Strap in folks, because this is going to be a long post for a change.

It’s been about five years since I last used Airbnb. That first time, in San Diego, was a great experience! My roommate and I had a lovely little place hidden away from the main roads, tucked down at the end of an alley. We were only staying a few days, and given we would be out and about for TwitchCon, it had everything we needed and no major issues came up.

This time, near downtown Savannah (just off of Forsyth Park) the experience was not the greatest.

Okay, it wasn’t horrible. It really could have been worse.

I had been planning to be there for a week, primarily because I chose to fly in on and out on Tuesdays because they’re typically the cheapest days to fly. So, I booked the Airbnb for that duration.

I was also sharing this Airbnb with a couple of friends whom I’d never met in person until this trip, and they would be arriving the day after me. So, I took it upon myself to basically get things settled before they showed up.

Well, I’m glad I did it that way, because it gave me a chance to figure things out in the rented space.

Starting at the beginning, I arrived earlier than I was supposed to (not by much) and so I waited for the appropriate check-in time before I tried to go in. I sat in my rental car, parked in the sandlot behind the home, and checked over some details before grabbing my luggage and making my way to the front door.

When I did, I found that the home, as a whole, was split into two sections, each with two units. We were in the upstairs unit on the right side of the house, and thankfully there was nobody below us for the entire time we were there because those stairs CREAKED. The floors in the unit itself weren’t that loud, as far as I could tell, except in one spot. But this isn’t where the trouble started.

No, the trouble started when I couldn’t use the front door code to get in. I looked at the “contact host” section in the Airbnb app, and had a moment of panic as I saw this little notation that said something along the lines of “host usually responds within: 6 hours.” It was already 4:00PM. Having no other choice I just sent the message that I couldn’t get in, and thankfully the host responded fairly quickly. I got the front door code from them and I was in. I got upstairs, unlocked the unit with the second code (which was correct the first time around) and got to work.

I checked nearly everything. Towels and such in the main bedroom/bathroom? Check. Air mattress and extra bedding in the closet? Check. Glasses, plates, and silverware in the kitchen? Check. So on and so forth. The issues inside the unit started when I moved into the bathroom next to the kitchen.

The faucet didn’t work. I tried turning on both the hot and the cold, first one at a time and then together. Drip. Drip. Trickle. Drip.

Fuck.

I checked the shower next, and found no hot water.

This made me go back to the main bedroom and bathroom to double check. Hot water in the twin sinks and the shower. I ran to the kitchen again. Hot water on that faucet. So, I checked it off as “well, I’ll let the host know but live with it.” I didn’t really care about my needs at that moment as I was mainly concerned about my friends having what they needed since they were sharing the main bedroom.

With that out of the way, I got myself situated in the other bedroom and dozed for a little while. I was waiting for my local friends to get a hold of me to go out to eat that night. Figuring out downtown Savannah will be a story for another time, but it went fine and we had a great time.

The final issue from the first night decided to rear its ugly head after I had gotten back for the evening and got in bed.

I decided to get up to use the bathroom again. I turned on the light and that’s when I spotted it.

A big ass cockroach.

Fuck again.

You see, up north in South Dakota, we don’t usually see a lot of cockroaches. The ones we do occasionally encounter seem to be effectively dealt with, and are smaller. Not this one. It was a full-sized American Cockroach as big as my damn thumb.

I snapped a few pictures and caught it on a quick video, so that I would have evidence. After that, I left the light on in the bathroom and sat on the couch where I could watch the door. While sitting there I ended up contacting the host AND Airbnb Support to help make sure I got in contact with them regarding the issues.

Airbnb Support were great. The host, not so much. I didn’t hear from the host until the next morning when they asked to confirm how I was enjoying my stay, completely disregarding my previous messages! Needless to say, I was pissed. Following that, I stayed in contact with Airbnb Support. I provided the proof of the faulty faucets and the cockroach, and waited to hear back from them.

The rest of my time there was fine, all things considered. It took a couple days to hear back from Airbnb Support again, but they were awesome enough to provide a refund and case number I could use to get it once my stay was over (which, we did ultimately end up staying the full time I booked, even with the issues.) We never saw the cockroach again. Or rather, my friends never saw it and had to go on my word, which turned into a joke itself by the end.

Near the end of the stay, I decided to recheck the listing, and the reviews. I should have done some more digging because apparently these issues were present in other reviews further down (but not the ones from the three most recent, oddly enough.)

That’ll teach me to skim the details on Airbnb listings. Oh well, in the end everything turned out alright, and I’m almost home. Just waiting to board my last flight as I write this all out.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday’s everyone! Do your due diligence and read all the details.