Our stay got off to a rocky start, the condo had not been cleaned from the previous guest. There was garbage in the kitchen and bathrooms and the beds were unmade with the previous guests linens still on. We tried calling the local contact several times and got no answer but were finally able to get a hold of the owner after messaging her. Sonia stated that the reason the condo had not been cleaned was because I had not responded with the names of the other guests in my group. I have stayed in Airbnb's all over the world and never ran into this issue. My reservation was paid in full, I did not cancel, and I received the check in code days before our arrival so I'm not sure why the condo wasn't cleaned or a follow up message sent if this was truly required before our stay.
On our second day at the condo I invited our friends over to the beach area and have a drink with us since they had come over to celebrate my husband's and daughter's birthday with us.
When they arrived at the gate the person at the gate refused to let them in (3 people) because she said that a new rule had just been passed by the HOA that did not allow guests to enter Hamilton Cove (must be for short term rentals only). The person at the gate said we already had guests in the condo and were breaking the rules, but there was no mention of this when we drove in on the golf cart with two friends. So I started looking all over my reservation details looking for the rules or where it mentioned that guests were not allowed to come over and found NOTHING. No where in the reservation instructions or rules did it state that we were not allowed to have people over. I also looked inside the condo and only found a Rules and Regulations from the HOA dated 1995 and that's it but still no mention of this "new rule".
My husband informed our friends that the beach was a public beach and could not be prohibited from entering so that's when the woman at the gate begrudgingly let our friends thru. We met them down at the beach and stayed down there the whole time. Our friends were so upset about how they were treated so poorly by the woman at the gate they just wanted to leave.
However, before they left the woman at the gate had already called the condo owner to tell her that we were all in the condo (which we were not) and were breaking the rules. She just assumed we lied.
Then to make matters worse the woman at the gate also told the owner that the two girls that left on the golf cart, "that they most certainly were not of age to be driving the golf cart". The age allowed is 18 and my daughter and her friend are both in college and are 20 and 21 years old. So my question is, if she was so certain that my daughter was not of age to be driving why did she allow her leave Hamilton Cove? why didn't she ask my daughter for an id to confirm if she was of age or not?
The way were treated was so unnecessary and really spoiled what should've been a day to celebrate my husband and daughter's birthday.
We have no issues following the rules as long as we know about them but we didn't know. It wasn't in the reservation information it wasn't in the condo. Also, the woman at the gate was beyond rude and was treating us like liars and rule breakers for rules we didn't even know about. I feel she should have put the responsibility onto the owner for not making sure we knew about the rules.
Next time I'll go back to renting a house in town where we won't get yelled at for having a couple people over for a drink or being accused of having underaged drivers on the golf cart.
Very disappointing experience over all.