* In short: worst housing experience of our lives, ever. We didn’t sleep a wink. We left after just one day, thanks to Airbnb HQ. The owners are nice people and their daughter is adorable, but I do not feel they should be leasing this place in its current condition as marketed. *

My mom and I are both professional landlords. We didn’t expect luxury or frills. But we expected a place that met the bar of the description and photos, and a host who took tangible pride in the property.

Key issues encountered:
- Photos do not capture current property condition whatsoever, and appear to be digitally blurred/masked to look nice. House interior had exceptional deferred maintenance and felt to be in extremely poor condition relative to asking price.

- All bedroom windows appeared inoperable (painted shut) - I couldn’t open a single one - unsafe in fire, probably a code violation. Air conditioning thermostat didn’t work, so house was scorching overnight.

- Safety: A big stone in the front porch steps is broken off. We did not see any working porch lighting. My mom nearly slipped twice in the tub (no safety mat or anything).

- Sanitation: Dirty oven and fridge (containing someone else’s food). Bathroom sink filter was filthy and blocked the drain. Cockroach ran around my bedroom at night (uncorrected rear exterior door threshold gap is excessive, enough for creatures to easily walk in). My mother was constantly itching all night.

- Noise: Airplanes going by until midnight, resuming 05:00. Loud music from nearly drivers all night, easily every 15 minutes.

- Neighborhood: Low-income neighborhood with minimal-to-no signs of visible gentification. When we came, there were piles of literal garbage on everyone’s yards. Not exactly a nice place to walk around. (Hosts were mostly upfront about this by private message, and we were peachy with that.)

As a landlord, I know things are never perfect. While the host was outwardly nice, he didn't seem to get airbnb hosts have material and specific responsibilities towards guests.

- When my mom pointed out move-in cleanliness issues, he did not even enter the property to inspect or correct.

- When we e-mailed major concerns at 2:30 AM and several times throughout the weekday morning, we did not hear anything until literally 12:05 PM.

- When we decided we were moving out and wanted a refund for remaining days, he felt it was unfair that we held his family financially accountable, asserting that nothing is “broken” or “unsafe”, that we were expecting a “manicured” home, and the real issue apparently was with us: he requires tenants who are “unfussy”. (!)

- After this experience, we also received a request by text message to not leave them a review “and certainly not an unfavorable one”.

Considering staying here still? Demand precise status updates on above issues, and insist on unblurred, current photos. Otherwise, avoid the risk — this nightmare utterly ruined the first two days of our vacation.