My family rented this house as a place to stay during the NE Food Truck Festival. We're new to the food truck business. From our very first inquiry email to the homeowner, our intended use for the property was made known. We were particularly drawn to the chef-style kitchen! We felt it would be perfect for any last-minute food prep for the Festival. The house had sufficient sleeping room for our family who were helping us at the Festival and everything in the home appeared to be in working order. That is where the positive review ends. WE HAD NO IDEA THAT WHILE WE WERE COOKING, CHANGING OUR CLOTHES, AND SLEEPING THAT WE WERE BEING WATCHED LIKE HAWKS ON A LIVE-FEED SURVEILLANCE CAMERA!! They filmed a 22-year old boy while he toweled off after showering and changed into his pajamas before heading to bed in the living room sleeping space. We feel violated. The owner invaded our privacy and gave us NO NOTICE that there were cameras within the living space that would be filming our every move.
We checked out at 11:10 AM. 21 minutes later, the owner sent us an email stating that we would not be receiving one penny of our security deposit back. Apparently, within those 21 minutes, the owner had scoured the 3-floor home and not only found that an “original oil painting was scratched” but that “3 of the All Clad Williams Sonoma kitchen pans were scratched.” She was also able to conclude that the “no smoking policy was violated” and “professional food was prepared in the house” and, therefore, the sofas and all 3 floors of carpeting needed to be steam cleaned…oh, and she obtained estimates for all of these “damages” within those 21 minutes. I can assure you that we did not scratch any oil painting or pans, that no one smoked in the house (a couple of people did smoke outside, they took their butts with them when they left), and that although we intended to prepare food for the Festival in the home, we ended up only needing to finish prepping a small amount of chicken. Of course, we cooked ourselves breakfast, lunch, and dinner which is to be expected during a 3-day rental. The owner estimates that we caused $9,000 in damages to this house when, in fact, we were model tenants. The house was left spotless. In fact, it was cleaner when we left than when we had arrived.
We were duped into thinking that this listing precisely fit our needs and then within 21 minutes of vacating the premises, were told that the owner was keeping our deposit.
