TL;DR— don’t park in their driveway, and be afraid of unwritten rules they might spring on you.
The place was nice for the price and the hosts, initially, very accommodating. I wanted to give them my thanks for their hospitality during the stay, as well as for extending my check-out by an hour— but I was promptly kicked out, in a very negative manner, by the 30min mark.
Why, you may ask? I parked in their large, multiple-car driveway for a few minutes as I loaded my luggage in the trunk.
There is NO explicit rule about this in the AirBnB listing, the welcome manual in the cottage, nor in our previous communication via messages (I checked, and I have screenshots to prove it). “There’s plenty of street parking” suggests that I park in the street overnight— which I did for all nights that I stayed in the cottage. There was also enough space in the driveway for multiple vehicles. They also have an electric car and I made sure not to block access to their charger.
My plan was to pack and quickly leave. If I took a few minutes longer than I wanted to, it was to clean up their cottage, put the sheets in the wash so as to thank them for their hospitality.
Instead, I was met with negativity, disdain and a couple “you should be grateful we even…” messages. I sincerely apologized and explained that I was going to leave soon and that I wasn’t aware of the rule to not park in the driveway. In response, I was told that whatever my reasons were, it “wasn’t their burden” and that I needed to leave ASAP. I promptly left after being told to do so.
In summary, I understand their annoyance but their reaction felt extremely disproportional. Though it was an honest case of miscommunication, they made the issue a lot bigger than it needed to. All in all, it left a really bad taste in my mouth. A simple “You’re not supposed to park there— could you move your car” would have solved the issue, I would’ve left immediately and this review would’ve been short and sweet.
Nonetheless, the stay was pleasant enough so the end-rating is an average of a 1-star and a 5-star. I would encourage the hosts to communicate better.