nRiTeCh
Skilled
My and my wife was to visit Mumbai from Pune for the period 14th Apr - 17th Apr 2022 for some work as well as for leisure purpose.
Unfortunately, during that period my family in Mumbai was out of town and I didn't wanted to stay at any relatives place.
So getting to the point I looked nowhere and always wanted to gave a shot to Airbnb. Booked one property after careful consideration wrt price + reviews + location balance also the host was rated as SUPERHOST!
For 3 night 4 days the entire stay costed us Rs. 5550/- no breakfast or anything which was fine as its Bandra with tons of places to eat and explore.
The hunting and booking process etc. all went smooth.
Instantly after payment, the Host contacted me and obviously shot him few essential queries for the facilities he mentioned on the page. He said It’s a room on first floor of an old Portuguese villa in Bandra west, they are having 3 rooms in the apartment/villa and bathroom is just outside the room but dedicated one to every room. We can cook food, listen to music etc. I kept looking/verifying at the posted pics on the page and all looked fine.
So finally the day arrived and we came down to Mumbai, hired a Uber cab and journey begins. As per the map location shared, we arrived at the location but in no way there was any Villa hosted zone which one could imagine. It was a slum zone! My wife obviously was shocked and uncomfortable. There were those slummy houses, few warehouses and old buildings. We ringed the host & he shared his housekeepers no. and based on his landmarks we kept roaming in the cab in the same zone until that person showed himself. We got down and preferred to walk with him and to our surprise we arrived at the exact same pin location where we first arrived.
Property Exp. aka Chaos:
He opened the door of one shop/office looking building and then we had to climb those metal stairs upward to the top floor. Once arrived the area did looked like the pics posted on airbnb page but only partially & the shocking exp. just began...
Top floor and the room was extremely hot and humid, no AC. Fans doing reverse job of blowing hot air all over.
There were 2 rooms and the house boy opened the one booked for us, it was a tiny room, with AC but bonus of smell of cigarettes and tobacco + bonus mosquitoes & zero view/ventilation etc.
We were totally pissed off and wife was extremely angry, annoyed and insecure there. Obviously the property didn't at all looked like a fit for any family or descent people whereas reviews did mentioned about families enjoying their stays there (god only knows what type of families ever stayed here) Came out and we asked to show the washroom, it was located beyond the kitchen and was dirty rather filthy type.
More to that, washbasin and kitchen sink were common with all filth etc. totally dirty. Imagine you brush and spit in the same basin and wash utensils there? Who even does this, not even in rural places.
The utensils/cookware were properly kept but seemed they weren't used in ages.
Refer to my captured below snaps..
Airbnb property Pictures captured by us:
Entrance:
Basin/Toilet:
Floor wall:
Actual room:
Soon wife's voice raised and she wanted to get out of this shit ASAP! Hearing this from another room a babe came out (cant mind my words here as I want this to narrate as real as possible) she was wearing only a bra and down there, a wrapped sarong. And her appearance and actions were as if she was open to offer all those services to a client. We had a bit of chitchat with her & she said she is from Kurla and came to met her bf here and frequents him often here for private time who is staying here for a good 1 month. What more to say guys?? Obviously you got the clues..
We went to our room and I looked to cancel the booking but not before booking another..luckily I had chance to cancel and still get 65% refund the cancellation charges were Rs. 2221 and I would get a refund for rest only if done in next 20mins. We had no time to zero down on another booking & wasted time on airbnb where most of the hosts only respond hours later and parallely wife was hunting hotels on MMT. We did found few good 3-4 star hotels nearby so just 4 mins remaining for cancellation and I cancelled the booking, and without informing anyone, left this piece of scammed scandalous junkyard!
If this is what is hosted by a so called SUPERHOST we have no words beyond..
Partial Airbnb property Pictures posted by host (from the hosts angle):
Then Hotel booking Exp: A great sigh of relief in the end..
