TL;DR: Easily the worst AirBnB experience of my life. Stay away!

I’m an AirBnB host and have also stayed at numerous AirBnB’s around the world both as primary and secondary guest and have never had so many issues with a single rental. The place was not cleaned properly, had bugs (carpet beetles and fleas), and a pipe leaking from the ceiling.

As we identified these issues one by one, the host was highly selective in which ones he responded to, but overall communication was terrible throughout. It was impossible to get in touch with Josh, as when trying to call him, we got “This number is not in service” every single time. We tried to resolve all of the issues with the host first before contacting AirBnB, but when the host wasn’t addressing the bug situation or the pipe leak, we had to get out of there. If it weren’t for AirBnB being very slow with the support, we would have gotten out of there sooner, but we were stuck with no other place to go to and very little support from AirBnB. We left on day 10 (out of a month booked).

If you care for the details, here they are:

1. There were bugs!
On day 3, after my friend said she was itchy all over and had visible skin irritation, we took a closer look at one of the couches, where she had lounged the night before. The couch is veeeryy old and has big rips into its upholstering, which are covered by a couch cover. The couch cover itself was definitely not washed or vacuumed recently (mind you, this host says that “extra disinfecting and cleaning protocols are in place”). Under the pillows (also very dingy), we found crumbs, dirt, a dead adult carpet beetle, and carpet beetle larva casing. We also saw multiple adult carpet beetles flying around the apartment. We messaged the host immediately to ask for pest control but did not get any response.

A few days later, I saw a flea jump off of my leg on 2 occasions and that’s when we knew we really had to get out of there. Messaged the host again. No response again.

2. Apartment and building were dirty
The apartment -- When we arrived, we noticed that walking on the floor left our feet black in under an hour and also some areas were sticky. We immediately contacted the host and he sent someone to clean. My friend and I were on conference calls, so we didn’t supervise really closely, but saw that she was cleaning only around the furniture and cleaned under one of the beds only because I asked her to. We didn’t expect that there hadn’t been proper cleaning before this, so we didn’t make her clean under the couches or other beds. After we found the bugs on the couch cover, we looked under the couch only to find A LOT of dirt including dust balls, cigarette buts and other random objects. This was clearly not dirt from the previous guest, but accumulated over long time. When AirBnB contacted the host about the dirt (since he did not respond to our messages), his response was that he isn’t required to clean under the furniture. Would you like to stay at a place where the host doesn’t deem it necessary to vacuum under the couch (or wash the couch cover)???

The building – A very old and not well maintained building underneath the train line. Honestly, there isn’t much more to say here than: it was FILTHY.

3. Communication was terrible throughout
Communication issues started from before check-in, when I had to follow up multiple times in order to get check-in instructions. When we discovered the carpet beetles and the dirt under the couches, we messaged the host right away. No response. ZERO. Same night, a pipe started leaking, and, interestingly enough, the host responded to that message right away. He asked for photos and when we supplied those, he didn’t respond any more. AT ALL. It’s beyond my comprehension how someone can care so little about their guests. It’s actually disrespectful to not even acknowledge the message.

4. Photos are not 100% representative
While the furniture is as shown on the pictures, there were a number of things that weren’t as shown. The biggest one being how much light the loft gets. These photos have definitely gone through some significant color adjustment, since the place is extremely dark, even with the giant windows. The reason is that it’s on the 1st floor and 3 of the 4 windows are facing a brick wall. Furniture is eclectic and interesting, but old and not maintained and cleaned well. 2nd floor bedrooms are with very low ceilings. I’m 5’ 4’’ and had to duck under the pipes in order to move around the room. The upholstered bed frame in the corner room looks so cool, but was also not cleaned well.

5. After leaving early, the host filed a report claiming we caused $7,000 worth of damage out of spite.
Josh claimed that we caused $7,000 worth of damage including a stove handle that was already sitting next to the coffee machine when we got there and he claims that we scratched the floor while moving furniture, which we didn’t as we were super careful when we cleaned underneath the sofas.
6. Because we left in such a rush, I left my diamond earrings at the loft. Josh claims he didn’t find them.
7. There is one review that states a similar experience. I wish we paid more attention to that.
8. “Pros”???
- The loft space itself is very cool architecturally and if it were properly maintained and in a cleaner building could have been a great experience. Alas…
- While the immediate neighborhood isn’t amazing, walking 5 minutes in any direction gets you to awesome bars and restaurants.
- Before booking, we had asked Josh if a third friend could stay for