Please note that I understand Jake is running a business and I normally wouldn’t leave a bad review seeing as to how I don’t want to detract from someone’s side money or livelihood. In fact, whenever I have a mediocre or bad experience I typically just don’t leave a review precisely because of what I mentioned above. However, this was my worst Airbnb experience I’ve had. Let me explain the details.
It started out with the communication. I originally booked the Coltrane room. Jake informed me on the check in night that I would be in a different room, the Ellington. I messaged him back asking if this was correct. He messaged me back stating he made a mistake and that I was still slated to go into the Coltrane room. Once I arrived I went to the Coltrane room and entered the code and opened the door to find someone in the bed. Me and the person in the room talked for a little bit to try to figure it out. It seems as though he somehow ended up in that room as he showed me the Airbnb communication Jake had sent him, which I believe is a template and which he either mistakenly or purposefully sent to the other person. Rather than making a scene and demanding the room, I called Jake. He switched me into the Ellington room. Well and good. I went into the Ellington room and there was no bed and no towel. I had to go to sleep to get up for an early flight so I didn’t bother with reaching out to Jake again. Therefore, I slept on the sofa with a blanket that didn’t cover very much of my body. I also slept not on a regular pillow, but a decorative sofa pillow. Then I woke up early in the morning to take a shower. Since no towel was provided to me, I did some quick thinking and used paper towels in the bathroom to dry myself off. Then I left. After I left Jake contacted me because in the interim I had contacted Airbnb to get a refund and complain. He asked me if I was “aware that that is a sleeper sofa bed and it opens up to a queen size bed?”. The answer to that question is no. I was not aware since he neither told me via message, nor on the phone. Neither am I an expert in assessing whether or not a sofa is a pullout sofa bed or a regular sofa.
The price of the room was $58.54. Jake refunded me $24.88. After a bit of a back and forth with some folks at Airbnb and an escalation to a supervisor at Airbnb (great job supervisor! whose name I forget) I was able to get them to cover the difference and make me whole. That is the saga. I’m fairly certain that something like this probably occurs only .01% of the time. However it happened to me on this occasion and it got to me. If you decide to pull the trigger with Jake just make sure to double check what’s going on and make sure that he communicates well with you.