Unprofessional and unresponsive! NOT RECOMENDED
Terrible experience! Unprofessional and unresponsive!
Booked an apartment via Airbnb - Apartment 4V, Lijnbaansgracht, Amsterdam.
DONT BOOK IT!
It was managed by this company. But we didn’t know at the time of booking!
Based on the fact that the apartment is managed by a corporate Airbnb manager company (bnbmanager.nl), not the owner itself!
It started with the check-in already. Based on the good reviews we asked for an earlier check in, but were told we can't check in before 3:30pm, which is even LATER than advertised online! So we had to extend out rental car for another day and decided to go somewhere else before driving into Amsterdam.
After booking we were told to call 30min prior our eta. So we did, at around 4pm, but no answer. Only an answering machine which told us no one was available! Tried several times.
We got lucky bc the owner lives in the building himself and he was home. So he let us in, but we still had to get the key from bnbmanager.nl.
The owner himself, was really friendly, but distanced himself from any responsibility as he is "paying a lot of money to that agency to take care of everything". We would have to talk to them for everything bc he is barely at home and we just got lucky.
Finally we reach the agency guy working the night shift and he tells us he can’t make it before 10:30 pm bc he has 15 check ins to deal with by himself. Alright... if you have so many apartments to take care of you should maybe consider bumping up your staff!
But that was just the beginning!
This apartment, considering the price (150 EUR a night), is a disaster! Much of it is clearly the agency’s fault. But the owner should take some responsibility here!
We booked for 3 people. THE PLACE WAS NOT SUITABLE FOR 3 PEOPLE! It is just too small and should only be advertised for max 2 people!
Somewhere buried in the Airbnb description the actual size of 22qm is mentioned, and also that the pictures are professional photos shot with a wide angle lens. I can assure you the place isn’t even half the size to what it looks like on the photos!
It’s one double-bed and one pull out sofa. But once the sofa bed is pulled out, there is about 40cm space between the two beds.
2 Parents with a kid might be ok, but we were 3 adults with luggage... Imagine how much space there was to move...
Oh btw. The sofa bed was not pulled put when we arrived, even though we booked for 3 ppl. The linen was provided, but I had to make the bed myself, and while doing so, I found a USED and crumbled tissue within those sheets!
Here now a list of all the problems and broken things in the apartment:
Just to mention, that the entire furniture was cheap IKEA-like pieces.
There was a huge moisture or water stain on the wall just behind the bed, who knows if it’s already moldy inside!
More unidentifiable stains on the sofa.
The main heater in bathroom didn’t work, so there was no place to dry our towels after usage, we had to use the washer for that. There is a washer! Yay, as advertised, and right in front of the apartment door. Only problem, when it spins the entire apartment is shaking!
Due to the poorly insulated walls (old building) and the not working heater the bathroom was really cold. There was a small electric heater, which we were told to use in the bathroom instead. But I didn’t feel comfortable have that thing running all night and therefore in the morning it was really cold in the bathroom!
No mirror. Not even a mirror! Not a big deal! But what is so difficult to hang up a small mirror in the bathroom?
The showerhead is such a cheap piece, it was almost falling off the wall and not adjustable. The pressureless water was hot at least.
The toilet paper holder is positioned next to the sink right beside the water tap. Based on that it’s almost impossible to brush your teeth without having a wet roll of toilet paper. Not a big deal one might think... but do you want to remove the toilet paper roll every time you turn on the water?
To make it worse: The brush for the toilet is so short, if you want to clean the toilet bowl your hand ends up half way in the dirty water!
I was told that the cleaning is contracted to an external company and bc of that I wonder if anyone has ever really checked on the condition of that apartment?
The place has one sealing light with 4 bulbs. 2 of them didn’t work. Not a big deal, it was bright enough.
Also there are 2 lights next to the bed. Both of them did not work! So you always had to use the main light get up again to switch it off.
The dishwasher wasn’t emptied and basically contained almost all of the few pieces of dishes and cutlery the place provided. Full kitchen is advertised... Well, it has a stove, but no oven and only the essentials to make some simple meals! You plan on real cooking? Not a good idea!
The TV almost fell apart when you touched it and was probably one of the first flat-screens available. Its ok, but being used to modern TVs in almost every apartment or hotel to watch Netflix, not possible and pretty disappointing, no chill-out evening at the apartment.
After complaining about all the problems, the agency promised to send someone to fix it the next day. Even though we asked for a partial refund, knowing it was weekend and probably not possible to get everything done and especially to not get a new place to stay without paying a fortune on such a short notice.
The only thing their super handy man was able to solve was to replace the not working bed lights.
The bathroom heater still not working... as no response and counter offer about all the other problems.
No counter offer, not even an apology up to this day from bnbmanager.nl nor the owner of the apartment.
This company does a really lousy job, but the owner should take some responsibility bc after all its a private rental through Airbnb and just because the service is contracted out doesn’t make it less bad.
But I guess nobody is gonna do anything about this here, bc clearly it’s about making a lot of money without moral and giving travelers a good time is secondary.
The condition of this place I would expect, if I’d paid 75 EUR per night for 3 ppl. But we paid 150 EUR. We looked at different apartments and chose this only bc it was slightly closer to the center. For a 20-30 EUR more per night and maybe 15min longer walk you can get some really nice places to stay, so please don’t book this place or ANY other managed by bnbmanager.nl not worth it!
February 9, 2019
Unprompted review