Having used Airbnb numerous times to book homes and apartments, this is the first time I have had to write a negative review. That being said, I need to be honest and let other potential guests understand the pitfalls of what may happen if they rent Laura and Gerold's home in Sevilla.
The pros: The home is in a very good location and close to the city center. The home appears to have been recently completely remodeled, and they appeared to spare almost no expense to remodel the home. The home would have been large enough for our two families of five if not for the air conditioning issue (described in detail below) that forced us to rent two hotel rooms around the corner.
The cons: We checked in to the home during an extraordinary heatwave in Seville. When we checked in at 3:00 p.m., the air conditioning was not on and each of the rooms was registering at over 85 to 90 degrees (F) / 30 to 32 degrees (C). We immediately turned on the air conditioning units in each of the five bedrooms and the kitchen (each room has a separate thermostat and A/C unit). We then left the house to get lunch and to let the air cool down the rooms. When we returned from lunch and grocery shopping almost two hours later, four of the bedrooms had begun to cool down (though they were not cold), but the master bedroom and the kitchen had not cooled down at all and were still registering at 90 (F) / 32 (C). We immediately contacted Laura at approximately 5:00 p.m. via WhatsApp, sent her pictures of the temperatures of the two hot rooms and asked for advice. Laura confirmed that the settings appeared correct, claimed that they had been working the previous day, and could not explain why the air conditioning units were not working in the master bedroom or the kitchen. We continued to communicate over the next two hours and we could not use either the master bedroom or the kitchen due to the heat. Ultimately, at approximately 830 p.m., Laura's uncle and mother came see if they could diagnose and fix the air conditioning units. After over 30-45 minutes, including turning all the A/C. units off as well as all the power to the house, Laura's uncle and mother could not understand why the A/C units were not working and confirmed that the thermostats were set correctly.
At approximately 9:30 p.m., after dealing with the A/C issue for over 6 1/2 hours and losing part of the day to visit Seville, Laura agreed to either allow us to check out and refund us the full amount of the rental fee or to refund us one night's stay, allow us to use the rooms that had A/C and we would rent two inexpensive hotel rooms around the corner. Given that the kids had all unpacked and we had already bought groceries, we decided to stay in part of the house and rent two hotel rooms. We did so based on Laura's agreement to refund one night's stay, which would have effectively covered the two inexpensive hotel rooms since Laura said no one was available to come fix the A/C until Monday, the day we were due to check out. While it was inconvenient, we decided this would be the best option given the circumstances.
In addition to the A/C unit issue, there were also cleanliness issues. We found ants in the master bedroom bathroom and dead cockroaches in the lower bedroom/apartment. While I am sure Laura and Gerold will deny this, any guests can open the closets in the hallways on each floor and find ant and cockroach repellant sprays.
The second evening, we shut down the A/C in the kitchen and master bedroom (that were not working) to see if we could get the machines to reset. When we returned later that evening, we turned the A/C back on in the kitchen and master bedroom and they began to work. Clearly, it was some fault in the system that caused the A/C system in the master bedroom and kitchen not to work for the first 24-36 hours. Unfortunately, Laura and Gerold decided to blame us for the A/C units not working.
After we checked out and had left Sevilla to travel to Marbella, Laura called me to tell me that they were no longer going to refund the one night's stay. Instead, Laura decided to blame us for the A/C units not working in the master bedroom and kitchen. Laura also falsely claimed that we had not cleaned the house when we checked out. Finally, Laura falsely claimed that we had uninvited guests that slept over at the house. Each of Laura's claims were baseless and were pretexts for not refunding us what she had promised she would refund.
First, with respect to the A/C. units that were not working, Laura as well as her uncle and mother (who came to the house and tried to fix the units) confirmed that the A/C units were set correctly. To blame us afterwards is patently ridiculous. Laura claimed that we must have incorrectly set the A/C thermostats, but we did nothing but turn them on and leave.
Second, we have stayed at numerous Airbnbs in the past and have never been accused of leaving the house untidy. This is because we always make sure to clean up, take the sheets off the beds for ease of cleaning and empty the garbage cans. We did so in Laura's home, but she falsely claimed that we had left a mess. Again, this was a pretext for not following through with a refund. Importantly, Laura made this claim without actually being at the house much less in Sevilla, as she lives outside of Spain.
Finally, Laura claimed that we had broken house rules by having unregistered guests at the house. As I explained to Laura, my son happened to run into