Author Archives: Judy Mazess

Neither Host nor Guest Wants Cancellation Fees

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I guess Airbnb did not design customer service with service in mind. I made a reservation for a month in Satellite Beach, Florida for winter 2019. Only by giving them my money could I then get the exact location of the condo and contact information for the host. Since I was already staying in Florida this winter I drove to the rental location the next day. It was not to my liking so I contacted the host, who was very nice, and cancelled the reservation on Airbnb.

The site told me to contact the host and have her cancel the reservation or I would lose over $3000. I asked the host to cancel my reservation. She told me that the site instructed her to have me cancel the reservation, otherwise they would charge her a cancellation fee. Neither of us wants to incur charges for a reservation that was only three days old for dates almost a year in the future. What an outrage. I sent a message to customer service, who promised to contact me within 24 hours. I plan to try the phone number you have published on this site to see if I have any better success.

Airbnb Charged my PayPal Account for a Fake Reservation

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Late last night I had a notification from PayPal saying I had been charged £450 for an Airbnb. I looked at my emails and had three emails that stated:

1. Confirming a reservation I had never made
2. My receipt from PayPal
3. Airbnb confirming the reservation had been cancelled and due to the host’s policy I wasn’t eligible for a refund.

Airbnb said to use the resolution centre for extenuating circumstances (which was impossible as my account was later cancelled). In the next 2-3 minutes I was also sent a billing receipt email from Airbnb, an email asking for payment verification details, and then finally an email saying my account had been cancelled (in which it implies it wasn’t cancelled by Airbnb, but rather, had been cancelled by the ‘user’).

At this point, any attempts to log into my account failed (as it was cancelled) which means I had no way to access my account details, or to access the resolution centre previously mentioned, and no way to contact customer service since every help or “contact us” page seems to just link to a “log in for help” button. I am astounded at this – surely if you have a cancelled account you should have the means to be able to contact Airbnb to resolve problems? Apparently not.

I then had to Google a contact number for Airbnb. Why they couldn’t have just put that in their emails is anyone’s guess. I called customer service. There was no answer at all; I was on hold for 30 minutes. I then sent a Twitter message to Airbnb help, advising them of the problem. They didn’t reply until four hours later, and even then, only to ask for my email address. It has now been 12 hours since I messaged them and the only progress made is just messages from them asking for my account information or reservation information – no real action, no offer to call me, no information on a phone number I can call for more help, and certainly not sorting out the issue fast enough given the amount of money involved.

I spoke to my bank who said that I need to go via PayPal first, and if they don’t refund the money then I could come back to the bank who would then try to help. I raised a dispute via PayPal last night, and this morning called their limitations team to ask for more information and to get a fast resolution as it was a lot of money. To be fair to PayPal, the customer service agent was very helpful and was able to confirm during the call that my case was closed in my favour. They have now refunded the full amount back to my account.

It turns out that Airbnb was able to charge my PayPal account because they were set up as a subscription on PayPal for automatic payments, something I was not aware of and something not made especially clear on their website. Given that someone else had a very similar problem only three days ago this is obviously not a one-off instance. Someone is accessing accounts without permission – both guests and hosts – in order to steal money. Something needs to be done about this, as it is fraud.

Fight Breaks Out, Airbnb Does Nothing to Help

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Recently, my family and I visited the midwest. We are regular users of Airbnb and, most of the time, whatever issues we encounter are easily remedied by adjusting our attitude or expectations. But this stay was different.

The property was one of twelve hosted by the same person in a suburban area. Because our stay was only four days and we anticipated being tourists, we booked a basement with a bath and small kitchen. We arrived and things went smoothly: the beds were comfy, there was no kitchen (but there was a microwave and small cooler), and our check in was a breeze.

About 6:00 PM, we heard what sounded like a Dothraki horde running laps around the main floor of the place. We would hear loud bangs and even heard glass shatter. I quickly messaged the host and got a reply from a number not related to our host. The responder was, we think, his wife. In any case, she apologized and said they had three dogs and were pet sitting two more. The barking and noise was constant for nearly three hours. Finally, we heard the owner come home.

Night two began at 7:00 PM. We returned to the basement exhausted. The Kentucky Derby was in full swing upstairs. We tried everything we could think of, including purchasing a very large box fan, to dampen the noise. At 11:00 PM, I contacted the host. They said: “We’re at a concert… sorry about the dogs.”

