The Good:
-the unit was as pictured
-the price was great as we were staying for a whole week and trying not to break the bank
The Bad:
-We were harassed outside of the building as we were taking our luggage out of the car. Two men smoking cigarettes said “I F’ing hate these tourists that come up in here”
-The lobby of the building is dated and not welcoming. The front doorman was watching YouTube videos on his phone as we walked up and we had to tell him that it his job was to check our IDs to get in, which didn’t contribute to a feeling of security.
-We arrived to our unit to find the front door open. We were an hour and a half passed our check in time of 4pm, so we had to check to make sure we had the right room before entering and checking all the rooms and closets to make sure someone wasn’t hiding in the unit.
-There was an empty box of condoms on the floor in the main hallway. Everything else was clean in the room (bed made, towels replaced, etc) which lead us to believe that the room had been cleaned and that the condom box was just left there accidentally.
-We closed the unit door behind us and took around 10 minutes to inspect the unit to make sure that everything was actually clean, feeling very uncomfortable and insecure the whole time. Then, the front door abruptly unlocks and swings open and we hear a scream followed by the door slamming shut. We immediately pack our bags and begin to leave as at this point the experience had been so bad that we couldn’t feel comfortable in the space where we were going to stay for a whole week.
-After a few minutes, we hear a knock on the door that it was housekeeping and that their supervisor had asked them to re-mop the floors in the unit and that we should just step out and let them finish. We had already made up our minds to leave so we told them as such. I felt very bad for the housekeepers, but we just couldn’t stay there and we cancel our entire trip.
-I bring all of this up to the Hosts, who immediately refute my story by saying that they “looked at the cameras” and that there was a maid cart outside of the room and that we should have known the room was still being cleaned, which was not true. We were not told the room wasn’t ready in any way shape or form by the Hosts, the doorman, or any cleaning staff, despite this being an hour and a half passed our check in time. The Hosts claimed that there were housekeepers out with COVID and that they were running late, which I am sympathetic to, but if this had just been communicated to us, then we wouldn’t have had this issue. The Hosts then offer to put us up in a different room, but it was too late as we had already checked in to a hotel. If the hosts want to take away housing by running multiple units in the same apartment building like a hotel, then they need to act and operate like a hotel. Otherwise, pick up a mop and help your cleaning staff when they need help.
-I requested a full refund from the hosts for the stay ($638) and never received a response. I escalated this to Air BnB and ultimately received $250 back, with a note that this did not “violate their hosting standards” despite one of the hosting standards explicitly stating that the room should be cleaned between guests and that you should leave enough time between bookings to thoroughly clean the rooms. This is the last time I will ever use Air BnB given this experience with the host and Air BnB customer service.
Long story short, do not use Air BnB in New Orleans. Spend the extra money and stay at a hotel that will be secure and clean. And especially do not stay here.