My wife searched for weeks to find the perfect house rental for her gift to me of a kayaking and fishing trip to Maine. Because I have a neuromuscular disease and have difficulty walking, she always said that the most important criterion was that there be easy access to the water. She found a number of lovely possibilities, but this house seemed most perfect of all.
The agent said that it was an easy two-minute walk to the water, and that we could fish, kayak and swim from the house at high tide. Photos on the rental website seem to confirm this: but the 15-20 foot cliff face drop-off to the water isn’t shown. They say that photos don’t lie, but as we all know, they can be made to lie. Also carefully left out of the photos is the 15-step, steep and curving stair down to the water. The excuse for a railing is a wobbly set of wooden posts with a slack rope dangling between them.
The agent said that at low tide the water was about 400 feet away, and at high tide about 200 feet. Not true: at high tide the beach disappears completely, so that kayaks must be manhandled up that dangerous stairway at least once every single day. There is no “beach,” just a bunch of slippery, seaweed-covered rocks (where our friend fell on the first day here), which totally disappears at high tide.
We phoned the agency right away, on Saturday, and reached Michaela. She said that if you follow the sloping path on the right, you’ll see an easy way to get down to the water. My wife asked what about the steps? After a moment, Michaela responded, “No one else has complained about the steps.”
Then I got on the phone. I believe that at one point Michaela said that we hadn’t asked before renting about the stone stairway to the water. That’s true, and nor did we ask about gas leaks or if the pathways were mined. She said that she’d need to talk with her boss and that they’d call back.
Two days later, on Monday, having received no call back, we called the agency again. We were told that it was the boss’s day off. On Tuesday the boss, Heather, came to visit. She said, “I looked at your email, and you didn’t ask about the stair to the water.” Big help.
No suggestions for a solution and no acceptance of any responsibility. Heather did let us know that she ran 74 other rentals. I wonder then why she didn’t offer us something fitting our needs.
Bottom line: potential bliss turned to disaster.
PS We'd be happy to provide photos.