In the meantime, we did our best to stay quiet so the dogs would stop barking. At 2:00 AM, the owners arrived home and it got quiet enough to sleep. They apparently kennel the dogs at night.

At 4:22 in the morning, a large bang jolted us awake. We heard swearing and footsteps and then someone let the dogs out (and not in a funny, rap song way). For the next three hours, we were subjected to bangs, stomps… think of a stampede. I texted the owner multiple times with no response. At 9:40 AM, I had had it. I went and knocked on the main door. No one answered. I did get a text saying that we had just woke them up. The wife of the owner apologized and said a friend had come home drunk at 4:00, so it wasn’t their fault.

Then, we started hearing a fight break out. Women were screaming. A man was ranting about losing money and we heard a woman say, “You f***ing turned our home into a hotel and those mother f***ers can go to hell!”

Then we heard shuffling and chaos and the lady screamed: “Help!”

I tossed my car keys to my kids and told them to go lock themselves in the car while I called the police and packed up our stuff. After calling the police, I called Airbnb to report an emergency. I was asked to leave my number and a rep would call me back. I never got a call back. My phone did ring, once, but no one spoke.

The host cancelled our reservation so I couldn’t leave feedback. The host told Airbnb there was no fight and that what we heard was a television. Ten minutes later, the wife, who obviously had left the house, texted us and said she was sorry for subjecting our children to a fight but we shouldn’t “expect people to walk on eggshells when we book a basement.”

Can a Shower Create a Huge Crack and Cause a Water Leak?

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Before explaining my situation detail, I should first explain the terrible negligence at work in Airbnb customer service. My dispute was on the mediating system. Since I’m Korean and can’t speak English fluently, I just sent in my complain, explaining that I was innocent, and provided proof, as well as an explanation in Korean so the Korean Airbnb customer center could advise me. Suddenly Airbnb wasn’t reading my emails, didn’t exert any effort into reading the Korean complaints, and just sent me a formal message translated into Google (“I understand this is not the outcome you were hoping for”, something like this) and blocked my email.

Who can call Airbnb an international service? Couldn’t they connect me to someone who can speak both Korean and English so that they fully understand and listen to both parties more carefully and considerately? Why should I send and receive an English mail to prove I’m innocent though It’s not my mother language? There are two million Korean users per year through Airbnb. As a system goes, guests are always relatively helpless when something goes wrong. Hosts are locals; they already know everything. They have a huge advantage in disputes and I am being handicapped. Anyway, I think they are not able to read Korean and it seems there is nobody who speaks Korean who can help them. I sent an English complaint to them. It would be better than using Google Translate; I don’t know whether they read my email though.

I planned to stay in a Manchester, UK Airbnb from 1/31-2/4. My room was on the second floor and there was another guest next to my room. The bathroom was next to my room and there was a kitchen and the host’s private room on the first floor. The morning of February 1st, I took a shower. After a hour, the host came upstairs and shouted at me that water was leaking and dripping down through the 1st floor ceiling due to not using the shower curtain. While she was scolding me, she was very mad and used violent and racist words, e.g. “What a Chinese!”, “Do Chinese use bathrooms like this?”… she didn’t even know where I was from. I used the shower curtain and I told her that I used it on that day in clear English.

I checked out right after that problem occurred because I felt so bad and uncomfortable with her attitude and the whole situation. A few days after leaving, the host requested 300 pounds for damages. I disputed it.

I’m innocent and this request was unfair. If the house was originally in perfect condition and had no problems, the shower could not be leaking. Generally, it is likely that water is bound to be splattered on the bathroom floor while taking a shower. Even if there is a little more water than usual, water leaking through the ceiling is nonsense. How can just water splattered from the shower make a huge crack and cause the ceiling to leak? If that’s the case, then how can British people clean the bathroom and use the water properly in the bathroom?

I didn’t pour water on the floor. I just took a shower in the bath using a shower curtain. Also, there was a huge crack on the ceiling and the host blamed me and pressured me into thinking that I made that crack. Not only was water leaking but there was also a huge crack on the ceiling? Do you really think this is a normal situation?

As you can see on the pictures I attached, the crack is so wide that no one could think that it was made by the shower. I cannot help but only understand that the house originally had a crack and the problem was old. If I jumped on the floor, would they have accused me of destroying the house? This didn’t make sense at all. Taking a shower is an everyday act everybody in the world does.