Anyways, we kept walking until we reached proper roads from the slum shit. And began to book however, when we ringed in few hotels we were shocked by another thing...the hotel receptionist person was asking if our residency proof was Mumbai registered or another place, if Mumbai registered then they wont accept such bookings for localites no matter even if one books from mmt/goibibo etc. We were like wtf rule is this?
We had all the evidences if required why we are staying outside been a localite etc. and the official purpose of visit but 3-4 hotels turned down our offer.
Finally after 2 hours wasting time hungry and thirsty standing on summary road we decided to try our luck at a 3 star hotel in Khar hotel without calling, and finally a great relief! We got a great package there with no issues with our residency proof at all. But just for 3 days it was costing us a whooping 12.4k so we obliviously has to narrow down our stay compromising on one day but no regrets!
The entire stay was very pleasant, awesome rooms, great service, superb location and tasty food!
Khar hotel pics (no comparison at all with that Airbnb shitty junkyard:
About Airbnb booked property (in-short):
We surely felt robbed off the trust and assurance esp. going on the reviews. Now I even doubt the reviews posted on airbnb,
Right now If you try to access the direct property link its no more accessible nor the room will appear in searches.
As for the stay, Extremely unpleasant, horrifying, terrible and pathetic cum insecure experience.
Escalation/Refund:
After we were back, I thought about giving a shot to Airbnb support by escalating our horrifying exp. First it was processed via chat followed by a call from some UK based no. And guess what I got a complete 100% refund!
The original property page https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/52248471 isn't accessible or seems de-listed from airbnb after our complaint, escalation with all proofs, images and facts. The owner/host named Rohan still has few more properties listed on his name or on someone else in nearby radius of 5-6 kms so beware..
This error while viewing the original listing.
However, I found that the exact same property is listed in others persons name/host. This is truly an open scam!
TIP: If you ever book any property, ask the host first to post an entire video inside of the property as well as the outside location to get a good glimpse before plunging..
Unfortunately, during that period my family in Mumbai was out of town and I didn't wanted to stay at any relatives place.
So getting to the point I looked nowhere and always wanted to gave a shot to Airbnb. Booked one property after careful consideration wrt price + reviews + location balance also the host was rated as SUPERHOST!
For 3 night 4 days the entire stay costed us Rs. 5550/- no breakfast or anything which was fine as its Bandra with tons of places to eat and explore.
The hunting and booking process etc. all went smooth.
Instantly after payment, the Host contacted me and obviously shot him few essential queries for the facilities he mentioned on the page. He said It’s a room on first floor of an old Portuguese villa in Bandra west, they are having 3 rooms in the apartment/villa and bathroom is just outside the room but dedicated one to every room. We can cook food, listen to music etc. I kept looking/verifying at the posted pics on the page and all looked fine.
So finally the day arrived and we came down to Mumbai, hired a Uber cab and journey begins. As per the map location shared, we arrived at the location but in no way there was any Villa hosted zone which one could imagine. It was a slum zone! My wife obviously was shocked and uncomfortable. There were those slummy houses, few warehouses and old buildings. We ringed the host & he shared his housekeepers no. and based on his landmarks we kept roaming in the cab in the same zone until that person showed himself. We got down and preferred to walk with him and to our surprise we arrived at the exact same pin location where we first arrived.
Property Exp. aka Chaos:
He opened the door of one shop/office looking building and then we had to climb those metal stairs upward to the top floor. Once arrived the area did looked like the pics posted on airbnb page but only partially & the shocking exp. just began...
Top floor and the room was extremely hot and humid, no AC. Fans doing reverse job of blowing hot air all over.
There were 2 rooms and the house boy opened the one booked for us, it was a tiny room, with AC but bonus of smell of cigarettes and tobacco + bonus mosquitoes & zero view/ventilation etc.
We were totally pissed off and wife was extremely angry, annoyed and insecure there. Obviously the property didn't at all looked like a fit for any family or descent people whereas reviews did mentioned about families enjoying their stays there (god only knows what type of families ever stayed here) Came out and we asked to show the washroom, it was located beyond the kitchen and was dirty rather filthy type.
