I preface this review with my personal star rating ethos:
★★★★★: Unbelievable - better than and unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life; exceedingly rare and rightfully so.
★★★★☆: Outstanding - surprisingly notable and I will tell people about it voluntarily; quite uncommon.
★★★☆☆: Satisfactory - meets claims and expectations; most common and the vast majority
★★☆☆☆: Bare Minimum - not winning any awards, bases are covered but barely; rare
★☆☆☆☆: Unpleasant - unsanitary, unsafe, and/or unwelcome, would voluntarily tell people to avoid; practically unheard of due to basic human decency and common sense
With that, here we go:
Immediately after booking I received a message from the host thanking me and advising me of check-in information to come closer to the arrival date. So far, so good.
Thirty minutes later, another message arrived informing me that the host has "a pretty busy schedule" and while they would "still be here to answer any general questions", a phone number for "the person actually helping" me was included. Not exactly comforting, being passed off to someone else. It bears the appearance of someone washing their hands of the whole affair. This is a pattern that we will explore further in a bit.
Thinking it best to perhaps offer additional information of my own, I supplied the best-estimate times for both my check-in and check-out that were immediately available to me. Both were two-hour windows calculated as close to exact as possible; the very nature of travel rarely affords exact times for anything. The host replied with "Thanks for letting me know!" presumably acknowledging this information as useful.
The next day, the host sent another message. Immediately following the salutation appeared this question: "Could you please let me know as early as possible at what time you plan on arriving?" I felt an intense sense of deja vu wash over me. I was compelled to double check; indeed this information already appeared in host's inbox. It had been there for nearly twenty-four hours prior to their asking and easily located with a simple scroll up the thread. This again bears the appearance of someone telegraphing their dismissal of the situation. There are only a few logical explanations for this. One might be that the host simply didn't read the first message. Another could be that the host actually did read it, immediately ignored it, and then simply could not be bothered to scroll up the thread for that seemingly pertinent information. The last option to make sense of this is that the host actually required a time more precise than a window of a couple of hours. If so, while the first two belie a simple disinterest in the situation, requiring an exact time is an unrealistically high bar to set, it is incompatible with travel in general, and irresponsible to ask. Still, I assured the host that a more narrow arrival window would be provided just as soon as possible and reiterated the two hour arrival windows I had previously provided.
Further on in this same post, the messaging took a dark turn, another theme we will explore in a bit. The host explained that while she usually "had very good luck with my guests on Airbnb" there had been "a couple issues lately". With this chilling setup, I braced for myself as I read on. "In a situation where the home is left in poor condition you may be charged double the cleaning fee for extra services." This is a threat, plain and simple. Certainly, additional charges for outlier cleaning scenarios is a foregone conclusion in any rental situation. Calling it out specifically is a harbinger of expectations. It was obvious by this point that the host was making it clear that she, and only she, was in full control and held all the cards. I was no longer a guest; I was a prisoner. I was not welcome; I was on notice. I would comply or else. I would give them exact times. I would follow all the rules to the letter. If I did not, the home might just be deemed to be in "poor condition", whatever subjective qualification that may be, and she would make me literally pay. It was at this point that I felt the need to walk on egg shells, lest I raise the ire of the host and face financial retribution. I would, as you'll see, go to extreme lengths to avoid the very apparent and imminent threat of retaliation.
As promised, and terrified of retribution for neglecting it, I provided an arrival time generated by The Navigation App That Shall Not Be Named just as soon as I was on the road driving toward the destination, hoping desperately that it would be sufficient slake. True to form, the host curtly acknowledged the information in a short, dismissive response. This was extremely confusing; it was unclear if an exact arrival time truly was as imperative as I was led to believe. In any case, I was determined to fulfill every perceived responsibility and document everything to leave a paper trail proving that I had complied. At this point, it was clear that anything less would leave me open to a world of difficulties.
I arrived after dark, on-time, almost to the minute. Conveniently, the revelation that this location offered street parking only came after the cancellation window closed. Not a good look. This would be much less of an issue if it weren't for the veritable sea of drug addicts saturating the area. Make no mistake, these people were not to be confused with the regular, garden variety homeless person who most likely wants to just be left alone. These people were quite obviously strung way out and they were everywhere. I'm from Tacoma, so homelessness is not unfamiliar to me. Bear in mind, that's the same Tacoma in Pierce County, Washington that was featured for so many years on the TV show COPS. What I experienced was on a whole other