I booked this property last minute the day before my arrival. I saw my reservation was confirmed by the host, but did not open the confirmation message until a few hours later. I saw that right before the host had confirmed the reservation, he had messaged a little excerpt saying that at the moment, the studio room was self serve. He said that the linens and towels would be cleaned by the previous guests, and asked I do the same before leaving.
Now I have no issue with cleaning and always leave my stays like I found them, however, from what he sent, it sounded like he didn't even check the cleanliness of the room in between guests. I know I can clean, but I also know a shocking number of people don't know how or won't. I really didn't feel comfortable staying someplace and just hoping the guest before me cleaned well enough, if at all. Especially during covid times.
I always carefully read the description of my stays and there was nothing mentioned about this self-cleaning/self-serve situation. I wouldn't have booked in the first place if I had known. Furthermore, he did not wait to hear if I was comfortable or not with this arrangement before confirming the reservation. When I read that message later, I immediately messaged and asked to cancel as I did not feel comfortable with the arrangement. I was also still being charged a cleaning fee when it sounded like I would be doing the cleaning.
He didn't reply that night, and since I was arriving the following day, I went ahead and booked a non-refundable 4 star hotel which ended up being cheaper than the one night in the room. He messaged me the day of saying that the last guest to stay was a long term guest and that he trusted him to clean and would be checking everything beforehand. I replied saying I would have felt more comfortable had I known this to begin with (although I still don't trust a strange guest to clean my sheets), and that I had already booked a hotel instead if I could please get a refund.
He just ignored my request to cancel or get a refund once again and just responded with instructions on how to access the room. I called VRBO and they said all they could do was send an official cancellation request to him, and that if he didn't respond, to chargeback my card.
In the end, perhaps he was checking and everything was going to be properly cleaned, but he failed to communicate the situation clearly and I did not feel comfortable staying and feel mislead.
