In August 2018, I reserved Claudette's basement apartment for the weekend of October 26-28 because we were attending a concert on Long Island that weekend. When I reserved and paid for the place in August, it was listed as a rental of the ENTIRE basement apartment. It included a private bathroom, a bedroom, a separate room containing a loveseat, TV, mini fridge, and other amenities. The listing included pictures of the bedroom, bathroom, and the living area. I specifically picked Claudette's basement apartment because I was renting the entire basement apartment and didn't have to share a bathroom with any other guests.
However, when I arrived at Claudette's, I found that she had removed all the furniture from the living area and had now split the basement into two rooms. In fact, by the time I arrived Friday night, someone was already staying in the second room in the basement. This meant that the one bathroom downstairs was no longer a private bathroom, but one I had to share with the strangers staying in the other room.
Honestly, this would not be a problem for me to share, but I had specifically reserved and paid for a place that was supposed to be PRIVATE. When I rented it, I was not supposed to be sharing any of the space, especially the bathroom, with another person.
It was only after checking-in that I discovered that Claudette had changed the listing of "Peaches Paradise" to two separate "private room" listings and removed any pictures of the common areas.
Ultimately, she should not have changed this listing from renting an entire apartment to renting a private room with a shared bathroom when someone had already rented the space as an entire private apartment. She never notified me about any changes to the apartment or my reservation or that someone else would be renting the space at the same time as me. It's incredibly unprofessional and a violation of Airbnb's terms and policy.
(See Section 7.1.7 of Airbnb's Terms of Service regarding the host's entrance into a legally binding agreement with the guest and the host's requirement to provide host services to the guest as described in the booking when the request is made).
Other than this glaring issue, the stay was okay. The bathroom and bedroom were clean. The bed was kind of lumpy, but still able to be slept in. The bedroom did get incredibly hot during the night and we had to open the windows to sleep comfortably. I'm just really disappointed with how this all turned out and was uncomfortable being thrown into a situation where I unexpectedly had to share a small area and bathroom with strangers.