Where to begin.
I’ll start with the fact that this host violated Air BnB’s safety and privacy policies so grievously while I was there that they decided my safety was at risk and moved me to a hotel for 3 nights free of charge and refunded me for part of my stay. They also removed his listings from their platform. That’s how serious they considered his behavior.
The host entered my room without my consent when I wasn’t home on at least 2 occasions that I know of. He also repeatedly let himself into the apartment that I was sharing with other guests without consent or permission. After the 2 guests I was sharing the unit with moved out and I was alone he would let himself in and out of the unit, at will, day and night. Sometimes he would just use the toilet and leave. Other times he would conduct his personal business on speakerphone outside my door. Sometimes he would sleep the entire night there in the spare room even though he had a fully furnished apartment downstairs with all of his clothes, food and toiletries. I cannot stress enough that he did not live in the unit. His residence was elsewhere in the building. I even came home one night at 1 am after helping a friend with her new restaurant to find him in the apartment cleaning with all the lights on. Again, a place he didn’t even reside in or have permission to be in. He stayed in the apartment until 2:30 am making noise. The noise continued the next morning at 7:30 am. He moved in a phone charger, a coat and a couple of t shirts and claimed that he now “lived there” and would be using the place as he pleased. He also has a strict policy against house guests that’s posted on the refrigerator but low and behold he was hosting a guest in the unit at 8:30 am. Again, hosting a guest at a residence that he doesn’t even live at with a paying guest inside. His father owns the building and because of that the host feels he owns it too and that all the units in the building are his residences to come and go as he pleases. He behavior was so erratic and worrisome that I had to eventually call Air Bnb for help and they moved me to safety. I fear for the next person that stays in his building because at his core he doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is wrong. He had little to no sense of boundaries or personal privacy. He views his paying guests as flatmates or boarders of his he is free to pedantically inspect, bully and lord over. Dude, I am not your housemate or your friend. I am a paying guest. I hung 5 t shirts and a pair of jeans in an empty room to dry after washing and he accused me of using “his bedroom” to dry my wash (again, he lives downstairs). Another example of his delusional sense of ownership and boundaries when it comes to his guests and where he legally resides.
On top of all of that the place was filthy and without heat. Dirty, threadbare towels greeted me upon my arrival. A shower curtain caked with mold. Hair and debris all over the floor and rug. I asked for blankets because the unit had no heat and he brought up filthy, dust ball ridden “blankets” in a trash bag from the basement to try and put on the bed. The blankets had to be at least 30 years old and complete worthless. I suspect they were actually rugs because they did little to nothing to heat the bed. I took the least filthy one because I was tired is sleeping in a coat. Also the deadbolt was disabled when I arrived. I now know it’s so he can let himself into the unit at will. Also no screens on many of the windows so when we let fresh air in we were also letting in flies and mosquitoes. And no covering on the bathroom window so people in adjacent lofts and see inside. No cleaning or cleaning service for over 3 weeks. Dirty oven and stove top. Poor communication before the booking as well. I shared a coffee with my host early in my stay as I often do being a traveler. Perhaps he took that as a weakness. I’ll never know but I fear it’s how he decides just how far he can push boundaries with his guests.
I had been stranded abroad from my home of Brooklyn since the pandemic began. I was so excited to come home and experience my city again after all this time. This experience tainted that homecoming and robbed me of something I had looked so forward to. Again, I fear for the lone traveler on a budget who stays in these units should he ever be allowed back on the platform. He advertises them as “shared units” but it’s a rouse. It’s used as a disclaimer to invade the privacy of his guests whenever he decides to claim residency at one of his many rooms and units. He’ll come and go as he pleases and enter your bedroom without permission. My worry now is that he’ll start doing it when guests are inside that bedroom. After all, in his mind he “lives there.”