2/10 Terrible
Rebecca P., Palo Alto
Jul 11, 2020
Liked: Location, listing accuracy
Disliked: Cleanliness, check-in, communication
Not ready for guests
Unfortunately there were a lot of aspects of booking and staying at this property that were unprofessional and uncomfortable.
The only person who spoke to us was the host’s husband, and he never gave us his name, even in person. We never saw or spoke to Madeleine. They didn’t respond to messages in the app.
Madeleine’s husband asked us to cancel on our end 2 days before the reservation began.
His rationale was that there was an ant infestation but that they were harmless so if we didn’t want to come that was our choice. It seemed as if the family wanted to keep the money from the reservation without actually renting the place. He expressed that he wasn’t able to cancel on his side (of VRBO) because "it didn’t work".
We came anyway. The host’s husband called the day of the reservation and asked us to arrive two hours later than check in time.
We received poor check-in instructions, and we knocked on the wrong house. When we asked for Madeleine the resident slammed the door in our faces. Once we arrived at the correct apartment, despite a lengthy tour, we couldn’t find hand towels, napkins, wine glasses, coffee, or cutting boards.
There were still ants, holes in the sheets, and the family’s clothes, toys, and photos in all of the Bedrooms.
During the evening, we discovered that the shower in one of the bathrooms didn’t drain properly, and the water entered one of the active ant holes in the floor of the bathroom. This resulted in swarms of flying ants, which entered the master bedroom, crawled on the bed, and covered the fixtures in the second bathroom. We couldn’t get rid of the ants. We took several photos, and decided to leave the next day.
On the positive side, the view from the hot tub is exactly how it appears in the photos.
Rebecca P.
Stayed 3 nights in Jul 2020
