Sorry in advance for the long post, but while from reading other people's reviews it seems like the host Sabina was very welcoming to others and often stopped by to offer restaurant recommendations and activities to do in Seattle, it is unfortunate that this was not our experience at all, particularly if you are Chinese. Upon arriving at the location and trying to find the place (the address number was a little hard to find, being placed against a planter in the front yard), we (the six of us, 4 of whom were staying at the place and carrying luggage, and my cousin and cousin-in-law, who is Caucasian, with their newborn baby who were just visiting us for the day but not staying at the Airbnb) probably looked a little lost. Sabina saw the six of us, a "horde" of Chinese people, and freaked.
Without any greeting except to ask if we were looking for the Airbnb, Sabina immediately questioned us about how many people were staying at the Airbnb. I answered 4. She quickly pointed out that I had stated 3 on the website. Admittedly, I did only put down 3 people and it completely slipped my mind to update the number of people as my other cousin was able to join us at the very last minute. I apologized for making the mistake, which was completely inadvertent, of initially booking 3 instead of 4 people and stated that I would make the correction with Airbnb. After that, Sabina completely ignored me and the rest of the Chinese members in my family and greeted the only Caucasian member in our family, my cousin-in-law, and never bothered to even say hello to me. Distrustful of me, Sabina asked my cousin-in-law if they lived in Seattle, as if to confirm that there were only 4 of us staying in the Airbnb. We were next greeted by Sabina’s large dog Sam, who growled at us every time we stepped outside of our doorway.
I tried to go online that night on Airbnb's site to change our party from 3 to 4. However, I was no longer allowed make changes once the Airbnb reservation started. But no worries, Airbnb called me the following day to verify (presumably due to Sabina contacting Airbnb to complain about the extra person in our group), and I was able to square away with Airbnb the additional person staying over.
Although Sabina left instructions in the house to compost and recycle, the compost, recycle, and trash bins were very confusing, and she did not make it easy to do so. Namely, only the compost and recycle bins were available but the trash can was missing because Sabina took it away and placed it out of sight because it was full and overloaded--Sabina apparently forgot to empty it on trash day prior to our arrival. As there was no regular trash can, we did not know where to put the regular trash. Additionally, we were not able to find additional compost bags initially as they were not placed under the sink along with the other trash bags or trash cans. Our confusion must have been apparent because a couple of nights later, I received a super passive-aggressive email from Sabina first commenting on the amount of steam coming from our unit (being sure to point out that if we open the windows and door, it will go away quickly) and then commenting about the recycling (pointing out that there is a chart that shows where everything goes) and offering to give us "hands on" help, insinuating that we were not being green enough. The steam was from my aunt and uncle cooking, and we made sure to turn off all heaters and lights when we went out. The very next opportunity that Sabina saw us taking out the trash, which was the following night, when my aunt unintentionally placed compostable items in a regular trash bag and forgot to separate out what was compostable due to a lack of compostable bags, Sabina came charging out with a flash light and “gave us a lesson” on how to separate the trash. My poor 65-year old aunt felt so bad and apologized profusely, while stooping down and sorting out the trash properly in the cold on the pavement of the driveway all the while as Sabina stood there hovering over her with a flashlight. We tried our best to sort out the recycling, compost, and trash but it did not seem good enough for Sabina and we felt scrutinized every time we took out the trash.
After our less than welcoming experience, we looked at the reviews online to see if anyone else witnessed something similar, as we thought perhaps this was all in our heads and we were being overly sensitive or reading too much into the situation. Interestingly, we saw another negative review posted online and it was also by another group of Chinese guests. Their review was written in Chinese and I had to have my uncle translate it for us. They also noted Sabina's passive-aggressiveness, nit-picking them for not putting the pull out sofa bed back to how it was upon check out, and condescending attitude to "teach" and "instruct" them on how to put it back. They questioned what they needed to do to satisfy Sabina, as they felt that whatever they did, it was never good enough and she was not satisfied upon check out. If it was to return the Airbnb to pristine condition, they asked then what is the cleaning fee for? Coincidence that our unfortunate experience was similar to another group of Chinese guests? Hmm...🤔
All in all, the Airbnb was spacious, clean, and lovely, as long as you enjoy having a passive-aggressive Airbnb host living upstairs who is available at all times and only friendly towards Caucasians or non-Chinese people.