We had a 12-day trip to UK travelling from London all the way to Edinburgh. We stayed in 7 different places. We had great time in all the other places except this one.
The apartment is on the small side. There is no sitting area, there is no space for luggage in the bedrooms, so we had to keep everything in the kitchen. This didn't bother us too much though because we understand this is probably normal in UK. What made us very uncomfortable is the way the Amanda communicated with us.
Our communication has been good until the day we arrived. Upon arrival I noticed Amanda sent me a message. She said she was "concerned about our stay", she asked us to "please keep the apartment clean". The reason she sent this message was because she read a review from 6 year ago. However, in the review the host did say we were very nice and quiet guests, the only thing she mentioned that I moved a piece of furniture, but she put it back easily.
I wrote back to her telling her it was not appropriate to send this message, judging me by a review from 6 years ago. Particularly in that review the host said we are nice guests, and the only thing is I moved a small piece of furniture. I explained to her at that time my daughter was only one year old, so I moved the furniture a little closer to the wall so that my daughter won't get hurt.
I understand every host cares about their house. I would just let it go if Amanda just came back saying she now understood, and she might be just a little over-react to the review. However, she came back with a message telling me this was just a routine reminder that she sent out to all guests. She also warned me that "extra cleaning can cause delay and extra charges after check-out". She also said she apologize if anything that I "read" the message made me feel bad- basically she was saying it was not her message but the way I read her message that was wrong.
This has become outrageous to me. I replied to her message and I told her I don't think this was a "routine" message, rather this was a message specially addressed to one guest. I also told her that I was very uncomfortable that she implied it was the way I read her message that was wrong.
She didn't reply so I tried to forget about this and enjoyed our vacation. However, when she sent the message for checking out, she added a paragraph at the end "Please do keep all the rooms as they are after picking up if the cleansing finishes, and leave the keys in the locker again. This is barely a kind reminder I would say to any guests, so I want to emphasize this is definitely not insulting, and please do not take it personally". All I got here she was telling me that it was me who "took it personally".
After checking out she did send me a message "The rooms have been kept clean and we cannot expect better guests than you." This is not surprising because we always keep every place we stay super clean. She didn't say a "sorry" about what she did to us. She probably never thinks she did anything inappropriate, but what she did totally destroyed my vacation mood.