If there was a possibility that the water could be leaking, or the house was weak or had a crack, the host had to notify me to be careful using the bathroom. As I’ve written, two million Koreans use Airbnb and even people from 191 different countries are using the service. In Asia there is a drain hole on the bathroom floor, so the water can go through it. If there was a risk that a leak could cause 300-pound repairs and make a host so angry, she should have notified me in advance, considering the cultural differences. I have not been provided any notice or anything from Airbnb or directly from her.

There is no definite causality. There was another guest in the house and only god knows when he used the bathroom and how used it. Therefore there is no sufficient cause that the leak was caused by my shower or anything else. These are main reasons that vindicate me and show why this case is so abnormal and unfair. I felt so bad and uncomfortable that she scolded, punished and pressed me but I couldn’t properly act because that was my first trip, my first time using Airbnb, and I’m not good at English.

I expected a clever solution from Airbnb customer service but they didn’t seem to take the guests’ side, just acted mechanically, like an answering robot. It’s such a shame. A huge crack due to shower water… let’s be honest. I attached a picture of the crack and hope you guys can give me any advice.

Airbnb Nightmare Host Goes to Extremes for Cash

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Just prior to my departure from Canada to the UK, the host cancelled the booking we had made ten months prior. Airbnb sent a few recommendations, and we selected one. The pictures on the Airbnb website showed a spacious environment, in which the French Door from the kitchen was open and I assumed led to a garden. I assumed it was a terrace house since that is the style of house I had originally booked.

The property was actually a former counsel flat. The French Doors opened onto a tiny deck measuring approximately two feet by two feet, a far cry from a private garden. The entranceway to the property was littered with garbage and the stairway smelt of urine. A large sign was posted outside the entrance way stating that the authorities were aware of all the violence in this building and surrounding grounds and will be increasing their surveillance of the area. I felt played. I was so terribly mislead. The homeowner told me the doors to the flat needed to be locked at all times due to the high crime rate in the building. Happy holidays.

Do not take Airbnb property recommendations. Do not rent properties that do not show the outside of the building from both the front and back. To protect yourself from bad hosts, I would strongly recommend you take pictures of the inside and outside of the property on arrival and again when you leave, so the condition in which you left a property can not be debated.

The second location I had the displeasure of staying at was in Somerset. The posting made it sound that the house was located in the townsite of Shepton Mallet, but it was in the district of Shepton Mallet, a 15-minute drive to the townsite and any amenities. The pictures on the Airbnb website made the dwelling look much larger than it was and showed lovely white leather furniture. In reality, the inside of the home looked more like a charity shop with all mismatched furniture. The pictures of the outside of the chapel style home showed a lovely manicured lawn, with a fence since the home was supposed to be dog-friendly. We chose this rental primary based on that picture. The garden actually belonged to the neighbour.

On the day of our arrival, we were treated to an extensive electronic rule book and all the additional fees, such as utilities, that could be added after our stay. All additional charges were at the discretion of the host after our departure. Before we left the home my daughter and I tidied up, mopped the floors, put away all the dishes, following the host’s instructions to the letter. The house lacked basic cleaning supplies, and the electronic rule book had stated if there were no cleaning supplies, it was up the guest to buy them.

After our departure, the host fined us for the recycling bin being full and then gave us a bad review for having a full recycling box. Looking for additional funds, they searched the contents of our sealed garbage bags. Potato chip packages were deemed party food, and were written into the review as evidence we were “extreme partiers.” Again, potato chip packages that were pilfered from trash bags. The dog’s adsorbent mats, which we had brought in case the dog had an accident and to protect the host’s home, were found in the garbage and we were billed for them.

These people dug though our garbage to find things to bill for. I find it sickening that the host went through our sealed garbage bags and wrote about us based on the contents. I felt violated. Once again, I felt like I had been played as a fool and was angry that I had spent so much time cleaning up the place and leaving it in much better condition than I found it. I am appalled that this type of host is allowed to continue with Airbnb; she is dishonest, a cheat, and vulgar. All I can assume based on her behaviour she must have a severe mental disorder that has been left untreated.

Ask your host for the square footage of the dwelling, since photographs can be very deceptive and misrepresent the size of the dwelling. Ask your host if the photos of the property are an accurate depiction, and when they were taken. Ask your host if there are additional fees that do not appear on the website. Ask your host about the rules for pets. Do not put dog mats in the property’s garbage bin. It can not be understated how much you need to protect yourself from dishonest hosts, by taking picture of the property on arrival and on departure, and time stamp them.

