoon stay and return to the states, we were so excited at what appeared to be a great apartment in one of our favorite locations. We set up some of our stuff, unpacked, and went to get groceries to cook and were excited to have a kitchen. We spent about 2 hours in total at the place and when we returned with groceries, we were SCARED and disgusted to see big redish roaches near the stove in the kitchen. We ran from the kitchen and scrambled to leave. On top of being so tired after a long flight and disappointed after looking forward to a nice stay, we were so uncomfortable, scared, and disgusted, especially as I have severe allergies. We had to immediately pack up our stuff so as not to have any roaches or bugs get into our stuff and contacted the host and Airbnb to no avail. We had to scramble to find a last minute expensive hotel in DC, wasted our groceries with perishable items, and paid for Uber’s to get out ASAP. We did our part in notifying the host and Airbnb and have not received much help in the situation. Provided detailed accounts of incident and receipts and docs etc. The host has collected most of the money for a week long stay that cost close to $1200 (we received part of it back around $250) through their partial refund policy but neither Airbnb nor the host told us to do this ASAP or offered any help so we lost money there too).
We did everything we could to stay at this place and HAD to leave at no fault or choice of our own and at extra cost to us (hotel, uber, groceries). We shared pics of how we bought groceries and the extra costs, time dated receipts, they have a camera to also see how long we were there, etc but to no *compassion* or understanding from the host. There was no benefit for us to leave except to not live in an uninhabitable unit with roaches in a kitchen and explained this in detail to the host and Airbnb. The host has not been understanding at all. I hope the host fixes the roach problem in the kitchen as future guests will see this - we were the first guests at this place it seems, so we’re the host’s guinea pigs essentially. I hope the host can also fix the roach problem to meet DC habitability standards for Airbnb’s and apartments and I would hope Airbnb would do the right thing here and help to refund our money.
The host has now collected upward of $800 from us for our ~ 2 hour stay and penalizing us for not wanting to live with roaches in the kitchen. In the future, the host should be reasonable and responsive to cancellations and refund requests that are not due to the fault of the guests like us. They have many properties and could have even offered us a solution to stay at one of those but did not because they *knew they could keep our money* and did not have to help us, even when we were not at fault. I hope Airbnb can step up and do the right thing to protect the renters who are the other half of their business and platform. What a disappointing welcome back to travel, no vacation, and rental stays.