Back in May I went to Barcelona with a friend. We booked the apartment with Airbnb. Among other issues (the address Airbnb gave us was wrong, and had to wonder the streets for a couple of hours with no response from the host, then the host turns out to be a real estate broker of some sort)... once we found the place at 10pm, it turns out that the beds had no sheets, and the broker asked us for €15 for "fresh" sheets. I found this to be a real abuse... and the real problem with Airbnb: lack of quality control of product and service.
The reviews were all very positive, so I think this may have been because the host has been caught up somewhere or has been busy with something. But it's still very irresponsible.
I managed to find the host's Facebook and I would say he is around 24 years' old and studying at a university in Vienna. Had I known this, I probably would have told my mother to look elsewhere.
Yeah, the problem is that people review based on their expectations. A beautiful vacation home and a ratty student flat can both get 5 stars, depending on who's visiting.
You don't think the price would make a difference between the two places?
I recently used airbnb for the first time and I specifically looked for reviews that said the place matched the pictures, google street view, did a google search on the condo name, vrbo, emailed the host and even got direct phone numbers in return
So none of the reviews mentioned the 15 euro sheets charge? Did you leave a review stating that it was a dumb charge and rate accordingly?
After booking did you contact the host through AirBnB ahead of time and ask them to verify the address and give you the quickest directions to the apt?
It would be nice if all of this would be automatic, but you are dealing with individuals that may or may not understand how to be a host yet.
