Booking with Pacific Palms has been the worst experience I have had using AirBnb before. Whilst the area is nice and Smiths Lake is a gorgeous location to visit, I am left with a distinctly sour experience that Pacific Palms will do anything they can to grub more money out of you.
My issues begin with an inconvenient check in/out process, dirty pots and pans, misleading photos and most importantly, an absolutely terrible experience with communication. Before your stay, you are required to complete an online check in including agreeing to a set of T&Cs that are significantly different to the AirBnb listing. Considering that the listing is non refundable, you have little choice but to accept the T&Cs Pacific Palms puts forward which include fines beginning at $500 for any noise complaints.
After a 3.5 hour drive from Sydney, we found that the check in process required us to drive an additional ten minutes past the location to Pacific Palms' office to pick up the keys from an unsecured dropbox. Although a small inconvenience, the last thing we wanted to do on a Friday night after a long drive is another twenty minutes when a lockbox would have been far more convenient for check in/out.
On first arrival, we felt that the photos of the location were intentionally misleading to make the property appear more isolated than it is. The next door neighbours are no more than five metres either side with no fencing in between. We found several pots that had charred food cooked into the bottom of them and no cooking essentials such as S&P.
To preface my next complaint, my group of friends and I have never had any issues with unruly behavior, loud noise, partying or anything in that vein. Numerous hosts have commented that we are respectful guests who leave the house tidy and obey the house rules to the best of our knowledge.
We understood the surrounding community was family friendly and took suitable precautions to ensure we did not violate community guidelines to the best of our knowledge. On the first night, we were playing music in our garage at what we believed to be at a quiet level that neighboring houses could not hear. We were visited by security, at which point we turned the music off immediately. We received a letter that was unclear as to whether it was a warning or a fine and provided no clear information as to how to respect the surrounding properties going forward.
The next night we obeyed the quiet hours of 10pm that were conveyed to us by security the previous night (not Pacific Palms), and all music was turned off by 10pm. Despite this, we received a noise complaint at midnight when everyone was inside sitting down watching TV. Pacific Palms is still attempting to charge us $500 for the call out, despite the security guard stating there was nothing he could tell us and nothing more we could do.
The following day we left the property by the agreed 10am check out time and grabbed breakfast on the way to Blueys Beach. By 10:30am I had received a text message stating that we were being charged a late check out fee for not returning the keys and Pacific Palms did not respond to any of my messages that we were only a short distance away and it was not communicated that the keys had to be returned by 10am to complete check out.
These are not all of the fines and charges that Pacific Palms are attempting to force us to pay on top of the high nightly rate. It is clear to me that the lack of communication, the numerous documents outside of AirBnb and unclear guidelines surrounding community noise are designed to confuse guests and get as much money as they can. My experience has put me off using any holiday rental companies in the future and I urge anyone planning to stay in Smiths Lake to stay away.