Check In:
Horrible check in. The code they sent for the main front door didn’t work, lock completely unresponsive but high pitched buzzing the entire time. After speaking to a rep on the phone, they had us find a lockbox with a physical key, which didn’t work. Then they had us go to the back door to try another code, which didn’t work and barred us from trying for some time. All in all it took over 90 minutes and many calls to finally get a code that unlocked the back door, which didn’t even lock again when we left in the morning. The guy on the phone had no idea what he was talking about, telling us to walk to the back door but not even knowing how exactly to get there. It was an unlit path, and felt unsafe and wrong.
My group of 9 didn’t get into the apartment until 2:30 AM. We had to wait outside in the cold dark night, while the host now refuses to give a full refund because they “helped us get into the house after this inconvenience”. More on the host’s unacceptable behavior later in this review.
Parking:
The 3 story house is on a relatively narrow but inclined street. Street parking was able to be found, but our car got keyed. Makes you question how safe the neighborhood really is.
The Space:
It has what you need, but the space is small. 2 of the bedrooms have a full or queen bed each, but the 3rd room has a full-on-full bunk bed (size not confirmed). This was extremely squeaky and wobbly. We even saw the corners held together by tape. I would not trust 2 people to sleep up top safely, so we had to have people sleep on the couch. There were also 2 twin size rollaway beds. Not worth the price.
The Host:
Heirloom is a corporation. Do not expect to get in contact with a local human who can give you actual helpful directions. Most of their workers over the messaging system or phone have never set foot on the property and can only provide generic info.
After the check-in debacle, the representative Wayne said they are unable to provide any refund because they claimed the inability to enter was due to “user error” when they are the ones who were unable to give us access to the front or back door properly. After reminding them of the trouble they caused and how we followed all of their instructions correctly (not user error), they upped it to $80 (laughable). After another call with their supervisor Marlene the next morning, they gave an additional $200 because the 2nd back door code provided didn’t work either. Now they are refusing to budge from this $280 refund when I paid over $1000 for this stay. They keep apologizing for the “inconvenience” this caused and insist because we physically stayed at the house, they can’t refund us any more. This was a legit safety issue with the cold, dark, and questionable safety of the neighborhood. It was more than just an inconvenience, and we were in the house for less than 8 hours total. Nobody should trust this host, whether it’s here in Boston or another one of their homes.
Airbnb is also not being very helpful in getting this refund, and they claim the host needs to authorize a full refund to get the money back. But what would incentivize the host to authorize this? Of course they want to keep the money. This safety issue should’ve been refunded under AirCover, but Airbnb is also not sticking to their word in helping me get the money back.