I was searching for a cozy apartment to spend a day with my boyfriend for our anniversary.
Mina was responsive and helpful with my questions prior to booking my stay. He was able to accommodate an early check in. The house was easy to find. There is residential parking in the area. The self check in was a lockbox with a key. The apartment was on the 3rd floor of a residential house.
Things I liked:
Netflix
Pillows
Full dining area
Hot water
Things I didn’t like:
Squeakiness of the beds
There was only one blue hand towel and one white body towel although I told the host it would be 2 people.
The bathroom sink and mirrors were not clean.
There was a spider web by the sofa/windows.
The major problem:
The heat was not on when I came in at 1:40pm, which was very inconvenient as it was 40F in NYC. This took hours to resolve. Mina was responsive when I communicated about the thermostat not working but the issue was not resolved right away. A respectful woman came in to check the settings and the pipes. Hours later, Mina came by and resolved the boiler issue. Apparently there was an air bubble. It took a couple more hours until the apartment warmed up.
My biggest disappointment: When Mina came inside the apartment to check the pipes, he offered me "some refund" for the inconvenience of not having heating for half my stay, but after I left the property and messages him about it, he went back on his word. I trust the original issue was unexpected, even though he should have checked the heat before leaving the key. His unprofessional behavior after he had my money was unacceptable!!
I could have been understanding with a partial refund but because of his unwillingness to compromise, I had to reach out to Airbnb to rectify the lack of heating. This process involved multiple specialists, had to be escalated, and took over a full week until a resolution of a half refund. If the host had been a better person, this situation would have been understandable, the situation would have been forgiven, I could have had a tolerable experience.
I cannot in good faith recommend this apartment when you have plenty of other hosts available to give money to. I am a paying customer, paying for a comfortable place to stay. I was not satisfied, and the host did nothing about it, and I’m sure he would be just as upset if this situation happened to him and his partner.
Tips for any guest in general:
Always take pictures and have messages as evidence of any issues. Contact Airbnb within 24 hours so they can be notified of any discrepancies. Even if you contacted the host about an issue- you still have to notify Airbnb. It took over a week to get a partial refund from Airbnb’s resolutions center! I still have to wait 2 weeks to see if that money even comes. The whole process makes me uncomfortable with continuing to choose Airbnb in the future because of how frustrating and lengthy it was. It really all depends on the kind of human being the host is because when I had a misunderstanding with another host, he easily issued a full refund right away. When people put their own profits over the people they had committed to serving, it is disgusting.