I had a terrible experience for my 8 days' stay. Two major problems for this Airbnb listing: (1) both the owner and the host are not around (the host Alyssa said that she was in Houston during my stay), and as a result, any guest would be in trouble if there is anything wrong or if the guest needs anything during the stay (I will have a longer explanation later to report my own experience), and (2) the Host Alyssa has little passion or professionalism for hosting and has zero empathy for her guest. As a result, when something goes wrong (for example, when the apartment was dirty upon my arrival and when both the internet and laundry were not working during my entire 8 days' stay, Alyssa's response was that I shouldn't complain but should be happy. Previous guests were happy, as she has claimed.
Below are the details of my stay. I will start first with some positive comments about the apartment: (1) it is about 10 minutes' walk to the Convention Center and Hyatt Seattle hotels where major conferences take place. (2) I do not have any contact with the owner, but I can imagine she is a small woman who chose a very comfortable bed and several mirrors throughout the apartment. (3) There were a few homeless people around but they did not bother me, although I was advised by local people that I should not go out alone after dark. (4) The apartment is walking distance (<30 minutes) to major sightseeings in Seattle.
Now are the cons:
(1) The Kitchen is almost not usable. Although there is a kitchen with working stove, dishwasher, a few plates and pans, there isn't anything essential such as oil, salt and pepper, or any spice as they have advised. There is no cutting board. There is no toaster. I do not drink coffee so can't comment on coffee maker.
(2) The apartment is not what it has been advertised. In addition to lacking kitchen supplies, it also does not have soap. It does provide shampoo and conditioner. It provides towels (black and blue). However due to poor quality, the white towels have blue spots. The blue towels are not usable as the blue materials fall off when you use them.
(3) The checking in time is not flexible. I was told that I must check in either 4pm or 4:30pm. I can't check in earlier than that, nor can I check in later. This would post a huge problem for those whose flights have odd hours. Upon check in, the person assigned by the host, who showed no interests in her job, did not show me anything about the apartment except for giving me the keys, letting me know the check out time, and showing me where the laundry machines are.
(4) The Host and the owners are not local, so if anything goes wrong, the guest suffers. The problems started upon arrival. I found a full trash left from the previous client. I immediately messaged Alyssa. Rather than finding someone to pick up the trash, Alyssa instead messaged me where I should throw away the trash --- excuse me? I am a guest and it is not my duty to clean up other guest's trash! Later I found that the wireless internet was not working. I messaged Alyssa three times on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 about the internet problem before she finally replied on Day 3 that she will try to address the issue. She first said that the account information needed to be updated--which did not work--- and later on she changed her story. She said that the wireless internet should be working, that the previous guests did not have problems, and that the building has the wireless internet. She wanted me to fix the machine, and to find time to meet with a technician who ended up never showed up. So there has been no internet connection throughout my 8 days of stay. Can you image that anyone could survive anywhere without the internet nowadays? Rather than being empathy of my situation (I ended up doing my work at the conference center), the Host Alyssa blamed me for no internet connection and advised me "to be happy and enjoy the rest of the stay"!
This is not the end of the story. On the first night of arrival, I found that both pillows (the only pillows provided by the Host) smelled bad, kind of nasty musty smell. I reported to the host right away. I believed that the bad smell resemble something that had not been dried after being wet for many days. Of course, I never used those dirty pillows during my entire stay. I found out the reason for the bad smell on Day 3, after I used the laundry machine. The washer is not working. My full load of clothes were in the big pool of water, strained overnight. When I opened the drier, I found a full load of wet towels (that must have been left in by the house cleaning team before my arrival) that had the same smell of the pillows -- the nasty musty smell. Now the problem is that my full load of clothes are in the bad laundry machines. What shall I do? So I messaged Alyssa and reported the issues of laundry. Rather than trying to be helpful, she said that I should be aware of the problem as they also listed a public laundry room that I could use as an alternative. Excuse me? Nobody has told me that the laundry is not working. If I know that the apartment has no internet, nor laundry --- which should have as both were listed as their amenities. Moreover, if anyone has told me that the laundry is not working, I would not upload my full load of clothes into a bad machine. With that, I even did not have clothes to wear at