Stephane and his mom met us at the gate, then brought us up to our unit. The place was nice, he said we could use anything in the apartment that we wanted, and we enjoyed our stay...with the exception that the hallway outside our unit stunk strongly of cigarettes to the point that we would hold our breath and run from the elevator to our unit.
Checkout and the communication afterwards were not so pleasant.
The evening before we left, we received a message asking what time we want to check out. I saw the message about an hour after it was sent and replied immediately. I said that I was thinking that since we were to leave around 6:00AM, we could lock our set of keys in the unit and he could let himself in with his set, when it is convenient for him.
At 5:17AM the next morning, since I hadn’t received a response, I sent another message stating that I would lock the keys in as I had suggested unless I heard back otherwise (and left the patio slider that is 8’ off the ground unlocked in case he didn’t have an extra set of keys).
Then it turned ugly...
Marie-France Wartelle (presumably Stephane’s mother) emailed us and said that:
1. We never responded to their message; which we did twice.
2. Said that their son received a text that we left at 5:00AM and slammed the door; but we didn’t leave till almost 6:30, and I pulled the door closed to latch it (as I had to lock the keys inside, since I never received a response from them);
3. Complained that the children’s toys were not tidy; though they were cleaned up and in the containers (though I may have been able to do a better job organizing them if I had seen how they were packed before my youngest son played with them).
4. Said that the 1€ coin disappeared, accusing us of stealing it; when in fact we used some of the change during our visit, but dumped a bunch of change back in before we left, leaving what I believe to be about the same amount of money. (If they weren’t leaving the change out for the convenience of their guests, then they shouldn’t leave it out! It seems clear that they have no idea how much money is in the glass dish on top of the small desk, but that they just leave a €1 coin on top as “bait” or something to that effect.)
I responded to the email with responses as I left above, but they responded adamantly that I slammed the door (I didn’t, but how would they know if I did, and why are they calling me a liar?)
They said that they were lucky that the guard had an extra key, so they could get in. Why wouldn’t they have their own spare key to the property I was renting? What if I accidentally locked myself out? Seems like poor planning as a host!
They said that they communicate with the renter the last day and coordinate a time for inspection and checkout. This was not mentioned in the listing and we have never had to meet the host for check-out before. Who wants to schedule a time for the host to walk through an inspection of the rental while they are trying to get packed, showered and dressed early in the morning, and trying to get out the door in time for an international flight?...not us...not anyone!
In fact, the listing says that the rental has “Self check-in with building staff”, which my wife prefers, but was not the case, as we were met at the beautiful main gate and courtyard by the host’s son and wife, then walked around the building to the back entrance which we were given keys for.
To sum it up:
The unit was nice, the area was nice, Stephane who met us was nice...but the listing is incorrect, not only for check-in, but they have check-out expectations that are unreasonable, they doesn’t communicate well (isn’t clear on expectations and most of the email communication was such bad English that it was difficult to impossible to understand what they were trying to say) and Marie is just plain rude!!!