When we arrived, a guest from the first floor (owned by the same hosts) was parked in our spot. The hosts worked to resolve the issue immediately, and one of the hosts was reachable despite it being after 11PM, which I appreciated.
Unfortunately I discovered that one of the two beds was very wet. Turns out there was a leak in the ceiling (it was not currently raining) and a large amount of water had leaked onto the bed. It was soaked. Totally unusable. Since this wasn't related seemingly to a pipe bursting I'm not sure how the hosts were unaware of this as a developing issue... but ok, things happen. I didn't turn down the bed / discover this until 90 minutes after we had arrived at the listing. So, at this point it was 12:30 in the morning. They apologized and offered to put us up at a different location. It was good of them to offer. It was the right thing to do. However, my colleague and I had been driving all day and had already loaded in a lot of heavy equipment. We were exhausted. It was a 10-hour drive. It was late. The bed shouldn't have been wet in the first place and we weren't about to take another 30 minutes to load out all of our gear, drive elsewhere and then spend another 30 loading in again... So, I slept on the couch...
Technically the host/s offered to move us, which was duly noted. However, it is my belief that you should be aware enough of the state of your property that if a ceiling were to leak and soak one of the beds, you would understand this before accepting money in exchange for the use of the space. Again, it was not raining at the time and I don't believe it had rained recently; at least not very much. It seemed like this issue had been developing over time, rather than a random incident that developed quickly. I would be much more sympathetic to something that seemed to have happened just before we arrived (or during our stay). This was a very musty scenario, and it had been wet in there for a while...
The hosts messaged me asking what could be done. I said a partial refund was in order. They offered me a "30% refund" in the amount of $28. The entire cost of my stay was $184.78. I understand Airbnb charges fees and that rentals are subject to taxes. Sure. But when I pointed out that even without those fees the total price was actually $155 (with their non-optional, compulsory cleaning fee) they responded acting as if the cleaning fee was "out of their hands." I don't buy it. You can waive part of that fee for your guest as a gesture for a soaked musty bed and the inconvenience that it has caused; even if we did move to another listing. You ultimately control the cost of the cleaning fee. It is not something that "happened" to you.
I will also note that the hosts charge a cleaning fee, yet they also have rules such as "- Clean any dishes & coffee pot"
Don't get me wrong, I am the kind of person who cleans up after myself 100% of the time. Unfortunately the new trend on Airbnb of non-optional cleaning fees also come with expectations from hosts that you in fact, clean up anyway — and I'm sure that if I were to skip doing so, I'd receive a poor renter review. So which is it? Have a sense of personal responsibility and dignity and clean up after myself? Or pay a non-negotiable cleaning fee, but also be expected to clean up after myself anyway? It's goofy. It should be set up so that if you leave a mess, you have to pay. If you leave the space in excellent condition, you do not. But to have an obligatory cleaning fee *and* a stipulation about cleaning dishes and the coffee pot? Come on!
I also want to mention that the porch light did not work and the batteries in the tv remote were dead. Paired with the leaking roof it just seems like the place is not looked after. I will again note that the hosts were proactive about the parking situation, they were proactive about the leak, offering to move us to a different location, and they did refund me $28 bucks (for an unusable bedroom on a $184 listing) but they at least did *something*. I think spending the extra $18.50 to bring $28 to $46.50 — which would have been 30% of the total price (before fees and taxes) including the cleaning fee that *they control* would have been the appropriate response. They called that "out of their budget."
Not one or two stars, because that would be unfair. 3 feels fair. Effort was certainly made, but based on everything I've described my colleague and I still left the whole scenario feeling very much like "huh...just make it make sense."