Terrible overall experience. This was my first time booking an Air Bnb and after this experience, I am unsure if I will ever use this service again. I and 7 friends booked this house to stay in, checking in Thursday - Sunday, while attending two concerts on Friday and Saturday. I had outlined these plans and even updated the host when/if things shifted. Lc was helpful before check-in and during the first night. Quick responses and simple requests for us.
Friday afternoon everything changed. Friday most of us had left the unit to do things in the city that they had set up for the concert, and while doing that the host contacted me requesting an additional $250 cleaning fee for having a pet. I nor my guest had brought any pets with us during our stay. After I informed the host of this, he accused us of having a dog after hearing barking on his ring camera. We informed him that two of his neighbors owned dogs, but he continued to accuse us and requested the $250 cleaning fee or he would change the code on the unit's smart lock and make us vacate without a refund. I also offered a scheduled or surprise check of the unit and the host also said no. He contacted us regarding the initial issue around 1 PM and said he would give us until 3:30 PM to either pay or leave. I then contacted Air BNB to help mediate and get support but the host would not wait for Air BnB to complete their investigation. As this was the first day of our event, my guests and I decided to pay so we could stay in our location without having to find something that fit all of us on a busy weekend. Two of the guest who had stayed behind for the night recorded multiple incidents of dogs from neighbors barking at various noises. When we initially suggested this to Lc, they did not believe us.
After I paid about 2 hours later I received a message from Lc through the app saying he was changing the locks because we hadn't paid. I sent 2 screenshots of the payment receipt and it took him hours to contact Airbnb to verify. Mind you I am already at my event trying to enjoy my time, but and stressed over this issue that we didn't cause. I explained to him that this was causing excess stress when we had been looking forward to this event for months.
After this interaction with Lc myself and my guests felt uncomfortable asking about anything with the house as this had shown us that Lc was being unreasonable and combative with us. There was a lack of everyday essentials throughout the house, as well: a single roll of toilet paper in the three bathrooms (neither starting with a fresh roll for the weekend) and a single roll of paper towels by the kitchen sink. The household had to purchase toilet paper for us to utilize as we felt we could not communicate with the owner after the events of Friday unfolded and after looking through the house, we could not find any. The majority of the towels were from 24hr fitness, outlets were broken or not working, the bunk bed was not secured properly, and felt unsafe to sleep in. The kitchen sink faucet didn't connect correctly so it hung out of place and whenever any water is used the pipes made a loud noise throughout the house. The smart lock had technical issues when we put in the code. Did not supply a garage code, so we couldn't use that space despite it being empty.
Overall it was an extremely negative experience after the Fridays incident and after connecting with Airbnb on Sunday they found there was no proof of a dog (WE DIDNT HAVE A DOG) and that those barks could have been from neighbors dogs (Our videos showed neighbors dogs and barking throughout the neighborhood) and will be refunding us.
I would highly suggest not renting here because, despite the kind behavior in the initial encounter, that can quickly change to acusations, stress, and headache during a vacation.