Our first impression was that the family had rushed out of the house 5 minutes before we arrived. Laundry was laid out in one of the rooms unfolded and the host asked if we minded. She said “you’re not going to use this one room anyway.” Because it had taken me by surprise and was so last minute I said fine. What seemed to me unusual was the fact that personal items such as toothbrushes, hair ties and other personal bath supplies were left out on the bathroom counter. There was only one bathroom in the house.
We used a converter plug in the bathroom and the electricity surged so strongly that it burnt out both my blow dryer and waterpik. A fuse had blown because of the surge and we tried to call the host but kept getting a wrong number. By the time she had called me back we had discovered the fuse box and were able to reset it ourselves.
When we were to depart I asked the host to review the house to make sure that everything was in order. She stated that she didn’t need to because she trusted me.
There were 6 of us standing in the entry ready to depart and then my son did something I couldn’t see which generated her saying “please don’t do that.” Because of my vantage point I hadn’t seen what he had done. She then went further to say “do you do that at your house” and then looked at me and said “I suppose your mommy picks up after you at home.” I was a bit shocked at her visceral response towards me especially since I had not even seen what he had actually done. She then said to me “I had to say something” and I acknowledged that she certainly had the right.
After we left my son told me that he went to tie his shoe and placed his foot on the edge of her leather coach. While I don’t condone that behavior I thought her decision to continue the personal attacks beyond telling my son please don’t do that was a bit much.
Then 10 days after we left I received a message from the host claiming that after we left she found a piece of plastic on the floor and that we had broken the side door that led to the patio. She said that it was going to cost us 400 EU to repair.
Since it was freezing outside we went on the patio only one time when we first arrived to observe the view. My husband who is an architect said that the door was not functioning properly when he closed it. The host said that it had to be my family who broke the door because the other families would have told her if they broke something. Obviously she thought we were the dishonest guests. I guess it didn’t occur to her that If we had broken the door and wanted to hide it we would have picked up the plastic piece she said she found on the ground.
After this experience I will never use AirBnB again. I have no idea if I’m going to be held responsible for fixing something that we didn’t break. A hotel is only slightly more expensive and a much safer bet. Live and learn.