We had been fairly lucky with Airbnb’s until our return from Savannah. Until then we had fairly reasonable accommodations. E.g. See my holiday post – Columbia.
The place we stayed in on Oliver Street, Chattanooga, was ok. It slept the four of us in two en-suite rooms and the only real complaint was that one of those rooms was downstairs and I think, a little dark.
The main accommodation Sharon and I shared on Jefferson Avenue, Knoxville was ok. We did mention the lack of lightness in the kitchen to the owners, but apparently there was a dimmer switch we hadn’t seen. I think that this was probably one of the better looked after Airbnb’s.
The flat we shared in Savannah was large and airy, with several free streaming services available for use on the large wall mounted T.V. Our bedroom was tight, but comfortable whereas Gail and Derrick’s room was large and airy – but had a weird bath/shower set-up. Therefore, we all used the family shower, which let the flat down as this needed some updating. No outside pics, sorry.
Greenville saw us in a big industrially designed apartment with no outside view. It had windows that allowed daylight in, but these were at the top of the wall, just under the ceiling and at a height of about 15’00”. Sitting in the well-designed sitting room was like sitting over the wing of a Jumbo Jet, or in the engine room of an ocean liner – not only was the sound of the A/C (or something) loud, but it shook the building too. It made me feel seasick and I had to move over to the dining table (in a part of the room that didn’t feel to be shaking). The beds and showers were fine (very good in fact) and the kitchen was probably ok, but we had no time to use it. Nevertheless, staying more than one night would have been difficult.
The final Airbnb of our trip to America was a big disappointment.
Also on Jefferson Avenue, it had looked to be one of the best on the website but the minute we entered the grounds, we could tell that all was not well. The property may well have been a sort-of ‘grannie flat’ at one time, as it is built onto a separate property which actually faces the main road. The gutters are filled with weeds and small trees, and the exterior is in need of good coat of paint.
Our rooms were behind and under that property. We had understood that the owners lived in that property, but they didn’t, it was rented from them. We knew that we would not be able to use the laundry (which was a real disadvantage at this stage of our trip), but thought that that was because it was shared with the property above. It was not, it was a room inside our own accommodation and it simply held the washed and dried bedding from one guest to another (the dryer was on when we arrived @ 5:00pm and we eventually had to turn it off to stop it beeping. It was never emptied). Perhaps the cleaners simply forgot?
The chairs in the sitting room were threadbare and dirty. Sharon refused to sit on them.
The beds had old, but seemingly clean bedding on them. One bed was far too soft and the other was far too hard. Fair enough, people have different likes, but I thought the soft bed would be best as it was bigger than the other. However, once Sharon got in by my side, it squeaked and creaked like it needed oiling (who oils a bed?), so she slept each of the four nights on the hard bed, but put the quilt under her, rather than over.
The bathroom was adequate and mostly clean, but the extractor fan was dangerously dirty.
I guess that the owners either don’t care, as long as the money keeps coming in (we paid $637 for those 4 nights) or, they simply have very low standards. A really poor show.
She answered all of the questions as honestly as she knew how and seemed to feel no pressure at all throughout the full hour of questioning. On the standard test, she got 59% (the standard being 85% ish) and for me it was easy to see exactly where she was losing ‘it’. Mental sums and short term memory tasks were very poor, but at longer term knowledge (that is a penguin, that is a kangaroo etc.) she was much better.
Saturday Walks 