We were told we could check in on Dec. 19 and not before because it was being rented up to the 19th and then a cleaning crew would come in at noon. We arrived at 3pm and the temperature was 54º. The owner sent out an incredibly kind and handy plumber who had done a temporary fix before on the heating unit and did that again. He said he could NOT get the proper part to fix it due to supply chain problems. We went out to dinner to stay warm and when we returned the heating worked for a few hours and went up to 60º. In the middle of the night it was back to 52º.
Waking up to 52º in the morning the owner said she was getting the part and was an hour away. In a later text it would be fixed in the next couple of hours. Were we to wait and hope she could get a part that her plumber said he could not get evidenced by he kept doing temporary fixes?
The owner misrepresented the situation on several occasions:
1) If other renters were there and a cleaning crew 3 hours before we arrived, in no way could the unit have gone from a comfortable temperature down to 52º in a few hours.
2) The plumber said he could not get the part due to supply issues and not because it was a Sunday and shops were closed as owner purported.
3) We were told there were 4 tv’s in the condo. There were only 6 non-english stations that worked.
4) We could not find the washer and dryer as listed.
5) There were no black out shades as listed.
We spent one night freezing under blankets that had pet hair on them. We woke up to freezing temperatures again. Her plumber said he could not get the proper part. Why would we stay another day knowing it couldn’t be properly fixed?
Per Massachusetts Statute 105 CMR 410, The Department of Public Health requires landlords to adequately heat a property to a safe temperature. It is illegal to charge a resident when the property can not be heated to 68º from 7am-11pm and 64º at all other other hours.
1) We are now in a hotel and paying for that and the Airbnb we had to leave.
2) We want a full refund due to numerous misrepresentations.
3) When we decided we had to leave due to the cold temperature, that is when the host immediately ceased communication with us. Before we left, she would text us back promptly. Upon leaving, we tried on numerous occasions to contact the host and she would not return our messages. We did not want to air our grievances on a review, but we did not know what else to do when our efforts to talk were rebuffed.
We have been loyal Airbnb users for many years. This is our first bad experience. We want to continue using Airbnb knowing one bad owner should not reflect our future enjoyment of Airbnb in the future.
We are trying to solve our dispute and have called and emailed Airbnb numerous times. They have emailed us and told they would call, but we haven’t received a phone call yet.
Thank you.