Loyal Host Jaded: The Horror Stories are True

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My family and I are staying in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day and my host just cancelled my reservation. We leave for Ireland in twelve days – do you really expect that I can find reasonable accommodations less than two weeks out? I had been researching neighborhoods and looking at places months in advance.

I am honestly trying to be understanding about this situation because I am an Airbnb host as well as a traveler. I do get that stuff comes up and I definitely know the risks that come with hosting. Airbnb needs to have an insurance policy in place so that you can put people in a decent hotel accommodations when something like this happens. I am so angry with Airbnb that I would have absolutely booked an overpriced hotel just so I have the guarantee that I have a place to stay.

Unfortunately, I am planning this trip for my family. It is their first time out of the country and they cannot afford thousands of dollars for a hotel simply for two nights in Dublin — I had to persuade them to go on this trip in the first place. I had no choice but to book another Airbnb, but I really believe it should be comped for their mistake.

They gave me 100 dollars for my trouble. We just spent $1138.68 for two beds for two nights. It is a much smaller place, a shitty layout and only has one bathroom. It is a farther walk from where we will be spending our time and does not have an in-unit washer and dryer (which was a request from my mother). I am so disappointed in Airbnb. I’ve heard horror stories before, but I guess you just don’t know how it feels until you experience it yourself.

Hippy Commune Crams in as Many Guests as Possible

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My wife and I are frequent travelers for work, so we must find somewhat long-term furnished housing. Typically we will stay in a city for three to six months at a time. We had accepted an assignment near Los Angeles last spring. We decided on a place through HomeAway in Monterey Park for the first month we were living in the area. This turned out to be extremely unaffordable so we turned to Airbnb.

For nearly half of the price, we found this quaint little home on the northern end of Pasadena. After reading all of the reviews, which were mostly all positive, we pulled the trigger on the place. This is where it gets rather interesting. The specs on the house were very clear: 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, shared kitchen. Since the hosts live at the residence, we figured that we would only be sharing the home with the couple that lived there. This didn’t seem like a problem at all, since the hosts were somewhat young and seemed normal enough.

We arrived on a Monday and upon pulling into the driveway, we saw a young couple packing up their belongings. This should have been a sign. As they pulled away, we entered the house and were greeted by an elderly woman and her granddaughter. They lived in the living room, which was enclosed by bedsheets that had been stapled to the ceiling. She showed us which room was ours and from there we began unpacking our things.

Storage was an issue, as the closet in the bedroom was full of the owner’s belongings. As we travel lightly, we made do. The room was very dirty but luckily I travel with a vacuum and was able to sweep up most of the filth. As it turned out, we were to be living with a group of people. The other bedroom was rented out nightly, and the living room (the red room on the Airbnb listing) was inhabited by the elderly woman and her granddaughter on a long-term basis.

We deserve medals for the hell that we put up with. For those reading this, you might be wondering where the “owners” of the house live. I’ll get to why owners is in quotations here in a bit. The owners live in the detached garage. Allow me to tally up the occupants: a minimum of two people in the garage, two in the living room, my wife and I in one bedroom, and usually two others in the other bedroom, which would change every few days. A grand total of eight people per night at a minimum.

This turned out to be pretty awesome with only one full bathroom. Every night, the young girl from the living room would spend 4-5 hours in the bathroom doing only god knows what. If we failed to brush our teeth or shower by 7:00 PM, we wouldn’t be able to until 1:00 AM. Gobs of fun there.

Here’s another amusing fact of our stay. Apparently nobody ever taught her manners, respect, or most of all, energy consumption. Sometime in the middle of the night, the little prick would turn the thermostat to somewhere between 90 and 93 degrees. Because of this we would wake up sweating profusely, angered to a degree with no rival. Between the hours in the bathroom, abuse of the thermostat, and stealing our food, I nearly decided against having children. I understand this is just terrible behavior of another tenant, but amusing nonetheless.

Let’s now discuss the house. Keep your shoes on, because if you don’t your feet will turn black from the dirt on the floors. The yard was something special. The owners kept a large tent in the backyard for storage, since they lived in the damn garage. As far as I could tell, it had never been mown. The grass was roughly four feet tall. Awesome. After staying for a few days, I was quite puzzled as to why anyone would neglect a place like this. Prime location, relative size… they were letting this place turn to crap.

