“Luxury” Condo in Fort Lauderdale
What was supposed to be a relaxing 3 days started out to be a night mare. My boyfriend and I booked an Airbnb after looking at the gorgeous photos on their website.
We were excited about this trip and were anticipating this “luxury” getaway from the moment we booked it and couldn’t wait for the trip!
Upon arriving we noticed the outside of the building going through construction, which a lot of the buildings in this area were. Also prior to booking, our host mentioned outside construction and therefore “discounted” our stay for the “film on the windows” of the unit that would “partially” obstruct our views. We were understanding of this minor discrepancy since there were still gorgeous views to be seen from the other wall of windows of the unit.
Moving through the hallway of the 15th floor where our unit was located, we noticed many defects and cited many opportunities for cleaning. Nevertheless, we found our unit and proceeded in to enjoy our stay. Upon entering the unit looked much like the photos we saw online. However upon further investigation we slowly started to observe areas of the condo that were dirty and not lacked proper sanitation. There were other worn areas of the unit that were not indicative of the word “Luxury”. I will keep reiterating this word throughout my claim because unfortunately we were not promised what we received. We feel that false advertisement is what enticed us to stay at this unit. Had we seen photos of these areas as the ones I have provided in this claim, we would NOT under ANY circumstances have booked this unit.
“Luxury” noun
1.	the state of great comfort and extravagant living.
2.	a situation in which you are very comfortable, with the best and most expensive things around you
3.	something that you very much enjoy because you do not get it very often
We began to survey the unit, we were greeted by dirty walls and doors throughout, dust ridden items, rusted sinks, stained counter tops, food stained cabinets and drawers, stained bed, soap summed shower doors, black substances on two different air vents, dirty lint that accumulated on the air conditioning closet, “danger do not enter” sign, multiple patched ceilings in repair, dust collecting on nightstands, and more! This is NOT the “state of great comfort and extravagant living” that we expected to have on this trip. This is NOT a “situation in which we were very comfortable”… This was far less than “something we could enjoy that we don’t get very often”.
We surveyed the condo within about 15 minutes, took photos, and left the unit in search of safer accommodations. Please understand, in this heighted time of necessary cleanliness and sanitizing, we felt our host not only misrepresented his unit with the photos and descriptions, he failed to properly protect the guests that were staying in his unit by failing to take proper cleaning measure’s. We felt disgusted in the thought of staying in these conditions and chose against the risk to our health. Nor resort to being uncomfortable in a vacation unit after paying $413 for two nights. It was not our idea to have the need to wear gloves throughout our stay to protect us from filthy light switches and other items or masks that would prevent us from breathing in blackened material coming from the air vents.
We properly contacted our host upon leaving and securing the unit. We sent the photos we took to the host, and expressed our dissatisfaction and uncomfortable feeling we had there. Our host then advised that he would go to the unit and that he had already personally walked the unit himself and found no issues. He later responded that he went to the unit and found “minor issues” and “wear and tear”, and only see fit to refund $100 of our $413 stay that we were only in for 15 minutes. (Our exchange below in photos) Unfortunately, after doing my research I found no references where “wear and tear” were synonymous with “Luxury”.
There was no justification of why a proper cleaning crew using proper sanitizing methods would leave behind dust, food stains, or dirty walls and/or closets, etc. The perception of these conditions was that NO proper cleaning in fact could’ve been done.
Our decision to vacate was not simply due to we didn’t like the unit, we had every intention on relaxing and enjoying our stay. Instead we spent the next couple of hours finding other accommodations which also was a huge inconvenience and cost additional money that we were not prepared to pay which also impacted the enjoyment of our trip.