Below is a review that I just wrote.
If there's anyone who has time and cares to read this long review, please do and I'd appreciate any comments.
If I was the one who made trouble then I'll accept it.
And do you think there's a chance that this review could be deleted if the host request it?
I tried very much to be unbiased but not sure.
FYI, it was $1660 for a 3-night stay in Stowe, VT (10 mins from the Stowe Mountain Resort).
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This is quite a long review so if you don’t care to read it, please check out the conclusion at the bottom.
We went on a ski trip to Stowe mountain resort and stayed in this house 2/5-2/7. I’m about to share the experience we had with this property and the host and give you guys some tips before you book it.
First, let me introduce myself. I’m originally from South Korea and have been living in Atlanta, Georgia for a couple of years. We planned this trip about 3 months ahead and booked this Airbnb property and a rental car (minivan) in Boston airport. We didn’t go to Burlington airport simply because it was much cheaper to go to Boston and drive up.
Since we were going on a ski trip, I checked the weather frequently and got excited because it said it was going to snow which is good for skiing.
1. Issue 1 - Hill and blocked gate
The problem happened while we drove up to Stowe. It was originally 3h 30m driving distance, so we left Boston right after dinner, ETA was about 10 pm but the snowstorm started in the middle and ETA was getting delayed. It was really really tough driving but we eventually made it! Almost made it. That’s what we thought when we saw the navigation showed it was 2 minutes left.
But then we found a long hill that was not plowed and our car couldn’t climb up. We tried and struggled a lot for a long time and finally gave up, left the car at the side of the road, and walked 0.6 miles to the house. If it wasn’t for the snowstorm it wouldn’t be a problem at all to walk 0.6 miles, but in that snowstorm, it was rough.
The problem didn’t end there. We walked about 10 mins and finally reached the gate of the property and saw a should-height pile of snow blocking the gate, which turned out to be made by neighbor's plow service. So even if there was no hill, we had to stop there and walk anyway. (This property has a long driveway so it took about 5-10 mins to walk from the gate to the house. And yeah it might have been a beautiful long walk if it wasn’t the snowstorm at 2:00 am)
So this was our horrible first impression we got and here’s how the communication went with the host from the beginning.
First, I sent a message and called him when we met the hill and stuck but the host wasn’t reachable, call directly went to the voicemail since it was over 1 AM, yeah the host should sleep. The next morning, the plow service came, and then we drove to the house. And called him, explained what happened that night. He blamed us that we didn’t rent a car with snow tires and also mentioned that he didn’t expect us to actually come in this snowstorm. (I think he believes that a van with snow tires can pass through a should-height snow pile.)
I strongly believe that he should have informed us about the snowstorm and the hill, and asked us during his work hours if we were really going to come. Maybe it’s not the host’s obligation to inform and double-check such things but he could have done it, which would have been really nice.
Regarding the pile of snow blocking the gate, he said sorry it shouldn’t have happened but that was it. No partial refund or anything. Look like this was not a good reason for a partial refund since the Airbnb dispute center could not do anything about it.
2. Issue 2 - No plow service
So on the morning of our first day, the plow service came and cleared all the paths. And that was it. There was heavy snow for 1-2 days more but no plow service came after that. I contacted the host and asked for the plow service but didn’t come until we left the property after 2 days. We had to call towing service at our own expense because we were stuck in the snow again. A new pile of snow was blocking the gate again by the neighbor’s plow car. and it was all clean and clear outside of his property - we had no problem at all driving around once we escaped his property.
3. Issue 3 - Heater
We were 5 people from Georgia so pretty sensitive to cold and it was extremely cold outside. We were staying in the house all day since our car was stuck in the snow and felt cold (the thermostat shows the temperature inside was 72). We asked the host if he could unlock the thermostat since the max temperature was set to 72 and didn’t get a response maybe because it was 7:39 pm and it was over his work hours? That night, we woke up in the middle of the night due to coldness and check the thermostat again - it was down to 66 (max thermostat went down further).
And in the morning, he sent me a message saying that the temperature inside the house is 78 degrees. I had no idea which house he was looking at.
Anyway, we all got frustrated with all these situations so checked out 1 day earlier than the scheduled checkout date hoping Airbnb could get us some refund. It failed though.
Conclusion.
Please do not book this property if:
1. There will be snow because there’s a good chance that the gate will be blocked with a pile of snow and no plow service is received.
2. You are more sensitive to cold than the average person because the host wouldn’t let you unlock the thermostat from max 72 for the day and 66 for the night.
3. You expect to get help from the host when there's trouble because he's not around the property which I think it's quite common for many hosts.
From this experience, we decided to no longer use Airbnb since we are tired of all the disputes and stuff. Hope you guys have fun in this house since it’s actually a very beautiful property.
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Thank you for reading it!