Immediately upon entry of the property, my wife, four young kids, and I found a used condom on the floor, along with large, disgusting, wet stains all over the sofas in the main room. The staircase was refurbished by an amateur and the slats are too far apart, making for an enormous safety hazard — my two-year-old daughter would have fallen through the railing if we had not caught her and pulled her back.
The mattresses on the beds are made of the cheapest material money can buy and have covers on them that make loud crunching noises every time you move. The front bedroom windows are so thin that it's as if the street noise outside is actually magnified as it enters the room.
We pulled into the property very late at night. The instructions I received told me to find a key under the trash can. There were four trash cans. After ten minutes of rummaging through dirt and bugs, I called the owner, who told me the key was in the mailbox. It would have been nice to know that beforehand.
I immediately found a used condom in the first floor bathroom. Then I started looking at the furniture -- there were several big, wet stains on the couches. My immediate thought was, "what's going on here?"
That night, I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning, booking a different hotel room so we could get out of there the next day, even though we had booked four nights. We were definitely not going to stay there another night.
Parking at the property is limited to four hours only. Long-term parking is 0.7 miles away. The owner will tell you that there is long-term parking at the train station nearby. There is not. Per her texts to me, she doesn't live near this property and doesn't know the area.
I reached out to the owner to let her know about the used condom and deplorable conditions, including photos. Her response was, and I quote: "Where do u find the condom?" When I told her, she responded, "We have been checked the house after cleaning. We didn’t see any condoms as per you. We have videos of the house after cleaning."
I spent a considerable amount of money renting a hotel room for the next three nights of our family vacation. The owner refused to give me any sort of refund — I only asked for half my money back even though we only stayed for 25% of the reservation. I finally contacted someone at VRBO who provided me with a full refund, but the host made this process way too difficult, refusing to issue me a refund on multiple occasions.
