Thursday, January 30, 2020

Home Not So Sweet Home

I wrote before about how amazing my Airbnb experience in the Whitsundays was and if I'm on top of my blogging game I'll be writing about how amazing my Airbnb experience in Melbourne is, because it really has been. Sydney... kind of a nightmare.

I say nightmare, but I recognize that I'm being over dramatic. I wasn't living in squalor and I made it work while I was there. If it was a true nightmare I'd be writing about how I found a new place to stay. It really wasn't great though. It's tied for the worst place I've stayed in while traveling with a hotel in Vietnam that had a bunch of ants that made my one-night stay pretty crappy.  As I reflect on that last sentence I recognize how blessed I am for that to be true.  If this place tied for my worst ever then I've been quite lucky. 

For those of you that don't follow me on Instagram I'll post the videos I had updating my cockroach saga even though now I can recognize that I was a little spastic about the whole deal.  I'll admit I don't like bugs, but I can handle them if I know that they won't hurt me and that I don't risk taking them with me when I leave. My initial reaction to this whole fiasco in real time was a result of being annoyed that my Airbnb did not live up to expectations and was really not cosy or homey in any way, along with a heightened fear of all the creepy crawlies in Australia.  There are just so many stories about all the things that can get you in Australia that I came with a little fear of everything. It's probably a healthy fear, but it makes me now feel a little foolish about my reactions to what I now know to be cockroaches.

It's not worth hashing out every single detail again, but here is what I wrote in my Airbnb review. And for a frame of reference, I have never said anything bad in an Airbnb review. I've provided suggestion of how things could be improved for future guests or features I wished it had, but I have never been critical. That tells you how much I was not pleased by this stay.

"I honestly can’t believe anyone in the reviews I read before booking described this stay as cozy. It is far from that. The apartment provides for basic needs if that’s what you’re looking for it will get the job done, but not without some hassles. I’m honestly shocked that it had such good reviews. First, the posting really emphasizes the area outside of the flat. When I got there the gardens were not as tidy, there were leaves and debris everywhere. The table and countertop space outside clearly hadn’t been cleaned in a long time – there were leaves, cobwebs, dirt, etc. While I wasn’t told not to use that space, there were no clear indicators if it was ok to use it if I wanted to. I definitely would have had to wipe down everything in order to make it useable. The pictures of this area in the post were misleading. The entrance into the flat is two double doors and there are curtains covering them for privacy. This is fine except that the curtain does not slide easily on the curtain rod. I had a hard time opening and closing them. Also, there were no outdoor lights, so it was very difficult to see coming in and out in the late evening. The pictures of the kitchen/ television area and the bedroom were accurate, although they were much tidier and cleaner in the pictures. It seemed as if someone did a cursory wipe down of the main surfaces, but not very carefully and not in detail. There was a fine layer of dirt on a lot of the surfaces, including the sinks in both the kitchen and the bathroom. The kitchen/ television area floor is sloped so substantially that when sitting in the black office chair I couldn’t keep it in place. That meant that there was no comfortable way to watch the television or eat from that chair. It also contributed to the feeling of a not very warm and welcoming place. The worst part of my stay was the presence of cockroaches. I understand that in a warm, wet climate there are going to be bugs. How the flat doesn’t come with bug spray I just don’t know, especially when it seemed to be a common occurrence. Quan brought me bug spray and after that I didn’t have any problems, but I had two uncomfortable evenings and nights with cockroaches first. I think the main cause of this was the fact that there is a one-centimeter gap between the kitchen window and the wall. You can see branches of the greenery growing through the crack. There’s nothing to prevent bugs from coming in at all! It was the worst part of my stay. After a few days the apartment started to smell a bit because of the heat and moisture from it being closed up. I wanted to leave the windows open to get some air flow, but there were no screens. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving anything open because of the bugs. The best part of the apartment was the shower. Even though it was small, it had the best water flow and temperature (even for long showers) that I’ve ever experienced in all my travels across 5 continents. All in all, I think you can find something better at the same price point."














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