Our stay at this property was less than hospitable. While the renovated cottage and studio has been done with comfort in mind it was somewhat cold in atmosphere.
My husband and I arrived at sometime after 4pm and unloaded our car in full view of the owner’s premises without trying to hide our service dog, as normal on arrival at any property he was wearing his service dog jacket. On arrival we met David, one of the hosts and I shook his hand and continued moving into the cottage. My husband is a disabled man with his registered service dog. We got banging on the door shortly after 6pm informing us that pets were not permitted. I advised David that he was a registered service dog for my husband and he’s not a pet and I offered to show his credentials, David refused to look at them. He insisted he was a pet and again refused to look at his credentials and stormed off screaming I’m calling Airbnb and I yelled at him he’s not a pet. By 10pm that night I was informed by Airbnb that the pet and my husband had to leave the premises. I advised Airbnb he was not a pet and I gave them the information needed to authenticate him as a legal service dog. At this point we would have gladly moved to another location but since there was a huge football game on that weekend everything was fully booked for the next week, nowhere to go but the car. The hosts were very happy to evict a disabled man into his car on a very cold night. The hosts didn’t stop there. They had to accept our service as a legal service dog it then became my husband wasn’t on the guest list he had to go and since the service dog was his he also had to go. I made the reservation quickly and forgot to include my husband on the guest list, my big mistake. Finally, on Monday afternoon I had to almost plead with Airbnb how would anyone feel about evicting a disabled man with his service dog with nowhere to go ? But I could stay since I was the one on the guest list. It’s now four days later on Monday afternoon the calls from Airbnb finally stopped. We ended our stay and left the property in excellent condition as we would have anyway. We have travelled the world with service dogs from 1 star motels to 5 star resorts, planes, need I say more and have never been treated this way. I have been an Airbnb super host and have had many Airbnb stays with our service dog with no complaints. Just before coming to Australia we stayed at the St Regis San Francisco where they loved him even in their fine dining restaurant and the concierge wanted to walk him himself but apparently not good enough for Jana and David these hosts.
On the good side the pub next door is really nice and serve a fabulous Wagyu steak. The staff are very friendly and they have two nice fireplace areas to sit at. Our service dog was very welcome there. Also there’s a great Vietnamese café just opposite the pub. Michael the owner is a real hoot and was great to talk to early in the morning getting our cappuccinos.
On a whole this could have been a very pleasant stay if the hosts were a bit more hospitable and less hostile to our service dog, unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.