Although Tim left our home in fine condition upon check out, I cannot recommend him as a guest. He and his wife arrived at the house nearly two hours early, despite our explicit check in instructions clearly stating that check in is not until 4:00pm. Upon arriving early, we also noticed he brought his dog along, which he did not include in his reservation (we charge an additional pet fee). In fact, not only did he not include his dog, but we later learned from concerned neighboring guests that he also had other members not included in his reservation. As I'm sure you are aware, this goes against not only our guidelines but VRBO's as well.
During his stay, he made it apparent that unfortunately the house was not up to HIS standard. I use the term "his standard" lightly, because we have never received a negative review of our home from other guests. In fact, the family who checked out the day Tim checked in, left us probably one of the most raving reviews we have ever received. I encourage everybody reading this to check out Wendy's review of this very same property on Airbnb. Despite his frustration, we immediately addressed Tim's concerns and offered to rectify what we could in the moment. Just to give you an idea of a few things we did and offered to do to help make his stay better... Within 24 hours we had a brand new grill delivered & set up, we scheduled somebody up to come power wash the pool area the very next day, we sent our handy man over to assist with the pool heater & lastly, insisted we send our cleaner back to address his main concern.
At 2:35pm (still an hour and a half prior to his check in time), he denied everything we were offering to do, however he continued to send knit picky pictures and made accusations of mold, which was in fact minor water damage in a cabinet nobody, not even us as the home owners, use. That evening at 6:33pm, we learned from Tim that a glider in the living room was broken. We immediately apologized about the mishap & at 7:04pm we received another text message of a picture of Tim in the glider saying "settling in & very comfortable". For somebody who seemed extremely disappointed in a home that has never received negative reviews, it was becoming apparent that Tim is somebody who thrives off of complaining, but refuses assistance.
The next morning at 9:26am, we received more harassing pictures from Tim, of his wife attempting to take care of the things we offered to do the day prior. I reminded him that it was not their responsibility & we were trying hard to make it right to ensure he and his family had a good stay. At 9:34am, he then stated that he did not want to "deal" with the help we were offering to send. We were lost on what more we could offer to do, but granted his wish & let it be.
About a week later, we received another text message from Tim saying he was having trouble with the pool heater, despite us explaining that it is on a timer & doesn't run all day. Instead of going back and forth via text, we called Tim on February 23rd at 6:20pm. We attempted to explain word for word where to go & what to do, but unfortunately Tim was not understanding, as he was actually at the electrical panel flicking breakers. After getting frustrated, Tim said, "this isn't worth my time right now. If you fix it great, if not I dont even fucking swim" and hung up. Nothing was actually broken, therefore nothing needed to be fixed, but had he allowed us to send somebody to the house his first day to show him where the pool heater is, this entire conversation could have been avoided.
After Tim's two week stay, we received an email from him, 15 days after check out, requesting that he felt he should only pay less than half of our nightly rate. This concern was not brought up once during his stay. From the very beginning of Tim's arrival, it was obvious that no matter how much we tried, nothing was going to satisfy him. Unfortunately our house did not meet or satisfy his needs, but as they say, there is always going to be "one".