Well, first things first, it was a walk-up apartment in the basement, not the whole house. The whole apartment, yes, but every picture of the exterior was of the entire house. Did it have two bedrooms and sleep 6? Well yes, but the "sofa bed" was actually a sectional where two people could sleep one on each end. Good thing we had two young guys who were pretty easy going - it certainly wasn't ideal for them. And the sound transfer from room to room, as well as from the owner upstairs was pretty bad.
Descriptions of how steep the driveway was and how dark it was there at night really don't do justice. None of that was mentioned in the listing.No, but if I was house hunting and arrived to view one that didn't meet expectations, I'd just turn right around and go look at the next. Nothing lost there. In this case I was 1,000km from home in a remote location without any other accommodation options and stuck with my portion of a non-refundable contract that cost me over $1,000.00 for three nights.
Different weeks, even different days are priced differently for traditional hotels too. Sometimes I've no clue why this week is so much less than another but it is what it is (and I'm speaking towards hotels). Have you ever looked up Disney's pricing seasons (well it was more applicable pre-covid but still). A lot of different pricing seasons and sometimes your stay fell between two or more of them.
Well there's not much information you've given to really understand if those fees are warranted or if they are just a way to get extra money. It's entirely possible this owner uses contracted services.
Thanks for the response! You do have to be careful when you look for a rental. I've learned a lot staying in these places. Too bad you got the short end of the stick because it is so nice staying in a home vs a hotel when you are staying for a couple of days or more somewhere.[
Well, first things first, it was a walk-up apartment in the basement, not the whole house. The whole apartment, yes, but every picture of the exterior was of the entire house. Did it have two bedrooms and sleep 6? Well yes, but the "sofa bed" was actually a sectional where two people could sleep one on each end. Good thing we had two young guys who were pretty easy going - it certainly wasn't ideal for them. And the sound transfer from room to room, as well as from the owner upstairs was pretty bad.
Secondly, it was at the top of a 60m extremely steep driveway and the owner didn't allow parking on the driveway because it would block her car in. The listing said on-site parking, which was on the road at the bottom. Having to lug our stuff up trying to use our phones as flashlights (no street lights, no yard lights, only a small exterior house light up top) was super-dangerous. The lack of exterior lighting was actually my biggest complaint - it was, in my mind, reckless and negligent and it made me furious.
Thirdly, it wasn't located how we imagined it. It was advertised as being in close proximity to the beach down a "secret" path. Well, yes I guess, sort of. The path was across the road and two blocks down. And the path itself was just a well-worn track through dense bush; about 200m long and also extremely steep with no stairs or hand rails. I only made it down there once - the rest of our time on the water was spent at a provincial park 6km away with easy walk-in access, that we drove to.
No, but if I was house hunting and arrived to view one that didn't meet expectations, I'd just turn right around and go look at the next. Nothing lost there. In this case I was 1,000km from home in a remote location without any other accommodation options and stuck with my portion of a non-refundable contract that cost me over $1,000.00 for three nights.
It's not the end of the world (we hade a lovely time being together) and in some ways it's a lesson I'm glad I learned now on an expensive but low-stakes short vacation. This kind of accommodation just isn't for me - I'll never stay in one again. I do agree that I could have done more research (beyond just reading the website reviews which were mostly positive) but I guess I assumed our daughter had examined it quite thoroughly. She either didn't (she's not a very experienced traveller) or more to the point I suspect is that there were certain aspects of the idea that she fell in love with and just didn't want to give us a reason to refuse. Ask forgiveness, not permission - right?
Nope, nope, nope - not to me. I like hotels just fine (we've stayed in some great ones around the world) and I don't need a "home" when I'm vacationing.
Sorry, I've got to ask, did none of the reviews mention any of these problems?[
Well, first things first, it was a walk-up apartment in the basement, not the whole house. The whole apartment, yes, but every picture of the exterior was of the entire house. Did it have two bedrooms and sleep 6? Well yes, but the "sofa bed" was actually a sectional where two people could sleep one on each end. Good thing we had two young guys who were pretty easy going - it certainly wasn't ideal for them. And the sound transfer from room to room, as well as from the owner upstairs was pretty bad.
Secondly, it was at the top of a 60m extremely steep driveway and the owner didn't allow parking on the driveway because it would block her car in. The listing said on-site parking, which was on the road at the bottom. Having to lug our stuff up trying to use our phones as flashlights (no street lights, no yard lights, only a small exterior house light up top) was super-dangerous. The lack of exterior lighting was actually my biggest complaint - it was, in my mind, reckless and negligent and it made me furious.
Thirdly, it wasn't located how we imagined it. It was advertised as being in close proximity to the beach down a "secret" path. Well, yes I guess, sort of. The path was across the road and two blocks down. And the path itself was just a well-worn track through dense bush; about 200m long and also extremely steep with no stairs or hand rails. I only made it down there once - the rest of our time on the water was spent at a provincial park 6km away with easy walk-in access, that we drove to.
No, but if I was house hunting and arrived to view one that didn't meet expectations, I'd just turn right around and go look at the next. Nothing lost there. In this case I was 1,000km from home in a remote location without any other accommodation options and stuck with my portion of a non-refundable contract that cost me over $1,000.00 for three nights.
It's not the end of the world (we hade a lovely time being together) and in some ways it's a lesson I'm glad I learned now on an expensive but low-stakes short vacation. This kind of accommodation just isn't for me - I'll never stay in one again. I do agree that I could have done more research (beyond just reading the website reviews which were mostly positive) but I guess I assumed our daughter had examined it quite thoroughly. She either didn't (she's not a very experienced traveller) or more to the point I suspect is that there were certain aspects of the idea that she fell in love with and just didn't want to give us a reason to refuse. Ask forgiveness, not permission - right?
No, not that I recall. It’s a newish property, and wasn’t rented at all in 2020 due to Covid. There wasn’t a ton of reviews and what there were, were fine. And even if they had said something about the driveway being steep or the yard dark at night, it truly wouldn’t have painted a picture of how alarming it was.
