My Airbnb Disaster in London
I am a frequent user of Airbnb all over the world and I have seen “Airbnb’s worst-ever stories” all over the internet. I have had a few issues but nothing significant or that would put me off using Airbnb. Overall, I have had some great experiences but unfortunately due to their 15% booking fee I now look elsewhere when I am booking more expensive trips, it is simply too much. But that is a story for another day. Here is my story with pictures you decide if it deserves the Airbnb from Hell award!
In 2023 we decided to spend the summer of 2024 in London to spend some time with family and since I was retired, and my husband had a remote job it was the ideal time to do it. Needless to say, cost was a big factor in the plans since we were planning on a 3-month stay. I started looking in the fall of 2023. I contacted several short-term rental Companies and regularly checked Airbnb, Booking.com VRBO, and other random sites. I contacted several hosts but there were very few affordable places and I mean $20K upwards. Some were in the right spot and ideal for us since they offered discounts for longer stays but due to the 3-month stay, none were available for the entire time. Finally, in November I found a “luxury” 2 bed, 2 bath flat in the exact spot we were looking for close to family.
The listing was on Airbnb showing a host called Travel Nest. I contacted the host (Travel nest through Airbnb) to discuss the best rate for a 3-month stay. The host offered to collaborate with me outside of AirBnb. I checked out the Company and ensured it was a legitimate Company, and I could find contact details for them in the UK. It was also a relief to save the 15% Airbnb booking fee. I saved thousands of dollars. I paid the first month’s rent in November through PayPal as PayPal has excellent recourse if you are scammed. I was not going to pay any further rent until I got there and made doubly sure that it was a legit property.
We arrived in London and were greeted by the friendly host who let us into the flat. We had been travelling for 20 hours so I was not as alert as I usually am. At first glance the flat looked okay although I did not like the smell, I figured it may have been empty for a while and we could fix that in a day or two by airing out the flat and burning some candles. After he left, we started getting prepared to settle in and get ready for some much-needed sleep and then the nightmare began. It’s hard to know where to start so I will just work my way around the rooms. Why did I not leave you might say, trust me I spent a few frantic hours checking every STR site but there was nothing I could find at such short notice for 3 months we were stuck. The location was also perfect for us to travel around London to see family. I guess he knew we would be stuck which is why he did not give a Damm about what we arrived into.
The Kitchen
I love to cook, and I like a clean kitchen with good cooking utensils. Since this was a 3 month let I figured it would be well equipped. The cupboards were indeed full of appliances but none very useful or practical, I would have much rather a coffee machine than a rice cooker. There was food in the cupboards that looked like it had been there since the Stone Age. The flat was advertised to accommodate 4 people comfortably, but it had 4 cups, 4 plates, 3 forks, and two knives. There was one frying pan that was unusable everything stuck to it. We quickly had to start making a list of items we needed. The kitchen was so dirty. I decided I could not be in there one more minute without cleaning it but every bottle of cleaning liquids under the sink (there were several) was empty. A variety of 6 different cleaning solutions every bottle empty. The freezer door would not shut as the freezer had not been defrosted and it was unusable without being defrosted. The dishwasher and washing machine looked like they had never been serviced and we had to add chemicals to clean them to our list. We decided to wait until we had checked out the rest of the flat before contacting the host as we figured that if the kitchen was this bad, we were in for a few more surprises. The breakfast bar was being propped up by 3 legs and one was shoved into place with all the screws loose.
Here are the pictures from the kitchen
Bathrooms
The hall bath was clean, but the master smelled of urine. It was also very dirty. The towels, all 3 of them lying around the flat in various spots smelled of mold. We had to hold our noses and remove the mat from the bathroom as it was the main cause of the urine smell.
Bedrooms
I don’t know where to start. When we went to prepare our bed, it was very clear that the bed sheets had not been changed and the entire bed smelled of mold. The duvet underneath the smelly cover was dirty. At this point, we got some garbage sacks and started putting all the bedding and linens into them. The pillows were disgusting and to add insult to injury some were feather pillows. If you have never seen or smelled a rotting feather pillow good for you it is not pleasant. The sheets which were dirty and had not been changed of course had human hair on them. The floors had not been brushed or vacuumed and to add insult to injury the master bedroom had extensive black mold right beside the head of the bed. We found some interesting items in the room which made the fact that the sheets had not been changed even more disgusting. Another interesting issue was there was way too much furniture in the rooms to the point where there was very little room to move around the bed or the room. It was as if he was using the flat to store random furniture.
Pictures of the bedrooms
The living room
Filthy is one way of putting it. There was a dead Christmas tree sitting on the side table. This was May. Dead Christmas lights were strewn everywhere. The glass doors to the balcony were so dirty you could not see through them. The balcony itself was packed with junk and dead plants. The cushions on the furniture were disgusting. I simply got some black sacks and threw everything into it and bought some new cushions to make it usable. I forgot to take pictures of the Armageddon on the patio because at that point I just wanted to get to a place where I could stand to be there until the host resolved the issues.
Pictures of the Living Room
What did we do?
We had to go to the local stores and buy new bedding, mattress covers, duvet, pillows, pillowcases, sheets, and cleaning products. We had to buy tea towels, bathroom towels, and clean cushions for the patio. We spent over 300 pounds. We were able to get a night’s sleep although I was extremely uncomfortable knowing how dirty the place was. The next day we contacted the host and sent pictures. He said the flat had been cleaned before we arrived which was complete nonsense, and he would sort it out with the cleaning Company. Two weeks after we arrived a cleaner came and did the deep cleaning which was needed. She was horrified and that was after I had done some cleaning so we could bear to be there. He delivered a new kitchen table nice, with two chairs the others were in for repair, he said. We have never seen the two other chairs we have to drag chairs from the patio to sit at if there are more than 2 of us. He did take the bed linen away and came back with it laundered but at that point, I wanted nothing to do with it and we stuck to our own.
It did not end there the washing machine broke down and we were without a machine for 3 weeks. One of the legs fell off the futon because we dared to sit on it.
Conclusion:
This listing has a 4.8 rating on AirBnb. Some of the reviews were just before we arrived saying how clean the place was. This is just not possible, the dead Christmas tree in May gave the game away on that one. I do not regret dealing with the agency directly as cutting the AirBnb 15% fee was such a significant saving. Would it have made any difference if I had stuck to the platform? I don’t think so, Airbnb customer service is awful to deal with when something goes wrong, and I am confident we would have been stuck no matter what because of the length of stay we needed. The number of issues we had makes me think there was something very off with this whole place, nothing was even remotely normal. Maybe the tenants moved out and said they would leave the place clean, and the host never checked but that does not explain the recent 5-star reviews or all the lies he has told me. All in all, it puts me off making long-term reservations because if you get there and it’s a disaster you are stuck.
