This house was not as advertised. We arrived at the agreed check in time of 3pm to find 5 dogs caged up outside the house. These dogs remained caged up day and night, apart from about 30 mins morning and evening, when the host arrived to feed the horses - he would let them out briefly. They barked constantly day and night.
The kitchen was dirty with a film of grease over the kitchen counter and the kitchen switches. The Airfryer was splashed with grease, as was the wall beside it. The kitchen cupboards were covered in dirty marks. The gas hob hadn't been cleaned. There was a dirty tea towel left hanging in the kitchen.
There was no washing machine, dryer or hairdryer and only 3 double beds and a single bed instead of the 4 double beds as advertised.
The outdoor patio area was full of overgrown grass and nettles and was full of bits of broken equipment just dumped into it. There was also a rusty broken BBQ, 2 broken high stools and a washing line full of men's underwear and tshirts. There was even a bag of dog poo just thrown underneath an outdoor table. There had been no attempt at all to tidy up or clean the outdoor patio area that was for our use.
The host wasn't there on check in (the front door had been left unlocked) but he called later that night around 10pm to feed the animals. He didn't approach the house, so we went outside to speak to him and expressed our dissatisfaction. His response was that he could've rented out the house for three times more than he was charging us, as the area was packed full of tourists. He removed the underwear and tshirts from the washing line, along with the broken stools and dog poo and we never had any more contact with him for the remainder of the week. Previous to us raising these issues, he had been very responsive with regards to replying to messages but after that first night, he didn't speak to us again, despite visiting the horses morning and evening.
We wanted to leave and we tried to book alternative accommodation, but as it was peak season, there was nothing available. We had booked this property back in January and were so looking forward to exploring Clare, so we made the best of a bad situation: we spent 2 hours cleaning the kitchen, washing some plates, glasses, cups and cutlery and we didn't use the outdoor patio area at all, during the week we were there.
We are a genuine family and have never ever had to complain about an Airbnb property before. This is nothing personal against the host, but his property is far far below the basic standards we would expect from an Airbnb, especially in these covid times. The house really did take the shine off our holiday.