This is a fantastic house - it has great, comfortable rooms, a large, well-equipped kitchen, a good bbq and an amazing pool, surrounded by trees. It could have a better fridge as we struggle to chill drinks for our stay and the hot water was a little hit and miss, but the overall house is incredible and the above wouldn’t have mattered to us if it wasn’t for the pre-holiday experience we had.
I had made a booking for 8 adults and 3 children. At the time of booking we still hadn’t finalised the group, but I had noticed that, like most Airbnb listings, the price was the same for 1 or for 14 guests which is the maximum occupancy of the house.
The house is managed by an agency and they sent me an email to confirm bedding requirements. I replied to this email 3 days before our stay confirming we would use all rooms and that we now had 10 adults and 4 small children instead. At this point, the agency said there was an extra charge for this and attempted to charge me an extra €1000 for the stay. This was literally a charge for 3 extra towels, which felt completely out of proportion. I mentioned that I could still book the house for a few days after my stay and there was no difference in price based on occupancy. They insisted on charging me, so I had to contact Airbnb and spent a whole day before my holiday with the Airbnb mediation department. In the end, Airbnb managed to convince this agency as this was never a condition of their listing and we went ahead.
Needless to say, this was very stressful and unnecessary and not at all how I wanted to start my holiday.
The first couple who arrived at the house were received by the owner who was very courteous and apologetic, so I’m still at a loss as to how this happened.