Top line: I had a really bad experience, it was pretty scary, and I don't think this is how airbnb is meant to be used.
But to be fair, I'll start with the good, because I don't think Will did these things maliciously:
Will's place is as he describes - totally new place in a totally new block
Everything is spotlessly clean
The location is great - Erskineville is a cool spot in Sydney and being close to the train is really helpful
Will was quick to fix things when there were issues
But, and this is a very big but, I had some pretty big issues - one of which was potentially very dangerous:
1) Will obviously doesn't live in the place. And this is a problem for me. He didn't know how anything in the flat worked so I had to figure it out myself. For example, the wifi wasn't working when I arrived so he had to call the internet company to fix it (which he was v quick to do, but that wouldn't even have been a problem if he lived there because he would have noticed himself).
2) The flat was falsely advertised. It had photos of a kitchen and a description which said there was a working kitchen. When I arrived, I bought a bunch of food from the supermarket to cook, only to discover that Will hadn't paid for the gas to be turned on for the apartment (I guess cos he doesn't live there!). But that's one of the big reasons I'd booked - because it had a kitchen that I could cook in. It then took 4 days for this to be turned on. Meanwhile all the food I bought went off!
3) When the gas was eventually turned on, it turned out there was a gas leak and I had to leave the flat and find myself another place. I only discovered this through getting mild carbon monoxide poisoning which luckily I realised early and made plans to leave
4) When I told Will I was leaving and asked for a refund he said he'd sort it. But I found out from Airbnb that on the phone he told them that he wasn't prepared to give me a full refund, only a partial one. But they called me to apologise for the threat to my safety, and gave me a full refund anyway. I thought this was pretty disingenuous of Will and I would have expected better given the circumstances