More to that, washbasin and kitchen sink were common with all filth etc. totally dirty. Imagine you brush and spit in the same basin and wash utensils there? Who even does this, not even in rural places.
The utensils/cookware were properly kept but seemed they weren't used in ages.
Refer to my captured below snaps..
Airbnb property Pictures captured by us:
Entrance:
Basin/Toilet:
Floor wall:
Actual room:
Soon wife's voice raised and she wanted to get out of this shit ASAP! Hearing this from another room a babe came out (cant mind my words here as I want this to narrate as real as possible) she was wearing only a bra and down there, a wrapped sarong. And her appearance and actions were as if she was open to offer all those services to a client. We had a bit of chitchat with her & she said she is from Kurla and came to met her bf here and frequents him often here for private time who is staying here for a good 1 month. What more to say guys?? Obviously you got the clues..
We went to our room and I looked to cancel the booking but not before booking another..luckily I had chance to cancel and still get 65% refund the cancellation charges were Rs. 2221 and I would get a refund for rest only if done in next 20mins. We had no time to zero down on another booking & wasted time on airbnb where most of the hosts only respond hours later and parallely wife was hunting hotels on MMT. We did found few good 3-4 star hotels nearby so just 4 mins remaining for cancellation and I cancelled the booking, and without informing anyone, left this piece of scammed scandalous junkyard!
If this is what is hosted by a so called SUPERHOST we have no words beyond..
Partial Airbnb property Pictures posted by host (from the hosts angle):
Then Hotel booking Exp: A great sigh of relief in the end..
Anyways, we kept walking until we reached proper roads from the slum shit. And began to book however, when we ringed in few hotels we were shocked by another thing...the hotel receptionist person was asking if our residency proof was Mumbai registered or another place, if Mumbai registered then they wont accept such bookings for localites no matter even if one books from mmt/goibibo etc. We were like wtf rule is this?
We had all the evidences if required why we are staying outside been a localite etc. and the official purpose of visit but 3-4 hotels turned down our offer.
Finally after 2 hours wasting time hungry and thirsty standing on summary road we decided to try our luck at a 3 star hotel in Khar hotel without calling, and finally a great relief! We got a great package there with no issues with our residency proof at all. But just for 3 days it was costing us a whooping 12.4k so we obliviously has to narrow down our stay compromising on one day but no regrets!
The entire stay was very pleasant, awesome rooms, great service, superb location and tasty food!
Khar hotel pics (no comparison at all with that Airbnb shitty junkyard:
About Airbnb booked property (in-short):
- As can be seen earlier, The SUPERHOSTt has only posted partial good looking pics on the listing to woo customers however, again as per our posted pics, when we reached the place, it was nothing short of a junkyard in a slum zone or call it some one night stand scandalous banging place . Very unsafe and obviously not at all suitable for decent people/family/couple or even a lone innocent/descent person!
- For a good 45 mins we were roaming around only to find this piece of junkyard or should we say a filthy place.
- If host mentioned this junkyard as villa then a real villa for him will be some heavenly moon place.
We surely felt robbed off the trust and assurance esp. going on the reviews. Now I even doubt the reviews posted on airbnb,
Right now If you try to access the direct property link its no more accessible nor the room will appear in searches.
As for the stay, Extremely unpleasant, horrifying, terrible and pathetic cum insecure experience.
Escalation/Refund:
After we were back, I thought about giving a shot to Airbnb support by escalating our horrifying exp. First it was processed via chat followed by a call from some UK based no. And guess what I got a complete 100% refund!
The original property page https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/52248471 isn't accessible or seems de-listed from airbnb after our complaint, escalation with all proofs, images and facts. The owner/host named Rohan still has few more properties listed on his name or on someone else in nearby radius of 5-6 kms so beware..
However, I found that the exact same property is listed in others persons name/host. This is truly an open scam!
TIP: If you ever book any property, ask the host first to post an entire video inside of the property as well as the outside location to get a good glimpse before plunging..
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