To summarize the explanation below: DO NOT STAY HERE IF YOU WANT AN EASY TRIP/check-in process!!
I have stayed at many airbnbs, and this was by far the most frustrating process I have encountered. The space itself was fine and cozy, and even spacious. But beyond that I would NOT recommend staying here, but specially with this company. Here is why:
- Once you book your Airbnb, you cannot get check in instructions or any other information unless you sign and agree to a short term lease!!! But the kicker is, I didn’t see this until the day before my trip so not only did I not know where I was going, but it was also too late to decline and book a new place prior to my trip, so I had to sign.
- once you sign the lease, you THEN have to consent to a whole other list of terms and things to agree to, again, before you get any information of the actual location or any other information regarding your stay.
- finally after completing the shit show of accepting the terms and conditions, you get a link to website with the quite honestly, useless information about the Airbnb. You literally have to click through 50 things to get the entire picture of your stay. Tucked in here is a “check out process”/“departure” which I will get to in a bit.
- I finally arrived at the location, and was unable to get into the building using the instructions the company provided to me. Finally someone let me in, and I was greeted by a set of stairs to haul my 50 lb bag up. Then I get to the elevator, and the buttons aren’t working.
- I tried to get an early check in, which I understand can be difficult for airbnbs, so I arrived at my check in time of 4 pm, and the cleaner was still there taking the trash out. The reason I couldn’t check in was because of the cleaners, and once inside I was greeted by filthy floors and even a toenail right by the front door.
- besides not feeling like the unit was exceptionally clean, the stay was okay. Except, again in those extra long terms and conditions, you agree to not have any unplanned guests in the unit whatsoever - which is perfect for travelers hoping to meet new friends.
- the area is decently unsafe and surrounded by a decently large homeless population.
- so now for the checkout process! When it comes time to check-out, they send you an email stating that you can view the check out information in that very frustrating online portal that you have to click through everything, and they even say it is titled “check-out”. Well, turns out it isn’t, it is actually “departures”, which to me is an entirely different term. In this part of the online portal, they state that you must leave your key cards or they will charge you $150!!!!!! Per key card. Well the kicker is, the internet stopped working near my departure time, so I was unable to see this information, took the cards with me as I would do at any hotel or other place with a keycard (hello, security?), and now they are threatening to charge me $300 for missing information that was hidden in what felt like an endless amount of information.