I soon found the answer. The owners don’t own the house. They rent it. They then sublease on Airbnb to make money. This was eye opening. I cannot blame anyone for trying to make money. As far as I’m concerned, go for it. But at least disclose this information on the website. We had to go to the grocery store every evening because there was no storage in the refrigerator. It was full of condiments and crap from previous people’s stays.

Parking was also a nightmare. There were only three parking spaces. This would be sufficient if the house was properly occupied, but it isn’t. At times there would be seven cars in the drive, blocking us in. Often times we would park on the street to avoid any mayhem. Overall I feel like our two-month stay at this commune made us a stronger couple. After living in these conditions we can deal with nearly anything. Here’s a link just in case anyone wants to experience a Pasadena slum.

Negative experience in Belgrade, Džordža Vašingtona 58

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Well, the apartment title and description are really charming: “Cozy and cute apartment in the very centre of Belgrade !” After a long search, last October, I believed this was the right accommodation for few days in Belgrade around the 2018 New Year’s Eve (NYE) according to the pictures, description and guest reviews. I’ve realized since the beginning the apartment was in an highly traffic congested part of Belgrade, maybe one of the worst spots in the whole city. But I read carefully tens of reviews looking for the key words such as disturb, noise, loud, nasty, safe, shabby, sloppy, dirty, protection and so on. I found ONLY a couple of reviews talking about disturb and noise: one from Claus, dated 01/2014 and one, recent, very harsh from Raf, dated on 11/2017. In both cases Marija & Marko stood opposite answering to their former guests they remained surprised for the quite or totally negative reviews inviting them to go to a 5 stars hotel. I found these replies quite impolite and misrepresenting. Unfortunately the worst review, from Raf, came a couple months after reservation and I read it just the week after Christmas. Too late to give up and change location, if it was realistic. I am pretty sure that any host, Airbnb or any other circuit, have to depict exactly what they are offering to potential guest: hosts have not to warp the real nature of the place with sugar-coated descriptions and photoshopped pictures. Evidently is not like that !

Anyway, now I describe my staying experience. In order to be detailed and precise, I try summarize the whole experience in Pros and Cons of this accommodation. I hope all any other potential guest will take my review as a reference because I want to be the more realistically descriptive I can. Before I need to tell something about the accommodation area. In fact the “cosy and cute apartment” is located in a 20th century decaying building, at the crossroads between two huge boulevard which are definitively Belgrade centre arterial roads highly traffic congested. Boulevard Džordža Vašingtona, about 34m wide, except of the boardwalks, in front of the accommodation front door, houses two railways lanes for both direction trams (with 4-5mins frequency on each side) utilized also by two ways direction diesel buses and additional 2 lanes for car and buses traffic in both direction. Furthermore on the NE side of the road, over the boardwalk there are public car parking on a meter. The intersecting boulevard is named Takovska, 18m wide, that houses 2 lane road for each direction. This boulevard is covered back and forth by diesel buses and wire buses (4-5min frequency) on both ways together with car traffic.

PROS

– The accommodation is really central, so main Belgrade attraction are at a reasonable walking distance. Differently from the host prevision, the walking distances we experienced are the following: Serbian Parliament (Narodna skupština Republike Srbije), 9min; Republic Square (Trg Republike) and Terazije, 15min, Knez Mihailova), Bohemian Quarter (Skadarlija) 17min, Kalemegdan Fortress, 33min .

– Essential shops (bakery butcher, vegetable market), supermarkets, money exchange (menjačnica), kiosks are very close to the accommodation.

– Public transports just in front of the entrance door.

– The apartment is composed by a large bedroom, a tiny kitchen, living room, just for 2 people, as we were, and an vintage fashioned separated bathroom into 2 cubicles, a toilet and a bathroom.

– House has not keys both for the main entrance and the apartment: just a digitizing code.

– Marko’s father is a very polite, nice and kind person who came for any problem and superintended the issue fixing. He doesn’t speak English fluently but, being clever and smart, we understood each other immediately.

– Additional towels requested and obtained.

– Wool covers were on the side but we didn’t used them because of the apartment comfortably warm.

– Tableware, silverware and cookware are present in abundance for 2 people. Sink is small but sufficient for the scope. – Silent electric heaters which produces a quite comfortable, sometimes excessive heat.

