Unfortunate

Guest: Diverse Consumer (Florida )
Date of Stay: 08/05/11 Review Submitted: 09/08/11

We absolutely LOVE Little Gasparilla Island and this was a last-minute stay. One of the owners gave us the phone # to her cleaning lady who resides on the island (and serves as a manager-type for the owner) and for $25, she would meet us at the dock and take our bags to the house and settle us in. We did hire her for this service and after getting to the house, she said she would be back the next day to check on us and bring the kids some books on turtles (as it was nesting season); she never did show up, therefore we didn't have any opportunity to resolve the following: upstairs tv didn't work (bad for occupying kids at night), ants invaded the kitchen, including the garbage can, there was no broom in the house (a must for after sandy beach days), and there were only 3 washcloths. Apparently, a large family occupied 5 houses on the island before we came, one of which was this property. This family converged in one house to eat their meals and in doing so, removed some of the kitchen supplies from this house. She was also supposed to return those the next day but since she didn't show, we had to seriously improvise on the cooking. After we returned home, I e-mailed one of the owners and advised of the problems we had (in addition to one of the downstairs bathrooms becoming inoperable); she offered no apologies or resolution. In trying to get my security deposit back, Owner informed me that the cleaning lady told her she had to spend an extra hour cleaning the house up after us and would be passing that cost along to me. I assured her that not only am I a neat freak, I brought laundry soap on the trip and even washed some of the linens we used. The only thing we couldn't do was sweep the floor (no broom/vacuum). Long story short, the cleaning lady flat out LIED about the condition the house was in. Having a legal background, I knew I should have taken exit pictures but I surely thought they'd be pleased with the condition. When the mis-truths were brought to the Owner's attention (everyone in our party would attest to same), along with the issues we had with the property, again there was NO apology offered, NO resolution. This is very unfortunate as I've rented on this island a couple of times before and had no issues. The only reason this review is rated "fair" and not "poor" is that the weather and the island were beautiful and we had a roof over our heads.

Owner response:As the owner/management of this property, we would like to respond to this renters review. Our cleaning service also supplies a service that meets renters at the dock to transport their luggage and groceries to the house for a fee of $25.00. This renter was well aware that she was to communicate with us, the owner /management except for calling this service when arriving at the dock for their transportation to the house. It is unfortunate that during their stay they never communicated with us to report any of these issues. If so, they would have easily been resolved. 1. The TV - Our advertisement for this property states there is a TV with satellite, VCR/DVD player which is located in the family room. It does not state anywhere that there is a TV in a bedroom for children's entertainment, so this is not an issue. 2. The ants - If the renter would have noified us, we could have had the pest control company that takes care of our house go back as they were recently there for the regular pest control treatment. 3. The broom/vacuum - There is a vacuum in the house. There are two brooms, one in the house and one in the laundry room. If she had informed us that the one in the house had been broken, we could have had one delivered immediately. 4. Three washclothes - This is perplexing because the cleaning service reported that there were 10 prior to their arrival and 7 after their departure. 5. Bathroom inoperable - The cleaning service reported the bathroom was working properly. We checked ourselves after the complaint and everything was in order. Furthermore, the transportation service informed us the renters had 9 people staying in the house as opposed to 6 as she had stated in the rental agreement. Because the house was left in such poor condition and they dirtied 8 sets of sheets (2 sets of sheets for every bed in the house) the cleaning service had to charge an additional $25.00 which was charged to the renter. We also told her that we were waiving the charge for the extra people she brought without informing us, even though she misrepresented this on the rental agreement. This incident is very disappointing to us as this is our first complaint after renting this property for over 5 years. We have never had to pass along any extra charges to any of our many renters. We've always been responsive to our renters and pride ourselves on our customer service. We have had many repeat customers because they love staying at our property.

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