I am one that truly appreciates transparency and accountability, especially during these unprecedented times of COVID-19 and traveling out of state to trust the accuracy of a listing from an Airbnb host.
To start, the Airbnb listing said “entire house” it had zero mentions of a tenant living in the house below the main level of the home with shared access to the washer and dryer that is located in the lower level of the home. The only thing that was listed was “guest will have full access to home apart from second floor hall and basement storage closets”. Upon arriving to the home we settle in, disinfect the living areas and within an hour we were startled to hear the tenant arrive through their side door and smell food from their space while we were in the living room. I opened the door in the main hallway (only thing separating the tenant from us) to see how secure this door was and it was as old as the house, it was a rickety lock that could be easily picked. We could also see the light shine through our main hallway from the tenants entry door. I messaged Hannah and explained the level of discomfort we had with not knowing there was a shared space, when the listing clearly stated “entire house” and that we along with our families were heavily concerned for not only our safety of not truly knowing who is in the home but also for our health during CV19. Needless to say, Hannah fell short of empathy and accountability for the lack of transparency regarding the tenant, shared amenities, and rickety locked hallway door. She even went so far to state that it is listed in the house manual; this is not how an Airbnb guest should find about extra roommates and shared amenities.
After years of traveling around the world and utilizing Airbnb, for the first time, we reached out to Airbnb support and the agent agreed that the listing was misleading. They recommended that we take the route of filing a dispute through the resolution center. Hannah was not enthused by this action and went so far to message about having us evacuate the home early (during CV19) if we want a partial refund for the inaccurate post. We had to clarify that our partial refund request was for the inaccuracy and inconvenience her listing caused us such as not feeling comfortable using the washer/dryer or outside space her tenant and possible company could access. We had a 5 night stay and she had her tenant leave for our last full day of stay to avoid giving us a larger portion of our request. Bear in mind, during CV19 nothing could have been disinfected long enough for us to feel comfortable to access another lived in space in our last 24-36hrs of stay.
Another few important notes on this house, the master bedroom faces the street with the construction site. The construction workers arrive between 6-6:30am outside (Monday-Saturday) and start work at 7am. Also, if you are in the master bedroom, you will hear security onsite past midnight. This is an older house and if you are a soft sleeper or would like to sleep in past 6am this house is not for you.
To conclude, outside of the issues mentioned above, the portions of the house that we had private access to was charming, its location is central to the small neighborhoods and about a 20 minute walk to downtown Portland and the waterfront park.