We stayed for two nights at this property. We booked it because it was ideally located - 5 minutes to downtown and ten minutes to the airport. While we read from the reviews that it was in a sketchy part of Nashville we thought that with gentrification it should not be a problem. Unfortunately, not. It truly is in a sketchy neighborhood with public housing projects and associated issues clearly apparent on the ground. We experienced two major issues with the property:
1) Not working air conditioner: We were planning on working from home during the day and going out in the evening. The place was like a sauna and we thought it would take time for the air conditioner to kick in. When it was not cooling and after the host checked the NEST thermostat remotely, she called for an air conditioner technician who came in after two hours and said that the filters were dirty and clogged and the capacitor was burned out. We lost an entire afternoon by staying in the sauna while the repair person was fixing it.
2) Nauseating smell: There were nine air fresheners in this small property and two rat traps outside. On May 12th we thought it was a sewer smell that the air fresheners were masking. The host dismissed the complaint saying that she keeps the air fresheners so that her property smells fresh for her guests. Since we were allergic to air fresheners we removed the air fresheners to discover that it was the nauseating smell of a dead rat either coming from the floor boards or the two traps outside. We let the host know on May 13th and requested her to check on the smell. Host did not respond. Since we were out most of the time the smell did not hit us. However we came in at 1130 pm on May 13th and while the smell was bad we crashed as there was nowhere else that we could go at that time of night. By the time we woke up at 5:30 am we were gagging. We messaged the host and requested her to come check out the stink for herself within the hour as we were planning on leaving early because we could not stay in the property any longer due to the smell. No response. After we left, the host responded saying that we are making a false accusation and then said she will request someone to check the rat traps.
We were given the run around by the host during our stay and we could not enjoy our stay or relish the purpose for which we came: our daughter's graduation. We spent our time dealing with property issues and escalating it to Airbnb who asked for documentation. How can one document smell? We provided the evidence of the pictures of 9 air fresheners and two rat traps outside the house. We provided pictures of the clogged air filter left by the air conditioner technician that indicates poor maintenance of the property. Host informed Airbnb that the smell was an outside sewer smell and not a problem within the property. I disagree. While hopefully future guests may not experience air conditioner issues that were addressed, smell issues related to rats or sewer smells are not that easily addressed especially in such a neighborhood.
Both above issues are documented in the Airbnb messaging system of host and guest interactions.