Not at all like listed

This property does not match the listing, wasn’t cleaned, and the hosts didn’t communicate well. To start with, after we booked the house, we were told that no guests, for ANY LENGTH of time, could be at the house without prior approval. We couldn’t even have family over to dinner without letting them know. This wasn’t in the listing but ultimately wasn’t an issue. Then, we were told check-in was at 4 and we would be sent check-in instructions at 4. We arrived at the house at 4:10 and I still had not received instructions. I sat in the driveway for thirty minutes with our dogs, sending numerous messages and calls to the owner that were unanswered.

Finally, I got a text with the info and apology that it wasn’t sent. Thinking the worst was over, we gratefully opened the front door and were met with the most disgusting stench of stale urine and feces. Dead bugs littered the heavily stained floor. I wish I could attach photos of this filth. I immediately began trying to contact the owner again because the place was inhabitable. Every single floor was stained with what smelled to be urine that had never been cleaned up. Furnishings from the listing were missing. The bathroom clearly had not been cleaned as there were dirty towels in the tub, massive clumps of hair in the tub, dried urine all over the toilet, and filth on the tub sides, toilet, and sink. The floors had trash on them.

I tried for an hour to contact the owner, and reached out to VRBO who also was unable to reach them. When I finally heard from the owner, she said her cleaner had an emergency but they could send someone to clean the next day. I told her that was unacceptable because we had nowhere else to go (no pet-friendly places in area) and I had already bought cleaning supplies, started washing linens, and scrubbing the house to make it acceptable. She offered to give me a 50% reduction in my first night stay. I spent 2 hours cleaning dried urine off the toilet and floors, unclogging and removing several handfuls of long black hair from the bathtub, scrubbing the tub and removing as much mildew as I could from the shower curtain, scrubbing the shelf in the bathroom and sink, scrubbing the floors to remove the fresh urine and feces, putting out air fresheners, washing the linens, and wiping down surfaces.

Additionally, the listing isn’t accurate. The backyard isn’t fenced in. Two of the neighbors have partial fencing so there’s part of a fence around the yard, but it’s not enclosed at all. The posting boasts of ample counter space in the bathroom but there literally is no counter- the pedestal sink with cabinet (full of their stuff no space for you) has room for a toothbrush and there is a shelf above the toilet that after I scrubbed we were able to use for a few items, but that’s it. Pictures were missing from the walls, with sticky tape left behind. Rugs were missing. The walls had dirt and body smears on them and have clearly never been wiped down. The floors and the stench were so bad that it felt like I was staying in an abandoned property.

When I told the owner about these issues and sent photos, they claimed that they had no idea the property looked like this. First, that’s bad ownership to not check on your property. Secondly, I looked the house up on Zillow. It was sold ten years ago and the only thing changed was they painted accent walls and white trim. The carpet is stained in the photos on Zillow! The stains were worse now, but they are clearly there and the carpet should’ve been removed ten years ago… or at least shampooed!

The owner has yet to give me any sort of refund or compensation. They also charged me $100 for my dogs, not the $15 per pet per night as listed on here. We stayed the two nights we had to stay for my family function and then fled as early as possible on check out day. My daughter opted to stay with my family because the house was so disgusting, and even our dogs couldn’t wait to leave. It smelled like a kennel.

Jul. 04, 2023