My Airbnb experience at Leland Ave. was by far the worst I’ve ever had. From the heating not working the entire stay during a Texas cold front to the lukewarm hot tub to the broken dishwasher, I have literally stayed in hostels more comfortable.
The week before my wedding, I decided to splurge for my bachelorette party and booked this Airbnb for two nights for over $3,000. I paid this amount for three reasons: because of the number of bedrooms for friends coming in from out of town to help ameliorate the costs, the large main space living room for a bachelorette dinner hosting 15 people, and the hot tub. I would not have spent anything near this if not for those amenities. Nothing that was promised in the listing was delivered as described. The heating was out the entire stay forcing guests to buy last minute accommodations, the hot tub was never hotter than lukewarm, and the large party space was rendered unusable due to the temperature never reaching above 48 degrees Fahrenheit indoors the entire stay.
The stay was during a cold front in Austin, and as we had dinner plans out, we checked in late Thursday. The heating had apparently not been working in days as the place was frigid. The thermostat read 45 degrees, and did not increase with turning on the heat to maximum. There was also no welcome book or manual with how to use heating, hot tub instructions, wifi password etc, forcing us to google these items. We tried to take a dip in the hot tub to warm up and it was lukewarm and unable to be used. Everyone who had friends in the area left to stay at their places, and those that had no resources to leave wore winter hats and multiple sweaters to bed, getting only a couple hours of sleep. Note: they don’t have any extra blankets at this property in any of the bedrooms.
The next day, Shay finally called me back after multiple calls, texts and airbnb messages. She promised me the problem would be fixed in a timely manner, though the HVAC specialist did not end up arriving until late afternoon. One hour before I’m supposed to host the group dinner at the place (18 hours after first contacting her) she tells me that the heating won’t be fixed during our stay, but she’ll work on “advocating for me to receive a full refund”. She also assured me the heating on the hot tub is fixed if we want to use it, and she’ll drop off four space heaters by 7pm.
We had to change the location of the party last minute for 15 people as well as finding expensive last minute accommodations for guests. We came back after to take our promised dip in the hot tub… lukewarm again. Again we could not even submerge, and the hot tub was another useless amenity. We also tried to use the dishwasher and it started steaming and smelled like burnt plastic, like it wasn’t connected to a water supply…
There were a couple people that could not find alternate accommodations and decided to use the space heaters. They only dropped ended up dropping off two space heaters (instead of the promised four) after 9pm along with a cheap bottle of whiskey to “keep us warm.” When they plugged the space heaters in, a fuse blew and half of the electricity went out in the house. When they accessed the breaker box, there was a slew of broken wires with no instructions on how to reset it. They were freezing and without light the entire night. They left first thing in the morning to use showers and get ready at friends’ houses because the shower floor felt like ice and they couldn’t stand to be in the freezing house any longer. I believe we totaled about two awake hours in the airbnb. I refused to charge any of my friends for the airbnb as they either had to have a miserable freezing night or pay for expensive last minute hotel stays in Austin. I trusted David and Shay that they would surely refund this nightmare of an experience as I’d been communicating respectfully, but openly with Shay the entire time.
After the Airbnb request for a refund, David only approved 1.2K of the over 3000 paid for the stay because two of the beds had been slept in… without acknowledging how this situation ruined my bachelorette weekend and used up so much of the time I had planned to be enjoying company and relaxing before my wedding.
Apparently, three unfortunate people who had to stay the two miserable nights basically camping with no amenities is worth over $2000.
It is my strong recommendation that you not stay with David and Shay as they did not remotely rectify this situation, and I felt unsafe at this property. We’ll be appealing this with Airbnb until we get a refund, but I’m truly disappointed to be treated so poorly and can’t say anything positive about this stay or interacting with these hosts.