I would definitely avoid this listing.
As Alex gave us the tour of where we were staying, he told us that the central heating for the house was turned off for the season and to heat the place, we were supposed to leave the natural gas stovetop on overnight. By the morning, the place would be warm. He also told us we couldn’t flush toilet paper down the toilet and instead had to put used toilet paper in a bin, and carry it out to the front of the house to dispose of in the trash bin. None of this was disclosed in his house rules on the listing and only said to us in person once we arrived at the place at 10PM. Heating was listed as one of the amenities, and according to him the insane suggestion to leave an open flame gas stove on overnight is an acceptable and safe alternative (AirBNB later confirmed this is not). There was no other heating available, and this is in a basement (anything under the windows in the pictures is below ground level) where we had forecasts showing nights dropping to 6 degrees Celsius/42 degrees Fahrenheit. The worst part is he had other guests upstairs whom we presume were also told to leave the gas on for heating, leaving us all at a serious risk.
Unfortunately, given the time, we had no choice but to stay that night as we had just finished a 9-hour roadtrip to get to New York. We, of course, did not use the stove for heating and bundled up to get through a cold night. With colder nights ahead and the safety risk present, we decided to request an early checkout in the morning as this AirBNB was clearly not up to standards.
We offered to pay Alex for the night we stayed plus the prorated cleaning+service fees. Alex declined our request and did not want to negotiate and provide a suggested price that would cover his costs. He instead came by to discuss in person and record a video for his own evidence, arguing that the gas stovetop heating was safe and we just didn’t know any better. We clearly disagreed on what was safe, what was clean, etc., but I’ll note that the interaction went fine and nobody felt threatened.
I already had AirBNB on the phone to discuss a resolution. I let Alex know I was on the phone with AirBNB, we didn’t agree with his arguments, and that we were going to go through AirBNB’s proper resolution routes to get their opinion on the matter. Alex acknowledged he understood and left, and we went back to talking with the AirBNB representative.
With AirBNB we had to wait to get escalated to another department, then talk with them, gather photos/videos to send, then wait again for the final verdict. From the initial refund request to the time we got it, it took about 7 hours and we had wasted an entire day of our vacation, leaving us stranded at 10PM once again.
AirBNB agreed with us that heating was listed as an amenity but not available once we arrived, and a stovetop was absolutely not an alternative. They gave us a full refund of the trip + extra for the inconvenience. We got lucky and found a new AirBNB to stay at despite the time, and needless to say, it didn’t have any of these issues.
Definitely record your check-in and any other encounters if you do decide to book. And be prepared to have to present evidence to AirBNB for disputes, as Alex gave no room for debate. He even tried guilting us by sending us a message saying he turned down Ukrainian refugees on other platforms to accommodate us because he really loves doing business with AirBNB:
“Also is more imported thing Nicholas.... Before your reservation.. I was have some people from Ukraine from other sites wich try to book my place in this difficult time in Ukraine..., but I., welcoming you.. because Im prefer Airbnb hosting to help people.. Anyway thanks for coming to my home... Alex”
This was just rude and unnecessary, and I definitely don’t buy this. Of course, he typed it in the AirBNB direct messages while we were working through the refund request with the company.
There were other issues pertaining to the cleanliness of the place. We found more mold in the shower/bathroom ceiling than we think anyone would be comfortable with (it wasn’t just in the grout, it was on the tiles and shower floor). The hair still stuck to the ceiling from the previous tenants indicated this was likely due to the fact that none of it was wiped down before our stay. But since the whole stovetop heating thing alone was enough to warrant a refund, AirBNB didn’t comment on the mold or toilet paper situation mentioned earlier, so I don’t know what they would say about it.
All in all, we're not happy that we had to experience the issues we did, and that an obvious violation of policy had to go through the whole AirBNB resolution process to get resolved.