Well I was going to rate this place a 3 because of reasons stated below, but now I'm rating it a 2 because of the INSANE response I received from the hosts' 3rd party site manager. They asked me to share my thoughts privately with them before posting and when I did I received a novel in response refuting everything I mentioned. Just to give you a taste of how bizarre and inappropriate the response was, one part reads, "Please remember that at the end of the day all we have in this world is each other and you shouldn't come for someone who was trying their best to help you. The way things are going in this economic climate we're starting to turn on one another and looking for reasons to be upset and forcing perfection." This individual acted as if I had insulted or attacked her personally or said something that wasn't true. I was just giving honest feedback, which is what they requested.
Here is the message I sent to the hosts:
Unfortunately we were not very happy with our stay at your location. Our initial interaction started off on a bad foot, as we booked your house and then was immediately canceled on without explanation. I sent a message and then was told it was because my account was "young" and I'd have to pay an extra deposit. I am wondering why I wasn't just informed of this before being canceled on abruptly. Then on the day of our arrival, we gave a notice about our arrival time one day prior and also when we were about 1.5 hours away, and yet we still waited for Sabrina to get to our house for 25 minutes because she was late. She told us twice that she was caught up at work, and it's disappointing to hear excuses like that when you've just driven 7 hours and are waiting out in the cold to be let into the house. The fact that there isn't a key-code on the door instead of the key was quite frustrating, as we constantly were handing the key off, and plus had to wait for someone's arrival when we got there to let us in. When we entered the house, all of the beds were disheveled. Sabrina let us know it was from the "bed bug guy" and offered to have the beds made, but we didn't have time to wait for and talk to someone who comes just to make the bed, as we had reservations to eat and were already running behind after waiting outside to be let in. The Dawn dish soap that is in each bathroom was also disappointing, as it would be such a small gesture to have actual handsoap there instead of smelly, harsh dish soap. The wifi went out for several hours on Saturday morning. As our friend was sleeping in the room with the router, we didn't want to call someone to come fix it and disturb him. During our stay I also got a message on Saturday asking if I was planning on leaving early so the cleaning crew could come in early on Sunday. While it's not exactly an inconvenience, it's not preferable to be messaged while on vacation just so the cleaning crew can find out when you're finally leaving so they can come at a time that's convenient for them. I wouldn't be happy if I was staying at a hotel and the cleaning crew knocked on my door to ask if I was leaving early the next day, because they like getting an early start. More minor issues included the price discrepancy of turning on the hot tub in the public post and private instructions upon booking. Lastly, the beds were quite uncomfortable thus we would have slept much better in a hotel.