I stayed for one week as a 5 year Brown alum returning (early) for Reunion / Commencement weekend. I had a wonderful stay in Eric's home.
The room I stayed in was very cozy and the home had *all* the accommodations I needed to have a comfortable stay. During this time, Eric was also gracious enough to: communicate quickly and thoroughly, allow one of my friends to stay overnight the evening of Campus Dance, and let me check out a bit later than expected, allowing me to be well-rested before I checked out.
-- I typically don't leave long Airbnb reviews anymore, in particular because these days I rarely interact with my host, save for message exchanges. In this case, however, I had the fortune of being able to meet Eric right as I was checking out (again, later than the scheduled time -- which Eric was very graceful about).
As he pulled in, he greeted me with a big smile and introduced himself as the host. We introduced ourselves and got to talking a little while I waited for my Lyft to come in.
Part way through our conversation, Eric noticed that I had a spare pillow on top of my bags. Instead of rushing to assumptions, he asked if this was taken from my room. I was and am not proud to admit that he was right. During my weeklong trip to Boston and Providence, I managed to accumulate quite a bit of additional baggage (dress shoes, a dress shirt, college apparel, and otherwise memorabilia from my visit). I had planned to, earlier in the day, stop by Providence Place to buy some bag to take these extra items with me. However, due to my late checkout (poor planning) and my departure time, I reluctantly decided to take the advice of my friend to take my extra items in a pillowcase. This was the first (and I intend last) time I had done anything like this at the Airbnb's I've stayed in. I am sure if I had asked Eric and explained the situation, he would have been more than happy to help or otherwise offer a different suggestion. This was my mistake for not doing this.
Needless to say, I lied about it at first (gut reaction), but quickly admitted that I had indeed taken it from my room. I had offered to pay him for it or to put the case back, but Eric was very understanding of my situation and brushed it off and was happy to let me take it with him.
We then continued to have a pleasant conversation about his life and mine, and the beautiful potatoes he had growing in his garden out in the back :)
Eric -- if you're reading this, thanks very much for having me and for your empathy. Prospective guests -- I highly recommend staying with Eric.