This is the worst accommodation experience I have ever had in my life.
1. Poor arrangement for check-in
I flew all the way from Asia with my family and my dog for more than 15 hours and got to the host Sophia’s place 2ish in the afternoon to try having some rest earlier. While Sophia mentioned that we could check in at 1pm on the app, we ended up were told that we could not walk in when we were right outside because the last person had a late check out. We should get some update if that was the case. Also, we felt rude about someone shouted through the intercom about it was not 3pm yet and we could not get in, while the keys were already in the lockbox! We felt unfriendly at all and lack of communication. We were holding 10 luggage too and felt helpless where we should carry around meanwhile. Sophia was not proactive until we requested to leave them at the hallway before cleaning was done.
2. Poor hygiene and surrounding environment for the unit
Although cleaning was just done right before we got in, the place was not clean at all. There were dust and mud on all the carpets (front door, bathroom, living room) and tables. Hairs around the corners. We mobbed the floor 4 times and the water in the bucket was still not clear. Plenty of stains in the kitchen drawer with the broken scissors in there. The microwave was dirty and smelly. The grass was so long up to my knee. It was one of the selling points that perhaps we could let our dog be a bit relaxed running around, but the condition turned us down. All the knobs, lockbox, doors were not smooth at all to operate. We were afraid we could break any of them at any time. Please have some WD 40 spraying on it! I asked Sophia’s phone number from the app and started bringing up the situation, to hope we could come up some immediate resolution. Sadly, besides denying the cleaning condition, she sounded very arrogant and yelled us back that we were the one who made the mess. Next, no shampoo and shower gel were filled in, while the listing said shampoo and soap was included and the rack hung on the wall. Again, after bringing up the issue to Sophia, we felt insulted and rude. She claimed none of these were mentioned in the listing (I am glad that I took a screenshot from her listing as a proof to myself). Having a rack there did not mean it was provided for granted. I had no idea what made Sophia changed her mind and dropped off a bottle of shampoo and shower gel, but it was too late. It became meaningless like we tried begging for it.
The neighborhood environment was not as good as what it described from the listing. Subway station is not close at all. You either have to wait 10 mins for a 20 mins bus route, or spend a 20 mins walk, but you would not feel too safe walking along there even during the day. The smell of weeds was everywhere. It was disgusting!
3. The bad attitude of the host and even the Airbnb support team who were arrogant, rude and unhelpful
Due to the fact that Sophia was so unhelpful, my whole family including my dog felt physically and mentally unwell living there. Instead of attempting to get assist from Airbnb (as Sophia’s arrogant attitude made us felt hopeless), we decided to move to somewhere else 5 days later. Few days later after we settled down, we started filing a complaint to Airbnb and requested for refund. Unfortunately, another disappointment brought to us. They said as we missed the first 72 hours, they could not proceed any refund, nor gave any warning to Sophia. To be honest, how many of you here can imagine that no support at all if it is beyond their 72-hour window? This is so rigid and inhuman to customers. Besides unhelpful and not supporting customers, no professionalism was seen from customer service as well. ‘whatsoever’ attitude, lack of communication to each other internally, and broke the commitment every time. We made so many calls for escalation just because no one called us back while the last customer said someone would. Besides losing track of my service ticket, they even closed my case when it was not settled yet!
4. Conclusion
It was my biggest regret to trust Airbnb and Sophia. It ruined my family trip, and we are still suffering at this moment from this experience. Your pay does not return the same. After taking your payment, do not expect you are getting the service and support if you encounter any issues or arguments. You will just receive full of disappointment and canned responses left and right, unless you memorize every single word from Airbnb and follow their game. Airbnb is not doing their job maintaining quality control to the hosts as well!