Long story short:
We lived in a hot box during 100 degree weather unable to shower for 20 hours with bugs (which we think were cockroaches) as roommates and thought we may have been robbed for a minute but it turns out nothing was taken and the host didn’t communicate they were sending someone to try and “clean” the bugs.
Long Story:
Upon arrival the AC was not working so I messaged the host. My fellow guests and I went out and then came back to discover the AC was still not working. I went to take a shower only to discover there was a bug infestation. Talk about naked and afraid! I immediately messaged the host about the issue and included pictures. I knew it was late so I figured I would give them a moment to respond. We cautiously went to bed after checking under the mattresses which appeared to be good. The next morning we woke up really early and went to breakfast. When we came back the AC still was not working and we could tell someone had been there. I still had not received a message from the host so we were freaking out and checking our belongings. We couldn’t tell who had been there and it looked like all of our belongings were still present.
I called the number provided by the host to discover they had sent someone to clean yet it hadn’t communicated with us. My Airbnb messages remained unanswered. The woman on the phone was not very understanding or helpful. The bugs were still present in large numbers so we insisted they send someone for that and requested they fix the AC.
After begging for them to send someone they sent a maintenance man (he was a wonderfully kind man) and he sprayed raid. He admitted he also would not shower in there, that the raid likely would not hold back the bugs since they were coming out the wall, and that they needed pest control to come but that it wouldn’t happen until Monday. He also discovered that the AC was not working. He promised to speak to his manager.
The woman on the phone essentially told us to vacate immediately and submit a request on our end to be refunded so that they could get the room rented out again that night.
Feeling discouraged and unsafe while realizing that none of the issues were going to be resolved- we found a hotel and left. Our privacy had already been compromised with no communication, the weather was 100 degrees, the AC wasn’t working, and we couldn’t bring ourselves to shower with the roaches. We found ourselves a wonderful hotel for a third of the price we paid for this Airbnb and in a slightly better location.
The Airbnb is in a good location right near Bourbon Street and the small courtyard is quite pretty and peaceful. I feel that if we had known everything going in we may have still booked the place (well except for maybe the bugs, personally, but some people don’t mind that kind of thing). I think we would have been fine if we had more communication, had known someone was coming by, and had more understanding and compassion from the hosts when we were so startled and scared by everything that had happened.
It looks like other people have had these issues as well and they continue to be unresolved.