– Cheap camping-style cloth cabinet present.

– Cable TV present, vintage bulky cathodic TV in the sleeping room (MOVED).

– Hanger stand instead of a closed wardrobe in the sleeping room.

 

CONS

– Marko, who didn’t reply by voice, only sent text. We contact him several times in order to fix critical issues.

– Since the beginning Marija gave up the assistance and left all the responsibilities on his brother Marko. She disappeared. We contacted him only by Viber texting. We tried to call him in a couple of urgent occasion but he didn’t answer.

– Nobody assisted as at the check and checkout. Just a pdf with code and some basic instruction. What to say: good and bad.

– If you are visiting Belgrade by car, you must remind that the immediate surroundings of the accommodation totally lacks of free parking spots. Just public parks on a meter, you need a local phone to pay. Otherwise you will be fined 1840RDS by tens of parking attendant, waiting on the corner like vultures.

– One more thing, police has the “nice” habit to make a redundant checkpoint for blood alcohol level random quick test on the Generala Lešjanina intersection. Therefore be careful if you are driving Boulevard Džordža Vašingtona during night, after 11PM, direction N=>S.

– The apartment exterior are really decaying. The main entrance door, totally loose, when we arrived, didn’t close easily. It won’t close at all ! Only slamming several times, it closes. I would remind that we were staying in a high frequented road, populated by all kind of people. We didn’t feel us and our belongings safe with the external door opened. So we forced the front door until it closed up. After the NYE, at the umpteenth trial, a mad neighbor and her husband arrived from their apartment above; she started screaming we were scaring them and he told us to call the “home master” in order to be provided the front door key. Therefore we called Marko in order to solve the issue. Marko father came and fix it during our absence. I believe the host should have checked and fixed this particular problem largely before our arrival.

– The entrance corridor had no light, the bulb has broken since I can’t imagine. Unfortunately also house door lamp didn’t work and it was pretty challenging to find door code with the help of cellphone light. The day after the arrival (31/12/17) we changed the bulb, even if Marko stated he was working. It wasn’t at all and my wife noticed since our arrival. After putting the new bulb, we went out. Coming back, in the evening, the door lamp was down again. Fortunately we saw where spare bulbs were and I personally fix it in the morning. Probably bad electric wires.

– Tremendously high level of chemical pollution you can directly see as building walls covered by a grey-black fine dust (what you can see, imagine PM10 and PM2.5) covering everything in and outside the accommodation, burned fuel smelling air and metal fine particles diffused everywhere. As soon as you got back home, all your clothes will smell of smog. If it rains, the air pollution and smell decreases but you can see little streams and puddles of disquieting dark black solution.

– Unhealthy surrounding, better not to leave windows and door open, both during day-time and night time. Absent clean air circulation in the house.

– Tremendously high level of physical pollution including loud sounds of trams brakes, buses brakes and exhaust pipes. The old building has probably huge underground void foundations. Therefore each time the trams travel in front of the apartment entrance, on both directions, the house staggers and a loud deep roaring invades both the” isolated and quiet inner courtyard” and the all accommodation rooms. The sleeping room is the most affected being maximum 10m from the trams/buses stop, characterized by the presence of rail track gaps and steps. The bed literally vibrates according to a low frequency noise of 80Hz: it can be considered properly a paraseismic vibration. Just as an example, my legs literally vibrated up and down together with the bed at every 2 ways tram passage. It wasn’t a a positive sensation. How could not other reviewers, except of Claus and Raf, experience that ? This makes me suspicious.

– The apartment interiors are really shabby, very far from the shining pictures published on the website. Also spaces are wrongly rendered by the use of wide angle lenses and, for sure, an additional (professional) lighting equipment. All the rooms are surrounded by drywalls with a huge void resounding crawlspace behind. The apartment restoration occurred with very cheap materials and solution. Noise from the upper neighbour heavy walk and from the side street office

– Accommodation shows a general lack of proper maintenance which is revealed by wall and ceiling peels, especially in the toilet and in the bathroom, windows in the bedroom not locking, and in the toilet not locking, house door lock play etc. – The bedroom is equipped with a normal double bed (140cm wide). We found only a mattress cover on the bed and 2 separated blankets. No bed sheets provided. We asked for but the host insisted not understanding our request, judging it anomalous. Finally, the day after the arrival, we were provided by 2 honeycomb covers totally useless and an additional mattress cover we put above the exiting one.

