Historic Apalachicola Southern Charm

These renters are definitely people who wanted something for nothing. They are SCAMMERS who tried to go around VRBO to save themselves money by renting from us directly. When they proposed this, we said NO and they got angry and decided they would make a list of as many things they could think of that they could ask for a discount for. They threatened us verbally with "Trashing your house when we leave if you don't make us happy". We tried to work with them to do this by giving them a free night and waiving a cleaning fee and that still was not enough. We continued to receive daily texts and phone calls about taking more money off. They submitted two reviews of our property that VRBO rejected based on the language they used and how personal their attacks were. When talking to them on the phone they used racial slurs and profanity when referring to us and also about employees of VRBO. After these phone conversations we were so concerned about them remaining in our home that we asked VRBO what our options were for evicting them and were told that law enforcement would need to be involved which we declined to do. In hindsight, we wish we had evicted them early on and of course would have refunded their unused days. When we returned to our house it had been ransacked. There were stains on the carpet and the furniture, food left all over the floor, stains and scratches on the cabinets, and even used prophylactics left for us to pick up. Do NOT rent to these people!

These guys smoked cigars, and left clear evidence - piles of ashes and cigar butts on a table in the house - and all over the property, in CLEAR violation of our no smoking house rule. If we had known this was happening, they would have been evicted. They risked a fire on our property and that is unacceptable. They also left the garbage disposal broken which had to be repaired, damaged several decorative items and left them on the floor, damaged a stove top, damaged walls so that they had to be repainted, and left the trash can full and open with food waste nearby on the kitchen floor. Their disrespect for our home was clearly stated by the way they left it. Yes, it is an older house in the historic district of Apalachicola and has a few quirks, but it is very comfortable and clean.

It's a shame that someone does major damage to furniture in our home and then does not even report that fact to us. When we charged these renters for that damage, they decided to make a list of things they did not like about the house. We did not hear from them about any of their complaints until after they were charged for the damage that we know was certainly done by them. We carefully inspect the property after each renter leaves and we have an armoire that had a door ripped off its hinges and a major scratch in the dining room table. There were stains on the walls and carpets that took additional cleaning and even repainting. The mess left by dogs we know came from dogs they brought into the house, without our prior knowledge of course, in order to not pay the pet fee. Everything else they stated in their review was, at best, an exaggeration intended to make our home less attractive to future renters. We continue to take pride in our house and hope we can provide an enjoyable vacation experience for future guests.

This guest rated us low on cleanliness simply because the garbage container from a previous guest had not been picked up before their arrival due to a holiday. We feel this is an unfairly low rating for cleanliness based on this one occurrence. Our home is exceptionally clean.