It supposed to be a romantic trip for my husband and I, but it turned out to be a horrible experience where we had to call the police to leave the location.
Here is our experience.
We booked the place for 6 days to spend Easter and celebrate our wedding anniversary on the Garda lake. We had chosen this place as it looked morden from the pictures yet located in the village.
The apartment looked more or less what it was on the pictures, though it was super cold inside and we were freezing the first night (building itself is old and it takes a lot of time to warm it up), the kitchen didn’t have a full set of plates /glasses/ pots (ok, we are not up for cooking) and no internet connection. Wi-Fi didn’t work and as the location is in the woods, there is zero connection in general even via phone.
For the morning we agreed that we would have breakfast in the cafe next door where the host works. She brought us coffee and I asked her about laundry - where can we do it. First she ignored my question. When I asked agin, she changed in face and said super cold - “no laundry”. I checked air bnb posting and told her that she mentioned laundry. She said - ok, I would allow you to use my personal washing machine upstairs.
Then I asked her about Wi-Fi - if she could please fix it. Reply was similar to laundry- “no Wi-Fi, if you want, you can use it in the cafe”. I told her that we need it in the room and hope she can fix it. And this is where all the fun began. On my simple and very polite request she screamed at me “Shut up!! I don’t want to listen to your complaints”. My husband and I were shocked. We literally couldn’t believe what we heard. And then the host went on “if you don’t like it here, pack your shit and go. I don’t want you to hear your complain in the morning and ruin my day.”
We saw how aggressive she became and obviously didn’t want even sit there. I told her that we would move out today. We planned to go to a winery and during the drive I found another (wonderful!) place to stay. On our way back the host called me to say that Wi-Fi was fixed. I told her that we are moving out anyways, and then I received another portion of aggression. Quote “ I told you to shut up because you deserved it - you kept on asking about Wi-Fi, so it is your fault.”
So my husband and I agreed that we pack our things, give back her the keys and don’t even talk to her as her level of aggression is outrageous. And so we did- I gave her the keys in her cafe and for sure she wasn’t happy. She started screaming that she would call the police and we aren’t going anywhere (btw our booking was paid upfront). I told her it’s her right to call the police, so we are leaving.
She jumped in the car, parked her car in front of us and blocked us from leaving. All the rest I can describe as continued harassment where she was screaming that we aren’t real Austrians (interesting - so I have to be a certain nation to be treated well), then she told us we never showed her our documents (she never asked) and when I pulled up my ID, she told me to shut up and wait in the corner, she has costumers to serve. To cut the story short - we called the police. The policeman was polite, checked the reservation, our documents, told us that our money for this stay would be paid back and asked the owner to unblock the car. As I don’t speak Italian I don’t know what exactly he told her but she definitely didn’t look happy.
Later on when we had a glass of a good Italian wine and started thinking about what to do to avoid similar horror in future, we opened the account of this host and saw that she changed the name of the place a few years ago, and there were negative reviews, e.g. two girls from Australia she called “animals” and went physical with one of the girls as she asked for refund. In future we will definitely check all the comments and pay more attentions to those red flags.
I hope our horrible experience would help you - you will know that this isn’t a safe place and would avoid it. Also I hope air bnb would step in here so Elisa understands that morden world doesn’t tolerate rudeness, harassment and discrimination.