Absolutely awful experience. It’s a 4pm check-in, which is already fairly late. We arrived 25 minutes early, 3.35pm. Katja opened the door. No salutation, ‘welcome’, or ‘hello’, but simply ‘we are not ready.’. I suggested we waited at the pool (to keep out of her way), which she did not like. Perhaps we should have sat waiting in the car. She begrudgingly showed me and the kids down to the pool. I fished out all the leaves for her. Meanwhile, my friend arrived to the door upstairs, who I had invited over to join us for an hour or so. She had driven 45 minutes from her home in Brunswick Heads to see us. Katja, intercepted her at the door and very rudely told her to leave immediately as visitors of guests were not welcome! I left the pool and came upstairs to speak with Katja about this, who proceeded to angrily tell me that ‘normal’ people with ‘manners’ would have asked her if it was ok to have visitors! Perhaps I should have asked her beforehand, yes, but her reaction was totally unacceptable. She continued to lecture me on the subject, to which I must have rolled my eyes given the irony of HER telling ME I was rude, which upset her even more. She told me she ‘didn’t appreciate the way I was talking to her’. To which I responded that I hadn’t said anything. To which she said ‘no, but I had a rude face’?! Then she went on to say that this was not unusual for an Irish person (even though I’m not Irish, not that any of this is relevant). I would have cancelled my booking on the spot but there was no other accommodation available, especially given the late time of day, so had to suck it up. I walked away and waited by the car in the driveway. I apologized to my friend, who was in tears, and said goodbye to her. Soon after she drove off, Katja came out to tell me that she wasn’t allowed to sleep in her van outside the property?! I reassured Katja that she was just visiting for an hour or so, and had a home in Brunswick Heads to sleep in, and that she had already gone home. So bizarre.
My daughter was even concerned for her safety (so unhinged Katja seemed) and insisted I locked our door when we went to bed. Needless to say this ruined our whole experience. We avoided any interaction with Katja following that, even cancelling our breakfast, and checked out at 8am first thing in the morning. Very surprised that Katja is a ‘Superhost’, and to only find a low number of bad reviews. Perhaps she was having a bad day – I’ve no doubt she was quite stressed in getting the rooms ready in time – but this does not excuse her awful behaviour. Clearly she is also not able to self-reflect because at no point did I receive an apology, either during or after our stay (I have given her a few days to write to us, before posting this review).