Extremely disappointed. I DO NOT recommend this rental. While the host Jerry communicated nicely prior to booking the rental, that changed after I booked and he had our business. My husband and I arrived at the rental very late in the night due to the late arrival of our flight (something I let Jerry know ahead of time on multiple occasions). Unfortunately to our dismay, we were not pleased at all upon arrival. The grass was severely overgrown (an eyesore for sure) but I dismissed this trying to give the benefit of the doubt, knowing that Columbus had received a lot of rain in the days prior. The real issue we experienced was the bugs. I knew the home was a split level, but I didn’t picture the room being in a basement. The room is definitely in a basement.
The photos make the room seem much nicer than it is, but there has been some clear wear and tear on the space, and it has not been maintained to the standards I feel most Airbnb hosts uphold. Regardless, again the biggest issue was the bugs. Within 15 minutes of arriving, we encountered 3 live spiders, all larger than the size of a quarter. With encountering 3 spiders in the first 15 minutes, we felt extremely uncomfortable sleeping there, not knowing how many others might make an appearance throughout the night. There were also several dead bugs that lined the perimeter of the floor. When I say several, I mean over 100. This was disturbing, especially since there clearly wasn’t even an effort to clean these up/vacuum them up. We ended up leaving, canceling our stay and having to stay at a hotel.
I messaged Jerry that same night concerning the cancelation and explained everything. I even offered to send him photos that I had taken of the various bugs (both alive and dead), since I’m not sure how often he actually visits the property himself. I also was hoping he might be sympathetic concerning the cancelation policy and refund us both the second and third nights of our stay...I told him I understand not being able to refund us the first night (even though we didn’t stay there). I didn’t think this was too much to ask him to consider, especially considering the shear amount of bugs made the space in my opinion inhabitable. To our dismay, I never heard from Jerry. The last communication I have from him is the check in process he sent prior to our arrival. So now my husband and I are out of money for a place we didn’t even stay at, and Jerry couldn’t even give us the courtesy of a reply. I have stayed at several Airbnbs and have never experienced anything like this with a host before.
Prior to booking, I read review after review of this property, guests all saying that the space was “sparkling clean” etc. I trusted these reviews and unfortunately they did not prove to be true. I can’t speak too much of the other bedrooms in the house, but I can say that we saw dead bugs that had been killed and smeared along the walls in common spaces. Again I was shocked that there was no attempt to even clean these up. Extremely disappointed. I wasn’t expecting luxury by any means...just an economic, affordable, clean space with a courteous host. This unfortunately was not our experience at all.