STAY AWAY!! Don't be deceived by the cool-looking pictures!!
We booked 4 nights for my family vacation, and it was completely demolished on the very first night. Cockroaches were everywhere; kitchen, bathrooms, and even bedrooms. We also found some dead ones in the kitchen drawers !!
We immediately notified the landlord but had to stay that night because it was too late; kids were already sleeping and we had to pull the night to keep them safe. After the traumatic night, we evacuated in the morning. The landlord asked us to cancel the reservation, so we did.
The landlord promised to refund the rest of the reservation, and I accepted because I did't think it is entirely the landlord's fault. Although the refund was only half of the original price after deducting all sorts of fees (technically, I paid almost $1000 for the horrible night), I believed there are things that people cannot control. Yes, the indoor was not clean and its backyard is unmaintained and filthy, but I decided to share the pain and the loss because cockroaches can live anywhere and I though the landlord was also a victim.
However, I found a review from another user complaining about the cockroaches. The review was written in 2 weeks ago, which means the landlord knew about the problems before we checked in; the landlord was still renting out the property without fixing the problem. Though the landlord argued that they could see the review only after I checked in, it is very hard to believe that the previous user did not say anything about the cockroaches to the landlord during or after his/her stay.
So, I asked the landlord a full refund because I thought this should not be considered as a valid rent. I thought the conversation with the landlord was needed before I post reviews or directly contact AirBnB. Not surprisingly the landlord refused, and I think that may be a greedy-yet-rational decision as a landlord. However, the WORST part is that he offered me $50 for a 5 star review! That explained how his property got undeservedly high score!
The beginning of the problem was the filthy environment of the property so that many cockroaches could reside in. Again, I think it is a natural thing that some properties are better than the others so they should get appropriate reviews and star scores. But, the behavior that the landlord displayed to "buy scores" is not acceptable and should not be tolerated, particularly in this user-reviewed platform.