My bff and I drove from another state to Chicago for a planned event on same day as check in. We arrived 40 mins earlier than our check in time, so that we could get ready for our event. We were able to open the 1st lock box to get through the gate, but when we tried to open the 2nd lock box to get inside the house, it wouldn't open and appeared to be jammed. We texted our host, Raquel about the problem and she did not reply. We also called her a few times and no answer.
We waited half an hr and she finally called us back. And quote, she said, "you will need a plier to open the lock box." She told us she was going to call her housekeeping to come let us in because they were the last ones there. After about 15 minutes, she calls us back and said they couldn't come and that she will drive there herself to let us in, but that she was close to an hr away. We told her that we had an event we needed to get ready for and an hr wasted would make us miss the event.
We contacted Airbnb and asked if we can get 50% refund due to the inconvenience causing us to miss the event that we came for. She arrived an hr later to let us in and said she agree to a 30% refund, but she did not tell us that it would not be 30% of the total amount we paid for, but only for the accommodation fee, which is only 17% of the total we paid for.
Upon entering into the place, things appeared neat, but when we went to use the bathroom, there were semi damp towels and hand towels hanging in the bathroom. They smelled like old wet towels that were left in the washer for too long without being dried properly. There were a lot of dust and a dirty used band aid behind the bathroom door and the hand soap dispenser pump did not work. The kitchen had two big dust balls on the floor and the vents in the bathroom and bedrooms were really dusty.
We opened the fridge and there were a sticky round stain on the glass top inside the fridge. It's obvious that housekeeping did not do their job properly and the host failed to check and make sure that everything is up to par or working. When we messaged Raquel about these issues, she ignored it completely, no apologies and didn't even acknowledge it.
This is the first airbnb that my friend has ever had issues with and she's used and rented from many before, although this is my first time checking one out under my name, I am completely disappointed at how both host and Airbnb handled all the inconvenience this has caused us. This place definitely needs a lot of improvement. We would personally not check it out again.