This stay started out poorly and only got worse. On the day of check in, I communicated with the host about our arrival time of 5pm, and everything seemed fine. When we got there, the code that we had been provided for check in did not unlock the door to the house. We tried multiple combinations, thinking they had perhaps programmed it in the wrong order, and nothing worked. I sent a message to the host via the AirBNB website, called the number on the reservation multiple times, and left a voicemail. Over an hour later, I had received no communication from the host, so I reached out to AirBNB Support. They also attempted to contact the host and received no response. Over 2 hours later, I was finally able to contact the host by calling on another member of my party’s phone that was not linked to the reservation. He responded by telling me that he hadn’t received any communications from me or AirBNB prior to that, which is factually incorrect. He then said he had used his phone to remotely unlock the door so I should try it again, which immediately struck me as a safety concern. We had left the property in those 2 hours, and I voiced this concern over the phone. At that point, he reprogrammed the lock to the access code I had been given, which he had neglected to do before our check in. We requested an immediate refund from AirBNB for the sizeable amount we had paid for the reservation, and they told us they could not give us any credit on the site, so if we wanted to rebook we would have to pay for an additional reservation elsewhere. Upon getting into the house, there were dust and cobwebs in multiple places near the ceiling, standing water and faulty drains in the bathroom and kitchen sinks, and the dishwasher was not properly attached and pulled out of the wall every time we tried to open it. To add insult to injury, there were only 3 forks!
We spent the next day waiting for a call from AirBNB support that never came. No refund, no assistance, nothing. We did our best to spend most of the day away from the property as we did not feel secure there knowing the doors could be remotely unlocked at any point. There were no other options that we could afford a last minute reservation at having spent the amount we did on our original booking, but we tried to make the best of it. The last straw came on the final day of our booking, when we returned from an early morning hike to a truck parked in our yard and a van parked in our driveway. At least 3 men were walking around the home on all sides. One of them asked if we were there for AirBNB and said he had been sent by the owners to work on the property that day. Many of the rooms in the house had only sheer curtains, and as young women, we felt very unsafe with multiple unknown men spending hours just outside our windows. Once again, we contacted AirBNB support, and did not receive any assistance. Leaving the next day was the biggest relief, and this experience soured our entire trip. It is clear that the owners are unable to safely manage this property, and also that AirBNB as a company doesn’t care about the safety of its users. Over a week later and they have made no progress in making this right. I will never book on this site again.