Our stay in Rebecca’s apartment in Mantra hotel was our first Airbnb experience. We have mixed feelings about our stay. To make sure we got it right we read what is expected of an Airbnb host on the website before writing this review. The rules are clear.
Rebecca let us down by not having all places we use clean. The bedroom and en-suite were clean however the kitchen was cluttered and messy. In the 5 days we stayed there were always dishes on the bench and rubbish bins overflowing. We saw a few ants around which is not surprising. The very first morning dirty dishes and a plate with leftover food were in the sink and on the bench. This is unnecessary and unacceptable when you have PAYING guest in your house.
We requested an extra hand towel and were told that 2 towels were usual given for stays up to a week. We paid $256 per night and have to have a discussion about how many towels we can have? I have to say that Rebecca did give us extra towels but we still resented having to have a discussion about it. “..This is my house not a hotel..” we were told in a SMS. “..But feel free to use the laundry..” !
On the positive the central location made it easy to walk to the places we wanted to see. Opera house, Harbour Bridge, The rock. It was easy to take the ferry to Darling Harbour and Manly beach.
Rebecca was friendly and tried to be helpful. If the kitchen gets a spring clean and guests would have access to a jug (kettle) for boiling water to make a cup of tea the experience for guests would improve enough to compete with the other accommodation options within the same building with Airbnb. Some even offer about the same rate per night for a studio.