Please read this review as it’s important to consider before booking with Alex. He begged me not to leave a negative review, offering to refund my trip in exchange, tho the trip should be refunded anyway after such an awful experience. I truly believe that the multiple 5 star reviews here are due to him bribing customers who have had bad experiences. He will pay you not to tarnish his record. I’m not here to do that, but I want fellow airbnb guests to be safe and I do not believe this is a safe place to stay. I’ve contacted Airbnb directly about my experience with Alex. Here’s what happened:
- Neither Airbnb or Alex sent proper check in details. I drove around for 15 minutes trying to find the given address. Once I told Alex I couldn’t find it, he gave me a totally different address. The one given after you book is fake. It doesn’t exist. Alex says he isn’t sure why there is a wrong address on Airbnb but hasn’t corrected it.
- there were no directions given on how to enter the property. Luckily I found a lockbox that also happened to be open. It took Alex a while to respond when asking him for the lockbox code.
-the house is immaculately clean and has everything in it.
- there’s no guidebook so I had to ask about the wifi and other basic info. However, there was a brochure placed on the counter highlighting Alex’s real estate business.
- at around 330am, my friend opened a window in the bathroom (because there aren’t any exhaust fans in them) and the house alarm went off. The police came and filed a police report on me. I’m a tall black man and this is Florida. I can’t tell you how traumatic it was to have to deal with that. Here’s where it gets worse:
- one of the officers told me that they are often called to this house for a number of issues. The last time they were called apparently was because of a reported rape. He told me the neighbors don’t like Alex and his home and have been petitioning to have it better regulated by local government or closed. Given the exchange with the police, you can bet that my friend and I didn’t sleep very well that night. Alex claims all of this is false, but I don’t see why the police would go out of their way to share that type of info with me. And Alex hasn’t done a great job of proving his integrity since.
-Alex called the next morning. His initial response? “Why did you turn on the alarm?”…. As if I knew the code to arm or disarm his alarm system. Alex has yet to take real responsibility for any of this. But it didn’t end there…
- we stayed elsewhere the next night and returned a day later. Alex texted me a picture of an unopened bottle of wine sitting on the porch, his way of apologizing. When we arrived at the house the bottle was opened… Alex has no idea who did it but regardless it’s incredibly strange and unwelcoming. We of course didn’t stay there that night either.
The worst part of this is Alex doesn’t take responsibility for this experience. He initially offered to give me one night free if it would make things better. I didn’t respond because he and I know the only proper recourse is a full refund, one that isn’t being used as a bribe to get me to not leave a bad review or to leave a fake one.
I told him his bribe offended me and he has literally left multiple voicemails and sent multiple voice notes and texts begging me not to leave a review and tarnish his record.
He can keep the money. Im sure someone somewhere has had a better experience here, but between the police incident and the ghost who opened the wine and left it sitting on the porch, I think it’s important to let potential guests know what’s really happening here. I don’t feel it’s safe and Alex isn’t doing enough to make it better. I wish I could attach pictures to this review. Hopefully Airbnb investigates him and has him make some much needed changes.