I'm giving 1 star to Mr. Dionei for initially being helpful in offering to add a desk and chair to the room when I had asked prior to my reservation.
Unfortunately when a situation presented itself where he could try to help and show a little empathy and humanity, his actions were extremely cold, insensitive and somewhat greedy.
7 days prior to my reservation, I was rushed to the hospital with a dangerous, life-threatening infection that required an emergency surgery the same day. When I was able to leave the hospital (5 days prior to my reservation), I asked Dionei if he could help me (since I couldn’t travel due to doctor’s orders) by providing a refund (full or partial) or change the date of my reservation so I could use it when I recovered and was able to go on my work trip. As an entrepreneur, this travel expense was significant.
Since I understood that this may have caused some days where he might not earn from the rental property, I asked if he could at least provide a partial credit/refund or change my reservation date so he could still have time to rent the property out and recoup the money.
Instead of helping, he took a good amount of time to reply to my request (which I feel he was doing intentionally to delay the process). He initially responded that this was something that Airbnb had to handle even though it clearly says in Airbnb’s policy that the Host is the only one who can provide a change or refund. He later replied that he couldn't change Airbnb’s policy so I explained to him that Airbnb has a system where the Host can provide refunds or accept changes to reservation dates. After a set of back and forth messages, and now being very close to the check-in date, he finally shared his real concern which was that he might lose some money. After this, he didn't reply to my message.
He didn’t provide any type of help or at least show a little empathy/humanity for this really unfortunate and unplanned situation I endured. I had to pay for the entire 6 days as well as cleaning and Airbnb fees because I wasn’t able to cancel on time (while I was in surgery). Next time I have life-threatening surgery, I’ll be sure to ask the doctor to cancel my Airbnb reservation for me before they cut me open.