I was planning to leave a 3-4 star review for this property. Then two weeks after our trip, the owner Val unexpectedly sent us a strange bill. I spoke with VRBO and they said we did not have to pay it. Val then sent a weird email that ended, “You are going to regret this attitude.”
This property is a duplex, and Val lives in the other side of the house. You share the backyard with his family. The backyard is beautiful. One night, Val hosted a small party and invited us to join. They were not loud.
The house is old, with both the charm and inconveniences of being so. The beds were comfortable. My kids liked the toys in their room. It was nice to have an office, but that room did not have an AC. It does have a fan. The living room has a faint smell of cat pee, but it mostly goes away if the AC is on high. On our last day, the AC shortcircuited so half the house lost power. We tried to reset the breaker but couldn’t find the right switch. A toilet handle broke off during our stay, and an old lamp’s brittle plastic shattered when my 7yo tried to adjust the plastic lampshade.
When we checked in, the previous tenant had left dog poo in a bag at the door step. Two days later, Val asked why we hadn’t cleaned it up. When we told him it wasn’t ours, he took care of it.
The fire detector had dead batteries in it. Val replaced them when I told him.
The shower curtain had black mildew along the bottom. The rest of the house was clean. We borrowed a vacuum from my family because the one in the house had been used for dog hair and smelled as such.
We took care of a dying rat in the basement on a sticky trap.
During our stay, Val had to travel, so he asked my husband to take out the trash for Val's wife. My husband happily obliged a couple times. On the day of our checkout, a hurricane was expected to hit so we tried to move projectiles in the yard away from the house.
I’m bewildered by the bill and the “You are going to regret this attitude” email. Val’s complaints are that we moved 3 pieces of furniture and a lamp 1-5 feet from their original location (one moved for safety reasons), but there were no “house rules” that forbid this. He also wanted us to pay for the plumber to fix the toilet handle, which didn’t seem right since that was normal “wear and tear.” He wanted us to pay for the lamp, but the proposed amount seemed very high so we asked for a receipt. We stay in VRBOs and AirBNBs often and have never had a negative experience.
