My friends and I rented Alex's home for one night because our friend was getting married at the Brooklyn Winery right around the corner, and the price, location, and photos all seemed perfect...little did we know. I personally didn't end up sleeping there (went back to my sister's apartment in Manhattan after the wedding), but when I asked my friends about the place the next day, I heard some really weird things. Below is the review my friend wrote on behalf of our entire party:
"I am quite perplexed by my experience at this particular Airbnb. Before even arriving, Alex had called to let us know that she needed to shower before meeting us. This was fine, as my friend and I were working nearby, & needed more time before checking in. But it wasn’t until we got to the Airbnb that we realized she literally showered in the Airbnb right before we came. I later understood that this was her personal home, but I found it incredibly baffling that someone would shower right before their guests would come, and doesn’t give the sense of “cleanliness” at all when it was just used. It made me not want to use the shower at all.
Upon arriving at the Airbnb, the place was still a complete mess. She kept saying how she needed more time in the morning to clean up the place, but there were blankets and things everywhere lying around. We were awkwardly sitting there waiting while she was scrambling to still clean up the place. The place overall felt grimy and dirty. It also looked absolutely NOTHING like the photos on the website. I felt like we were catfished, and MTV cameras were going to pop out at any moment.
Mind you, she also charged us an additional $50 on top of her already $35 cleaning fee since we were only renting for one night. But if you’re going to charge someone extra to clean, maybe actually use the money to do so?! She cleaned the place herself, and didn’t even hire professionals to do so. We checked in later than scheduled, which gave her ample amount of time (and money) to hire someone to clean her place, but she instead used that time to shower & clean when we got there. Unacceptable.
Even before leaving, she drank a glass of water, and just left it on the counter. This was by far the most unprofessional Airbnb host I have ever encountered, and to be quite frank, I’m shocked how all the other reviews are positive. Not sure if we just caught Alex on a bad day, but I would not recommend this place to friends. The only pro was the location was right across the street from where we needed to be.
If Airbnb allowed zero stars, I would give negative."
Tl;dr, Alex had the audacity to ask us to pay an extra $50 in cleaning fees when she didn't even clean the place for us before we arrived, and my friends had to awkwardly sit there WHILE she cleaned the place. And then it was still dirty even after she was done.