– On the arrival, the apartment was not properly clean differently from what the host writes “in perfectly clean condition at your arrival“. In fact we found several filthy spots with large dust bunnies under the bedroom furniture, behind the wardrobe and among messy coiled wires. We found hairs from previous host in all the rooms, especially on the bathroom and the toilet floor. Broom and mop were sully of somebody else organic parts.

– Aprons not provided originally, but we use a bath towels obtained after requesting.

– The toilet is a tiny cubicle with a washbowl on the left side. The tap provides only cold water, which, in winter time is not comfortable at all. The small opening on the upper right side has small windows with malfunctioning frames. Therefore the cold draught made the whole toilet and above all the WC seat frozen. A punishment to deal with at any session. No heater in the toilet; it reminds me the military style.

– The bathroom is a little bit overwhelming. The first part houses a big electric boiler, a resistor dryer (scaring and according to me dangerous in such small and wet space) and minuscule sink with cold/warm water. When we arrived, we found the tap had not the perlator aerator, therefore water spread out of the basin because of the high pressure. We asked Marko to fix but he seems he didn’t understand what we were talking about. Finally Marko’s father put a plastic kitchen faucet aerator but really uncomfortable because it reduced too much the distance between tap and washbowl. We found perlator aerator at any plumber shop for the amount of 200RSD (less than 2EUR).

– Shower faucet has not an holder to allow you to have a relaxed hands-free shower. Just unintelligible. – The WC is not inviting at all. In fact the WC bottom, after flushing, shows a dark black rusty bottoms which testimony on one side it served many years, on the other a very low budget apartment restoration.

– Accommodation privacy is not granted. Anybody who walk in the inner courtyard, leading to neighbouring apartments can see you, your room, your kitchen and all your stuff. The host installed a protection paper film 60cm high out of the bedroom window which is insufficient. Any protection is present out of the kitchen, just a transparent curtain which doesn’t hide anything. I could read my PC from the outside. – Cooking appliances consists of a poor 2 unsafe hot plate equipment. Refrigerator it’s small and not very clean.

– “Free high speed WiFi” internet connection reaches an unacceptable maximum download sped of 4.22Mbit/s while upload speed is only 0.9Mbit/s. This sloppy performances could be acceptable in the countryside, but not in a capital city like Belgrade is, where 4G mobile network grants to anybody from a minimum from 8Mbit/sec to a more suitable to 10, 20, 30 and 40Mbit/s. Apartment internet connection consists in definitively outdated system based on TV cable signal. This aspect decreased abruptly my laptop performances. Streaming and upload cloud data are not compatible with the accommodation WiFi. We must use our 4G phone with a prepaid mobile data SIM. According to this last a, I have to point out that we asked suggestion largely in advance to Marko about the better short term tourist mobile provider. He kindly never answered to our request but finally he remained surprised when I told him we experienced a sloppy, rough and crocked service with the MTS (Telekom Serbjia). Therefore, on the negative experience basis, we suggest warmly to choose VIP or Telenor. MTS is just for Serbian ! This company just squeeze money from tourist, cheating on them.

Now we expect the usual response from the host: “Your review is really interesting. Thanks for your comment. Please next time go to a 5 stars Luxus hotel. You didn’t understand the Airbnb experience and its way of travelling” !!!!!???? Yes, next time we could go to the Mockba Grand Hotel, even if its eastern side is facing on Terazjie boulevard, aging high traffic congested road. Instead, being my wife an B&B host too, what is important is to describe and show exactly to any potential guest what you are really offering. In this way guest can make your choice.

Furthermore, if guest ask more detailed information, like I did, the hosts should provide all these information in the more realistic way. Differently, when the guests arrive, they will found different situations, they surely will compare to what promised. I hope that now other potential guests can decide properly, differently from the condition I was. I will expect all guests, not only yours but on the entire Airbnb, will be more realistic in describing their experience. I believe that the apartment fee, according to its present condition and Belgrade general price standard, should be the half of what asked, both in high and low season.

Finally I hope this review website allow me to post some real pics. Now I realized Airbnb doesn’t allow in the name of host safety. In my opinion this Airbnb policy works against guest clear and realistic perception of the true accommodation conditions. I hope you can make a great effort in changing this policy !