Nice location, but a completely unprepared and unprofessional host!!!.
We booked for a 4 month stay, and it was clear from the first day that the host was not prepared. The host did not prepare the unit for our arrival, did not free up any closet or drawer space, and left his personal toiletries out all over the bathrooms. He was unresponsive and then unavailable for the first week due to travel, so we had to work with his Sister In law to clear some of his things, to make a little room in the closets and clean the bathroom (every drawer and closet space was jammed with his things).
We chalked it up to an inexperienced host and since we were there for 4 months we settled in. The first issue came up 4 weeks in when we were charged for the next month with Airbnb, and my credit card initially was declined to possible fraud. This the host paid attention to and reached out to me with a bit of an aggressive attitude. I assured him that I would take care of it immediately and processed another payment 30 minutes after we spoke. Of course when I called my credit card and removed the fraud alert, Airbnb then automatically charged me again the next day, so I would up paying twice. When I let the host know that and asked for a return of the duplicate payment (~$3,400), he stopped being responsive.
About 8 weeks into our stay we got heavy rains, and the unit was leaking from several places causing electrical issues. We reported this to the host, and asked him to address these issues, and reminded him that he still had not returned the duplicate payment. This is when things went from bad to worse. He started behaving irrationally and when I was away traveling, visited, without notice on several occasions and intimidated my daughter pointing out to her and getting upset at things like “There are dirty dishes in the sink”, “Your things are out all over the place”, “The carpets are dirty” etc., “The neighbors are complaining about noise”. I reminded the host that we were there for 4 months, and because he did not free up any closet space, we were forced to keep some things out. Regarding the carpets, I reminded him that he was supposed to be sending cleaners over which he failed to do in many weeks. I did take the complaint about the neighbors seriously and could not see why there would be any complaints, so when I went over to speak with them, they had no idea of what the host was talking about.
I again asked the host to address the electrical issues which I thought was a safety concern and instead of addressing them, he threatened us with eviction (the very next day). That’s when I had to get Airbnb support involved. The host became very aggressive and started demanding that if we wanted to stay, we had to pay him extra. He did not send those messages to me, but to my daughter. I shared this with Airbnb, and let them know that because of the erratic nature of the host, we had to move to a different location. To the credit of Airbnb, they took this seriously and assisted us through the process.
The situation escalated with the host to the point where Airbnb even subsidized the new location for us because it was more expensive than the one where we stayed.
Thank you Airbnb Support for your professionalism throughout this process. If you are an international traveler and plan more than a weekend stay, beware of this host, and know your rights as a tenant.