My friends and I chose this particular Airbnb for its cleanliness, lush beds and central location, but upon our arrival, we were greeted with floor mattresses in place of beds, a musky odour, general lack of cleanliness and hygiene and rude hosts. It was so decrepit that we booked a hotel on the last day of our trip as our quality of sleep was suffering. Needless to say, I left a negative review, giving the host a 1* (the single star being for the listing's central location).
To date, after receiving my feedback via private correspondence on the cleanliness of her listing, the host has been bullying us with accusations of "wrecking havoc" and "throwing wild parties" which allegedly destroyed the flat (she has ~ 17 listings within the area), and has left me a highly defamatory review following our contentious correspondence, which do not have a shred of truth in it.
I've quoted our respective reviews for your easy reference:
Host's Review:
"NEVER rent your home to Carolyn if you don't want your home to be COMPLETED TRASHED and POLICE called in by your neighbor multiple times a night! She should be BANNED from Airbnb and It was our BIGGEST MISTAKE to host her and we hope this bad experience doesn't happen to any other host anywhere in the world!!! Below is what happened, she's been causing headaches since the moment she booked! When Carolyn made an instant booking, she asked for a 6 hours early check in, which we don't normally do and we do charge an early check in fee. Carolyn then asked if she can drop in her bags 6 hours earlier without paying the early check in fee. Again, we told she that t cleaners won't be there until a few hours prior to the check in time, she then asked if she can drop in the bags when the cleaner came. We again told she that if she want to check in early or drop off her bags early, she needs to pay an early check in fee, this is standard everywhere on Airbnb!!! After her 4 nights stay, we noticed the home was COMPLETELY TRASHED with sand everywhere on the floor, beds and sofa! shopping bags left everywhere, even cooking salt was in the bathroom!!! This is NOT OVER yet! Next day we received a complaint from building management that the neighbor complained from the day they checked in until the day they checked out. Police were called in multiple times during the 4 nights and there were loud musics and people keep going in and out until 5am in the morning!!! When we politely messaged Carolyn to find out what happened that night, she was VERY RUDE AND AGGRESSIVE and blaming myself, building management and neighbor trying to collude and blame she for something she hasn't done!! Why would 3 different people only met you once or haven't even met you in entire life try to put together a detailed story to blame you for something you haven't done?? Especially involving the police!!! Her excuse was ridiculous and unbelievable Carolyn has NO RESPECT to other people's home and should not be on Airbnb!! I hope no other host would ever be in my situation again, this is the WORST GUEST we ever hosted!!!!!"
My Review
"Hi Christine, Thanks for letting us stay at your apartment. The flat was very centrally located and we could walk to areas like central and Surry Hills every morning. But that is as far as our praise for the flat goes, as its cleanliness was highly lacking. A few examples: the kitchen’s amenities were covered in muck, cleaning sponge was mouldy and stained, the fridge had leftover food from previous stays in it - so much so that we didn’t dare use the kettle either. Another glaring issue was the cleanliness of the bed linen and towels, which had funky, stale odours that did not alleviate despite washes in the flat’s washing machine. In the end, we bought towels to use instead of the ones provided. As for accuracy to the listing’s pictures, whilst the layout was identical, the mattresses provided were different - the ones we got barely covered the bed frame as they were only a few cm thick, and one duvet did not come with a duvet cover. All in all, despite having a centrally located apartment, our overall experience ended up in disappointment, and we did in fact book a hotel stay for our last day in Sydney because the quality of our sleep was suffering. Otherwise, a saving grace is that Christine is a highly responsive host. We realised that the airconditioning system was faulty, which resulted in 4 people having to shift into 1 bedroom, and Christine did promptly provide us with a mobile heater the day after. She also dropped off a hairdryer as ours was missing from the flat."
I'm quite frustrated as it seems that Airbnb only allows us to respond to review itself - is there anyway to escalate this to Airbnb for investigation / to take action against this host (who seems to have a trend of using bullying tactics against alot of guests, according to reviews left on her page)? I have picture proof of the lack of cleanliness of her flat when we checked in, as well as our private correspondence which shows quite clearly that she has been the aggressor from the start.
Appreciate all the advice I can get.
Thank you!
