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We arrived about 2 hours after check in, and let ourselves in. About 10 minutes later, the host called to ask if he could move a dresser out of one of the apartment’s bedrooms. I wasn’t happy being interrupted (ahem!), but said, sure, give me 10 minutes. He shows up 45 minutes later (now I’m really not happy being interrupted). He takes the dresser, but doesn’t replace it with anything so we had nowhere to put our things in/on in that room. Just bizarre.
The next morning, the cleaners walked in without knocking, almost an hour before checkout. There were two Airbnb units in the building, so they said they would start on the other unit and left. A minute later, we could hear them talking, clear as a bell, in the other unit through a door that I (mistakenly) thought was a locked closet. Was slightly embarrassed to think what the guests on the other side of that door heard during our stay…
I have stayed in about 40 AirBnbs total and had very few bad experiences, but a few weird ones.
Stayed at a place in MA where the host lived upstairs and was a control freak, under the guise of being friendly. She would pop downstairs unannounced to “see if we needed anything,” but it really felt like she was checking on us. We had a friend for dinner one night (she was notified; not an overnight guest) and she came to ask our friend to move her car basically because of a parking turf war with the neighbors. She even let herself in at one point when we weren’t there. It was uncomfortable for sure, but we left a good review anyway and made it clear for future guests that she’s very friendly and involved. Some people like that, but we were weirded out.
I mentioned this in the tarot cards thread, but I recently stayed in a room in a shared house where there were guns and ammunition out around the entire house. That was uncomfortable and we thought about leaving, but we were basically stranded. The host was a hunter, older, and we were his second guests, so instead of a bad review or a report we sent him a private review suggesting he make sure everything is in the gun safe, as it’s against terms of service to have undisclosed and unsecured weapons.
I just stayed in an airBnb in Detroit where the host alerted us two days before check-in that the city was turning off the water for our check-in day and the next day until 5:00. We kept the booking because check-in was at 4:00 so it was really only one day. It ended up being three days until 7 or 8 each night. That was nobody’s fault so we didn’t complain but we’re surprised that we got such an amazing guest review from the guy… I guess not complaining is uncommon!
Other than that, just little things, like the place not being anywhere near the trendy neighborhood it was advertised under, or something silly like that. Overall, my experience as a guest has been consistently good.
Unless it was an emergency, entering a guest’s space without letting them know ahead of time is unacceptable. I would never write a review for a host who did this without mentioning it.
@ceebee She was ostensibly doing us a favor by checking in on our dog. I do think it was well-intentioned, even if creepy. But I tend to give hosts the benefit of the doubt.
We haven’t travelled with ABB yet. My first booking attempt, I tried to book an ABB for a weekend and eventually got a response along the lines of “I’m trying to book for more days than you are requesting”. We wanted 3 nights, her minimum was 2, but evidently she wanted 4+ nights? It is a small issue but for a first time user, long time host, it felt rude and unprofessional. She wasn’t IB, so I wondered what reason she used for declining us … “Uncomfortable with guest”? Haha, gee, thanks!
I think on the whole I’ve gotten off lightly. But the last time… sheesh… It was advertised as a “cosy inner-city apartment” - turns out to be a bog-standard no-frills low-budget flat in a bog-ugly block with no privacy. The spare pillows were in the wardrobe, but without covers or slips and were yellow and moldy I just can’t go on describing the other problems. That was enough to turn me off.
Have posted about it here before…a cheap $25/night private room and shared bath with a $5 cleaning fee. The cleaning fee apparently was only to cover laundry, travel soap and a bottle of water…there was an undisclosed outdoor camera and the ONLY thing clean was the bed and towels. It was sooo bad that my kitten played woth a th
Junk and dust bunnies under the furniture, there were ants and bugs in the bathroom and the “kitchen” had crumbs, spills and filth everywhere, including in the fridge. There were half the cabinet doors hanging half off their hinges and several of the cabinet doors were completely gone from their hinges…I ended up with my $92 or so 3 night reservation being refunded when i reported the camera and her listings were removed for less than a half a day until she claimed she couldn’t find any undisclosed cameras at her listing…even though I had sent them 2 picture of it!
Yes. I agree that I got what I paid for. The location was walking distance to a Chick-Fil-A and since the bed was clean, the water was hot and I was allowed to bring my kitten for free, it was also about the closest thing (30 minutes drive if I remember correctly) to where I needed to go each day it suited my needs.
I’ve had 2 less-than-optimal experiences as a guest.
In Chicago, the listing was like staying in your kid’s college apartment. Stuffed with personal items, but worse, not clean. Tons of leftovers in the fridge, dirty kitchen, GIGANTIC hair clog in the shower, roaches. Not enough TP or paper towels for 3 people and a 9-day stay. Requested and got a 2nd cleaning. Checkout instructions included emptying tiny kitchen trash can into trash chute. Well, of course, I accidentally heaved the whole can into the chute. The can could not have been worth more than $10, which I proved to thew host, but of course he gouged me for replacing it, even after I tolerated the filth. Lots of learning here!
This year it was Denver for also a 9-day stay for 2 people. Problem here was not cleanliness but stinginess. 2 rolls of TP for the whole stay, 1 towel each for 9 days, no offer of linen change, watered-down shower soap and dish detergent.
I mostly chose them because of their proximity to the convention centers I was attending. I didn’t go super-deeply into the reviews but didn’t see anything terrible. For the Denver listing, several guests complained about the upstairs noise as the listing was a basement apartment. This was certainly true; the host had 1 or more children who would gallop the length of the upstairs for 30 minutes at a time. That happened during the day; they did stay quiet at night.
I chose Airbnb because I want to be in an apartment or house. I expect there to be starters of things like toilet paper and paper towels, but since I tend to stay a week or longer, I assume I’ll hit the local grocery to get my own supplies. I also look for places with laundry, which means I can wash my sheets and towels if I want clean ones. So if I were to stay places with only two rolls of toilet paper and no clean linens it wouldn’t bother me, and I may well give the place a glowing review.
If I’m looking for linens to be changed often and toilet paper resupplied I stay at hotels.
If the place is clean I’d chalk this up to different expectations.
This did get me to recheck my listings, I will remind my partner to change the second listing to say emphasize “starter pack.” I can’t imagine where I could store a months worth of toilet paper in the smaller place.
I haven’t stayed at an airbnb for some time now. I’ve never stayed anywhere really awful. If it was truly dreadful I wouldn’t hold back on stars but so far nothing has been terrible, I’ve always given 5* whatever. I don’t want to be that bitch host-guest!
I’ve given feedback to hosts but never docked stars.
Even in that Parisian room that had no washbasin in the bathroom/toilet. I’m not germophobic but I couldn’t help thinking that the door handle had been touched by so many people and they hadn’t washed their hands.
In the room we had an ensuite, ostensibly. There was a bath and shower but no toilet… To have a pee you needed to go down the spiral staircase in the middle of the apartment, fumble your way to the bathroom, have a pee and then … you hand to walk all the way back to wash your hands. Weird.
I just can’t go on describing the other problems. That was enough to turn me off.
I’m not germophobic but I couldn’t help thinking that the door handle had been touched by so many people and they hadn’t washed their hands.