Last August
Last August, I stayed in Oviedo. It was the worst vacation of my life. The landlady only showed up on the first day. After that, she wasn’t seen in the apartment for four weeks. Instead, I ended up having the worst experience I’ve ever had with a roommate. The roommate had been a long-term tenant in the apartment, something the landlady hadn’t told me. I was presented with a fait accompli. The roommate ignored my need to occasionally go into the kitchen to cook and eat. She refused to compromise on timing and spent hours in the very small kitchen, throwing real cooking sessions without any consideration. She was obviously not mentally stable. To make a long story short, it ended with her screaming and spitting at me. I should have called the police. The landlady, whom I asked for help several times, didn’t even come by and dismissed everything on WhatsApp as “child’s play.” The landlady broke every promise she had made in the Homestay listing and via email. She promised to take me on a trip to the Asturian countryside in exchange for covering the gas costs. She didn’t fix the broken TV in the living room, and much more. She simply doesn’t live in this apartment. Homestay doesn’t allow that. I sent the entire WhatsApp conversation with the landlady to Homestay. I took photos as evidence. Due to gross negligence, for example, a glass kitchen clock fell off the wall and unfortunately landed right in my drinking glass. The clock had been secured to the wall with just a straight pin, not a nail. My roommate slammed doors, and the shock caused the clock to fall off the wall. I also took a photo of the shattering mess. It was hell. I was afraid during my stay. My bedroom door wouldn’t lock. I reported all of this to Homestay, including the fact that I left earlier. Homestay then removed the landlady from the website and asked me to remove a negative review here, which I did. I have the emails from Homestay on file. Now, six months later, this woman, can suddenly offer her apartment in Oviedo for rent again quite officially, even though she still doesn’t live there.
She is offering all the rooms in her apartment, even though one of them is her private bedroom. Homestay doesn't care about the tenants, but only about the investors. When I asked why this woman is able to list her apartment again, even after I had filed a complaint against her with the city of Oviedo, Homestay suggested that I could rate her retroactively in return. In addition, the landlady had promised Homestay that she would continue to live there permanently and let them know if she were to move out. That's ridiculous. I couldn't rate the landlady until about six weeks ago because she had already been removed from the website after my stay last summer. Homestay wrote to me that the woman had, after all, received two more good reviews recently. Oh wow. Of course, in response to my review, I’ve now received a negative review from the lady Antonia in Oviedo, so that no one would give me a place to stay anymore. I'm a German teacher in my prime, and I never expected to be treated this way. Homestay is shady and doesn’t give a damn about the travelers, as others here have already noted. Anyone and everyone can rent out anything here.
