We received an email after booking, from the host asking if it was ok if one of the main floor bathrooms could be grouted while we were there. Given what we paid for 4 nights, we wanted the place to ourselves and replied we would prefer no-one else at the house.
This place is advertised as 4 bathrooms, we expected the bathrooms to be functioning. We arrived to discover it was not mere grouting, both bathrooms on the main floor were being remodeled. One bathroom was completely unusable with a pipe sticking out of the ceiling where the shower should be, obviously no shower faucet, visible wiring which my 5 year old attempted to grab and play with. The second bathroom on that floor included bare drywall in the shower, outside of the shower and again exposed electrical wires.
In the main bedroom on the top floor there was a pillow sticking out of the wall/ceiling where someone was attempting to make the other side of the wall a washroom. That's right, you did not miss-read - a pillow!!!
Before we chose this house, we read the reviews. One guy mentioned cobwebs. The owner contacted us to state that the house had been cleaned before we got there. Needless to say there were cobwebs on the ceiling and ants (the large kind) literally everywhere on the main floor and a few upstairs in the kids bedroom. Some were dead and had been there for a while..
The fridge-freezer hadn't obviously been replaced in some years as it wasn't cooling properly. The front of it (water dispenser) had a couple of screws holding it on.
On the first day my wife sent three text messages highlighting the items we were finding saying "we had some concerns". We received a text message stating "if you wish to leave, let me know, I am not offering any further discounts, you are looking for things to be wrong". We hadn't received any discount, mentioned refunds or money at that time so were literally astonished. We decided to get on with things as we were 600 miles from home. I called him and spoke about the fact that we were merely providing feedback, he offered an extra day which we accepted. We then got back to the house to hear he had called the house and spoken to my mother in law and stated that we were "harassing" him. The final straw, we decided to leave on the Friday planned (just before he texted saying the extra day was a no go).
Beware, the host is very difficult and the house inside is an equivalent 2 * hotel. Photos anyone?