To say this was a "House of Horrors" would be a huge exaggeration. Not the "Horrors" part. That is true. It's the "House" part that is the exaggeration. My first of many issues with this place is that it is listed as "Entire House to Yourself" on Airbnb. This is not true. It is ONE apartment in a house, which I asked about just before I clicked "reserve". When the owner said it was indeed just an apartment, I reserved it anyway, which was my first mistake since what happened after that, was definitely full of "Horrors".
When arriving at the property, we saw that this place was indeed not the sweet, charming New England house described in the listing. While the houses around it were indeed well kept up and tidy, this house was set a few feet off the street -- just enough to allow us to destroy our shoes in the rain (but more about that later!) -- and from the outside, absolutely in disrepair. It was the opposite of charming with its ancient paint job and row of six enormous garbage cans in the front. Deflated, my companion and I agreed that, while we were disappointed, maybe the inside was better and that the charm might have to be found elsewhere in Boston.
The next problem was that we never got to actually see the "inside". When we got out of the car in the pouring rain, we retrieved the key from the lockbox and tried the lock. It had a light-up keypad that didn't light up, and three keys, none of which worked. They all spun around uselessly in the lock OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I attempted to call the owner and the NUMBER WAS DISCONNECTED. Frustrated, I messaged the owner through Airbnb and asked for them to call me, but was told that the lock did indeed work and that the maid would come over and help us get in. We waited and waited and waited (15 minutes in the pouring rain), and finally had to give up and go to dinner and a play for which we had tickets and could not be late. We messaged the host to get us a working phone number so we could be talked through the process of getting in, but the owner sent another nonworking number that only gave us a "fast busy" signal. One-half-hour after the host promised, we were notified that the maid had arrived and sent us videos of her working the trick lock. By then, I had called Airbnb customer support and they were horrified to hear of our treatment and asked us to file a complaint, which I am in the process of doing.
Armed with the video of the maid opening the door, we arrived back at the house around 2 a.m. and figured at least we could sleep a few hours now that we could finally get in the house. I guess, however, the owner and the maid had other plans for us because, when I arrived back at the apartment, my companion noticed that the door to the apartment was literally WIDE OPEN. Now, this is a house where the door to the apartment leads DIRECTLY TO THE OUTDOORS, so any number of animals, intruders, etc. could have gotten in over the 8 hours since the maid had left the house in the afternoon. As a 60-year-old woman, I was hugely hesitant -- and frankly, scared -- to enter a house in a well-trafficked area that had been standing with a wide-open door for over 8 hours.
We weighed the options and since the house is completely surrounded by other houses and we could cry for help if we needed to, we decided to take a few steps inside. Also, I always travel with pepper spray and a Birdie alarm, so we decided to take a few steps into the apartment to see if it had been entered by someone else. When we stepped out of the car, our feet completely disappeared into a huge lake of water that had collected after a full day of rain. It was literally 3 inches deep. The lake went right up to the front porch and there was no other way into the house, so we had no choice but to wade through it to try to get into the potentially unsafe house.
Once we reached the wide-open front door, we entered the apartment and only got as far as the second bedroom before we noticed that there was a light on in the otherwise dark apartment. It was behind a closet door, and we agreed that we should not risk going further, ran through the water again, and left, trying hotel after hotel until we finally were forced to stay at an overpriced hotel since it was a holiday weekend.
Of course, the host has been unresponsive. I messaged her through Airbnb when we arrived at the house that the door was wide open. I messaged her about the huge water problem out front, and I demanded a refund. She has not responded.
Obviously, this was a terrible situation. The host will say that I wasn't strong enough to open the door, that she provided a phone number that eventually worked, and that I was a complainer. I'll note here that I have had some rotten surprises at Airbnb's and I have never posted a public complaint because I decided a good sense of humor and karma would take care of the problem naturally. However, once this became a SAFETY ISSUE, I could not let this go. The physical and sexual assault of women is a huge issue and I am not going to sit by and let this behavior be ignored and go unchecked.
As far as I am concerned, I am due a full refund and at least a new pair of shoes. Plus an apology, but I'm sure I'll never get that.