We had booked Monica’s apartment for 5 nights after we arrived off a cruise ship that docked in Sydney. We arrived early from the ship and Monica was very accommodating with allowing us a much earlier check-in. When we entered the apartment we took immediate notice of some cleanliness & maintenance issues. We were however tight for time as we had committed to a pre-booked tour & had only enough time to drop off our luggage & head out for the day. We returned to the apartment late & went straight to bed.
In the morning our initial observations proved to be even more concerning than we thought.
Unfortunately our first impressions were met with disappointment. The apartment was dirty, in desperate need of repairs and the furniture was worn and stained & broken in places.
Attention to detail has been completely overlooked in this apartment and even the basics of cleaning were marginal at best. We had not even unpacked & I found myself starting to clean the kitchen just so we were comfortable using it. The photos in the listing suggest a very clean tropical oasis, however this was not the case. The dust on the top of the plastic plants, TV & bed headboard was so thick it came off in clumps. The kitchen cabinets were covered in grease & the welcome tray on the kitchen counter which included tea & coffee was full of dirt, grit & clearly hadn’t been re-stocked & refreshed. Areas that were out of direct view were filthy and & it was obvious nothing had been lifted or moved to be cleaned & had just barely been cleaned around. The extra towels in the bed drawers were damp & stained, clearly had been put away wet. The bedroom overhead light was not working & constantly flickering on & off. The washing machine soap dispenser was overflowing with a mess of old detergent & dirty water & I found myself starting to clean that too. The green couch had a large stain on it & one of the arms was broken. The bathroom had an unfamiliar & unpleasant odour. The walls of the apartment near the windows & sliding glass door had evidence of blistering, peeling & cracking which is likely due to water damage caused by water seeping through from the outside. Needless to say we were very dissatisfied with the cleanliness & physical condition fo the apartment & staying there for our remaining days would have been difficult & frankly unacceptable.
We reached out to Airbnb right away & voiced our concerns that we were uncomfortable with staying there and wished to look for alternate accommodation.
Airbnb connected with the host Monica, where Mon said she was working but would send over the cleaner in 2 hours. I relayed to Monica that we were extremely uncomfortable leaving our personal belongings in the apartment while the cleaner was here, nor did we wish to waste any more time of our vacation waiting for a cleaner. Monica suggested she would have her co-host/daughter come by and wait in the apartment while the cleaner was there. We said this was a completely awkward, uncomfortable situation to put us in and we were not going to agree to it.
The apartment should have been clean & prepared for our arrival and unfortunately due to the amount of deep cleaning & maintenance repairs needed, sending over a cleaner for a quick fix was not going to be acceptable.
For what we paid for this accommodation, we expected a clean, sanitary, comfortable apartment as was advertised.
Airbnb were great in rectifying our situation. They had requested we send photos of our concerns to them which we did. They said the photos pretty much spoke for themselves & they expedited our refund request without fuss. Subsequently we were able to secure new accommodation for our vacation.
The apartment itself is in a nice secure building and the location is great. You are within walking distance to all forms of transportation and steps away from restaurants, cafes, & shops. With proper repairs, care & attention & some upgraded furnishings this apartment has the potential to be very lovely.