experience doesn't live up to the advertisement
experience doesn't live up to the advertisement
Submitted: March 8, 2011
Stayed: February 2011
The owner of this house sent us the wrong rental agreement, lost our credit card info, never responded about the check in details, then forgot to set up the crib that was supposed to be at the house. She never gave us any info about the keys and when we inquired, she said the door would be open. When we arrived, it was raining and the door was locked. She eventually came out of the house and let us in. She greeted us by telling us that she'd received a much better booking request than ours and we were lucky to be there because we had lost her a lot of money. We found it not to be very welcoming.
The washing machine in the house was broken and there was no detergent provided.
There was no soap in one of the bathrooms. The showers were dirty, several outlets didn't work, the furniture on the deck is not the furniture in the photos, and the house is generally a bit run down.
But worst of all, midway through our stay we received an email saying the owner had forgotten to collect the additional cleaning fee. But we had already agreed extremely clearly on a total price and had already wired her the total fee. She never tried to collect any additional fees before we wired the money or after we wired the money . . .until several weeks later when we were already in the house.
It was unprofessional to never mention the fee and to forget to collect it. But it was worse customer service to ruin our trip by bothering us about it after we were already there, and to claim that we were upsetting her by objecting.
The views from the house are great and it's on the beach but it's most definitely not worth the trouble when there are other properties that are much more conducive to a pleasant vacation.
Owner's Response: Ensuring that our guests have a wonderful experience is of the utmost importance to us. Even when things don't go according to plan, we do our best to make guests happy. That said, the comment left by these guests doesn't tell the entire story.
They did contact me before arrival and requested an early check-in. I informed them that there were other guests checking out the same day, and that an early check-in wasn't possible. They arrived early anyway; which wasn't a problem, but the house was still being cleaned and stocked. At that time, they didn't have any problem because they took possession early and wanted their privacy. They even offered to setup the crib, which was there as requested. It wasn't until I informed them that the cleaning fee hadn't been paid that they had problems. It is true that I didn't mention the cleaning fee until after they had moved in, but that was only an oversight on my part. Since the lease they signed clearly stated that a cleaning fee would be charged, I never imagined that there would be a conflict. Unfortunately, I suppose they felt that since I didn't catch it right away then somehow they didn't owe it.
They did pay the cleaning fee, as the lease required, but it wasn't until I read their comment that I realized just how upset they were about it and other items.
As I mentioned earlier, ensuring our guests are satisfied is very important, so I offered to refund the cleaning fee if that would make their experience better. They informed me that returning the fee wasn't adequate. It appears that only giving them two additional days for free at the beach house would be acceptable. I suppose it isn't always possible to make everyone happy, but we sincerely did try.
Helpful votes: 3/3
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