Upon arrival, it was obvious that this home had not been cleaned recently. While looking through the kitchen to assess what we would need for the weekend, we found rat feces and urine in the silverware drawer, kitchen utensil drawers and the dish towels. There were crumbs and dead insects on the countertops. Knowing that the kitchen had not been cleaned, we inspected the sheets and found hair and dirt in them.

When we contacted the homeowner with pictures, he defended his housekeepers saying that they assured him that the sheets had just been changed and that the residual hair and dirt must have come from the blankets. He then went on to explain that they had had a mouse problem in the past and obviously needed to attend to it again. He did not offer to send out his housekeepers again or to send out an exterminator.

I then began cleaning out the drawers and found the actual rat's nest in the back of the dish towel drawer. I immediately took a picture and sent it to the homeowner.

I spent the entire first day cleaning the entire kitchen, disposing of rat feces/urine, throwing away the rat's nest, washing every utensil, cup and plate. We then had to wash all of the sheets and blankets and vacuum the floors. My husband bought rat poison, and we hoped that that would be the end of it.

Sadly it was not. The rat continued to leave feces in the utensil drawer everyday. We finally gave up, washed them for the third time and stored everything in the refrigerator. He did take all of the block of rat poison on the last day; so we are hopeful that we helped to eradicate him from the premises for future rentals.

We have stayed in homeaway/vrbo rentals every single year and have never given any of them less than 4 stars. I would not recommend this property given the state that we found it in or the homeowner's approach to dealing with the situation.