Strap in for a detailed, honest review!
We booked Irina’s place on Salt Spring specifically because we saw the wood stove in the pictures of the suite, the two bedrooms stated in the ad and the hot tub that was made to seem like it was a private tub on the balcony of the suite.
Upon arrival we were greeted by Irina and taken to our room. She immediately informed us that the wood stove was not to be used and she had replaced it with a electric fireplace (if we wanted to turn that one on, there was an extension cord in the closet.) She also told us the hot tub was shared among the three suites and there was a curfew of 9pm. Irina also asked us to just talk to her if we had any concerns or complaints as she didn’t like receiving negative reviews when she could easily fix something.
As we got unpacked and settled in we realized that the electrical outlet for the fridge wasn’t working and we could only have either the microwave or the fridge plugged in at one time. We spent one night in the suite and about 10 minutes in the hot tub before we had an awkward encounter with some other guests before deciding that we needed to say something to Irina. For these and the off-limits woodstove, we wrote her a friendly message that thanked her for her hospitality, but addressed the things noted above that were misleading in her listing.
A few minutes after, we heard a knock on our door. Irina walked into the space and said that she ‘didn’t like our message.’ She began to try to defend herself and walked completely into the room that we had rented — completely into our space. This was one of two time she did this. Instead of owning up to her mistakes she tried to blame us, telling us if we weren’t happy with the space, we could leave. We asked her to leave so we could have a calmer discussion over the phone and she did.
We decided that this was not the weekend we had signed up for and were not willing to pay $800 for two nights in a place that was not what we thought it would be. As we were packing up the car Irina came back into the space to show us the ad and to try and tell us that we were mistaken, that the rules were in the listing. Luckily, we had actually taken screen shots of the listing prior and realized quickly that she had actually gone and changed the details to try and tell us we were in the wrong.
We left a night early and quite upset at the lack of accountability. We would not recommend staying in this place, unless the hospitality is improved.
In the future, I would urge Irina to listen to her guests and not become defensive at feedback. I would also encourage her to step forward if she realizes there was a mistake made on her part, rather than trying to cover it up.