This past August my friend and I decided to fly to NYC to see Glenn Tillbrook of Squeeze at The City Winery and visit with friends. We decided to look for an Airbnb to have an authentic New York experience. We found a cute place in Chelsea with great reviews, so we booked it. My interactions with the host were fine until a couple of days prior to our artival when she sprung something weird on me. She said that on the first day “between 5:30 and 6:30 there will be a short visit like 1-2 minutes. If u are there just say you are a friend of ___ from Canada. Don’t mention Airbnb.” It sounded weird, but I let it go.
A complaint a lot of people have with AirBnbs is the check in process at some of them. We were not meeting the host to get the keys. Instead it was a lockbox attached to a fence. Since it was subjected to the elements it was a bitch to open. We drop off our bags and leave for several hours and come back to get ready for the concert. There is a knock at the door and it is three young women. One says that she is an “unlicensed realtor” who is there to show the apartment to the other two. We remember the handmade sign taped to the door downstairs announcing an open house and ask her about that. Yes, there will be showings for an hour. Our host did not tell us about multiple people wandering around the apartment when we were not there. The unlicensed realtor assured us that would be it and hopefully no one else would show up. I sent a message to the host and she denied knowing about an open house. We had no time to argue since we had plans, so we left.
The next morning, as we were leaving, I tried to lock the door. It would not lock. After trying it several times my friend goes inside to see if it will lock. Now the door will not unlock and she is trapped inside. I text the host multiple times. She does not respond. Bad move. I remember seeing yet another sign posted about the superintendent’s contact info and call him. I am so angry that I let it slip that we are using it as an Airbnb. He says that is illegal and the host will get in trouble. At this point I really don’t care. He says he is actually filling in for the regular super, but will be right there. When he finally arrives he tries to open the door and cannot get it unlocked either. I ask him to try his key. He replies that he didn’t bring a key. (WTF?! Dude, I explained the situation to you on the phone and asked about an extra key.) Substitute Super says he will try and get in touch with the regular guy and find out where he keeps the extra keys. A half an hour passes and no word. I call him and he still has no answer. We have wasted over an hour of vacation time, so I call Airbnb. They apologize and we get a partial refund. Substitute returns and gets the door open, but it still will not lock. Screw it. The building is safe. We leave.
The next day I am in the shower preparing for our final night out, when I hear my friend knocking on the door. I turn the shower off and she says that there are two men at the door. One is a realtor and is insisting on coming in to show the apartment. They are going to have to wait until I am done. The realtor gives me his card and apologizes. He tells us that he was in the apartment earlier that day. (That explains the curtains being opened, that I knew I had closed the night before.) I get Airbnb on the phone, while they are there, and we end up getting most of our money back and a free hotel that night. The Hilton we stayed at in Brooklyn was very nice.
Airbnb did work to resolve our problems and I did stay in another one, in Paris, a couple months later, that was problem free. It all depends on your host. This person was apparently subletting an apartment as an Airbnb. She ended up pulling her ad from the site after the lock issue.
Here is a link to other Airbnb nightmares.
Trek with Kim 
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