Fake pictures - Dirtiest apartment I ever seen

[Vladivy0]

Hello everybody,

I would like to warn you against https://www.airbnb.de/users/show/7326433 (Himanshu), as the pictures on his listing do NOT correspond to the reality I experienced in August 2020 . The apartment is super dirty (see photos below), so you can't take a shower there. I've already escalated a case on Airbnb, and my request to be partially refunded has been denied. The original listing was https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/39144505 (has already been "deleted"), and new ones were placed with the same pictures that don't look like the place actually.

You can read a similar review for another listing from the same host, so I'm not the only person who experienced something like this.

Take care and stay healthy!!!

KitchenKitchenKitchenKitchenKitchenKitchenKitchenBathBathBathBathBathBath

[Sarah977]

@Vladivy0  Gross! When you arrived to find this state of affairs did you contact the host right away? If so, what was his response? Did you leave right away, or did you actually stay?

Some of the stuff, like the bathroom, obviously hasn't been dealt with for a long time, but the kitchen makes it apparent that no one cleaned at all before you arrived. 

[Vladivy0]

After a long trip, I arrived at the apartment around midnight (so exhausted from the trip the all day long) for check-in and I reserved only for a room in the apartment. I spend the night there like "with one opened eye", as at this time, it would have been difficult to find a room in a hostel nearby. The host is living in another room of the same apartment (I'm still wondering how regarding the dirtiness), so he's aware of that. Despite of that, I told him about the situation via the AirBnB messaging and he replied the place is clean from his point of view. Woooow, I was like mindblowed. I did it per message for documentation purposes of the case, as I already had a similar experience with someone else, and without evidence, it was my words against his/her.

I don't want to judge how he's living, it's his house and he can do everything he wants and live however he intend to. But, when someone's asking money to host other people, should not the person at least clean the place before the arrival of its guests? Specially nowadays with this virus outside?

Anyway, it's just a warning to the community and other people.

[Anonymous]

@Vladivy0  The experience you had is pretty much what I'd expect based on the prior reviews. 

That bathtub does look gross, I can't blame you for not wanting to bathe in there, but I don't really see how this is worthy of your public shaming campaign. The state of the kitchen in your photos would be unacceptable in an Entire Home property, but if you're renting a Private Room in a shared house there are going to be times when the kitchen is in use and you might confront the horror of someone else's dirty dishes.

[Vladivy0]

I just want to warn. If I've had similar reviews from some previous guest, I would have take a room somewhere else and avoided all of this.

It's up to everyone to go wherever he/she wants.

[Anonymous]

@Vladivy0  The appropriate place to "warn" prospective guests about the property is in the review, which you've already done. It doesn't appear that there's any problem there that a good cleaning wouldn't fix - there's no reason to assume that the cleanliness issue is chronic.

[Emilia42]

@Anonymous It would take months and months for my sink and bathtub to be stained like that. While I agree it is an easy fix with a little Bon Ami Power and a scrubby cloth, it is clear that the host has not scrubbed that place in a long, long (I want to add a lot more longs) time. 

[Vladivy0]

@Emilia42 that's exactly my point. It looks like he didn't clean this bathtub like for years!!! And how it is possible with such previous reviews? Mho... he's used to it.

[Anonymous]

@Emilia42 I don't think a photo is sufficient evidence to make a conclusion like that. Personally, I can't imagine presenting a tub that ugly to a guest, but then again I'm not offering a hostel-priced room in the middle of what is literally the world's third most expensive city..

I do think cleanliness is important at any price range, but people who grab the cheapest room in town and then get all whiny about how it isn't super nice and clean are really not very savvy travelers.  At some point you have to grow the f*** up and learn that you get what you pay for. And the nightly rate of that room is a small fraction of the bar tab I run up having a couple of beers in Zurich.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  While I agree that travelers shouldn't expect a silk purse for the price of a sow's ear, keeping a small place clean, where the host lives, isn't costly, it's a matter of putting in a bit of time and giving a FF. A guest should be able to have a shower without feeling dirtier when he emerges than when he went in.

 I don't think a guest who books the cheapest place in town can expect any perks like coffee, shampoo, filtered water, endless quantities of hot water, nice fluffy towels or lovely bedding, but the host who lives there obviously hasn't scrubbed that bathtub, the tile grout or the kitchen sink for ages. Maybe never. Yeah, I can tell that from photos.

And the response this guest says the host gave when he spoke to him about the state of the place, "The place is clean from his point of view" speaks volumes about whether this is a one-off or a chronic condition.

I was a little confused when I read the other reviews, also thinking this may have been an outlier as far as the place being clean. But then when I read Vladivy's last post here, re the host talking about a 5* review trade, it starts to make sense.

I've known plenty of people who seem to be able to live in this level of grossness, but they don't charge anyone money, no matter how paltry an amount, for staying with them.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977 Of course this is one of the problems with 5* being the default rating. Hosts love to brag about how they always get 5 star ratings, like it totally validates that everything they do is just perfect. 5 stars can also just mean "it was adequate and I wish you no harm." 

[Emilia42]

@Anonymous @Sarah977 

I wouldn't stay there for free let alone the $60-$92 per night this host charges. This is a chronic cleanliness issue, I can tell that from the pictures. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Guests cannot even accurately make the decision whether or not they are comfortable with such conditions because the listing photos and cleanliness reviews are so inaccurate. 

[Emilia42]

Wow! I would never expect from previous reviews that the place would look like that! I would be totally blindsided. The host has a 4.0 rating for cleanliness which I'm sure would be much higher if not for @Vladivy0 's review. His response to Vladivy's review says that he usually always gets 5 stars for cleanliness which makes Vladivy look like a picky one-off case. This is a perfect example of how reviews don't always show the reality. I am sorry you had to live with that, even if only for one night. 

[Vladivy0]

Exactly!!! And right after I left the place, he wrote me per AirBnB messager asking me to give him a 5-star review, because he had already done the same on my profile. I was like... "Excuse me? Are you serious?"

Since then I'm thinking that most of his previous reviews are certainly not genuine, probably only "negotiated".