The cottage is nice but Gail needs to find a reliable cleaning service.
The cottage was obviously not cleaned when we arrived (dirty towels and bedsheets, previous guests' hair, etc.) I let Gail and the alternate contact Trevor know. Trevor let me know that the cleaning service is inconsistent, and Gail was sorry and offered to fully reimburse our 2 nights. We thought that was fair and really appreciated that.
We just received a partial refund and a note from Gail, which I guess explains the deduction:
"In my description I indicate no pets because my husband and I have severe dog and cat hair allergies. When I went to the cottage after you checked out, there was lots of pet hair in the place. Much bigger cleaning job than I anticipated."
This doesn't make sense because we didn't bring any pets. We respected Gail's house rules. It was probably the previous guests, or the previous previous guests. Who knows how long the pet hair has been there since no one knows when the cleaners come?
The partial refund was nice, but I don't think we should be blamed for the previous guests' mess. I think Gail should find a reliable cleaning service.