Our stay at Tiffany's Airbnb was strange and different from other reviews. Simply put, it wasn't as clean, comfortable, or helpful. We're not sure why but want to be candid with our experience.
Cleanliness: The house from when we walked in was not cleaned well. Two of the rooms/beds had strands of hair within the sheets. We initially let it slide, but one of us took photos which came to be handy later on. On day 3 or 4, we bought groceries and that was when the issues of roaches made it necessary to reach out. Context for roaches: we cut an apple on a cutting board, left the board and knife, and soon after found a decent size roach on the board. We also noticed another on the floor roaming, both during daytime. By nighttime, after cooking and putting dishes in the sink, we enjoyed a drink and returned to the kitchen with at least 7 roaches around the sink and dishes.
Communications: When we reached out on issues of cleanliness, and shared photos of roach and hair, Tiffany implied the hair could have been ours (although the individuals staying in those rooms has completely different hair and luckily our photos were time stamped) and that we should have put dishes in the dishwasher right away. Her response felt more templated and deflective than concerned. Altho we ultimately reached an agreement, we found her generally less responsive and helpful unless she decided to engage. Prior to the trip, Hurricane Ida had affected New Orleans and we sent a few messages checking on conditions, how they're doing, and inquired on refund options—and got no response. We followed up asking if the house is still available and got a response within minutes from Tiffany confirming yes. When we replied minutes later and asked again on refund options if conditions are bad, again radio silence and never got an answer. We found that the hosts would only respond, and more timely, if it was in their favor.
Accuracy: We intentionally selected this Airbnb since it looked pleasing and comfortable but will say the photos are slightly outdated. The house was more run down, missing some items from images, definitely not as clean, and less cozy and considered.
Multiple times we tried to give the hosts the benefit of the doubt but found them to be more transactional than sincere. To end it all, on our last day, there was a knock on the back door and then a man unlocked it and came in with only one woman remaining in the house. He couldn't speak English so she wasn't able to communicate with him. Tiffany explained that it was their handy man bringing furniture but it didn't seem like he had any. All in all, a crazy end experience to have a stranger enter the house before we had left.