Portland Anniversary, Day 1: Relocation

When we arrived at our Airbnb rental last night, Liz and I both immediately had reservations. While the photos online looked good, the space itself looked a bit more worn than the photos represented.

We reported the few things we saw, which included some linens that were thrown on the kitchen floor by the oven. And the fact that the trash can was completely full from the prior tenant. Along with some smaller things like a few light bulbs that were out.

As I was plugging in something by the bed, I happened to spot this behind the bed by the outlet. Also… possibly from the prior occupant.

Yeah.

The next morning, after a night of street noise and a garbage truck circa 3:00 AM… both Liz and I had a long talk. We looked around the apartment in daylight, and began seeing additional signs that suggested the apartment hadn’t really been cleaned prior to our arrival.

Spots near the oven kitchen table and oven, spots near the bathroom sink and tub all showed signs of dirt and debris that had been there a while (more than simply “from the prior person”).

We also found a strand of hair in the tub (not ours). Normally, not a huge deal. But coupled with everything else we saw in the apartment… made us wonder if anything at all had been cleaned before we showed up.

The two of us had a long conversation about the state of the apartment. Last night, I learned that both of us were in bed thinking about things – both of us unhappy, and both of us trying to figure out how we could try to “push through” a whole week in the apartment.

After seeing things in daylight, we decided we needed to relocate. The moment we arrived at this decision, we felt an immediate sense of relief and knew it was the best course of action.

Liz, waking up with some coffee after a rough night of sleep.

At the apartment, Liz had a bit of work to do while I called around, trying to find us a new place to stay. We ended up finding a room at one of the other places we had researched: Ace Hotel.

Lobby.

Our room, which was quite spacious and included a big couch area.

The room itself was pretty open, with a desk and bed on the other side.

A slightly odd placement of the sink, but not too weird. Not pictured: the bathtub area, which had two large, sliding barn doors leading to a clawfoot tub/shower and toilet.

Another view of the room.

And a record player, along with some records.

Stairwell.

After arriving, we wrote to the Airbnb hosts letting them know we had moved out and wanted to cancel the remainder of our reservation. This was a tricky and stressful matter for us because, technically, they could have refused our request and argued we owed them the full week’s worth of rent – as traditional Airbnb policy doesn’t allow for cancellations once you’ve arrived.

We shared photos and our summary of the situation with the hosts, and suggested a 75% refund – something we felt was appropriate and fair, given that we had spent one night at the apartment and moved out the following day.

We were happy to hear that they found the refund amount agreeable, and immediately said they would have done the same thing, were they in our shoes. The hosts were really quick to respond, apologetic, and worked with us on the refund. While it wasn’t an ideal outcome for any party involved, I think things ended about as well as they could have.

A few blocks away from our new home, sipping on some beers at Bailey’s.

Liz, who despite the smile, was a bit worse for wear. She had started to get sick when we left San Diego, and last night’s poor sleep made things a bit worse.

It’s been an interesting first official day in Portland, as we spent yesterday traveling to get here and today relocating to a new space.

While we spent the day mostly getting set up again, both of us are very happy (relieved is not strong enough of a word) to be in a cleaner, more comfortable space to start our week.