I booked this townhouse for a weekend away in celebration of my husband's 40th birthday. We were in Seattle to watch the Blue Jays play the Mariners and it was myself, my husband, our two kids, and my brother- and sister-in-law. The rate was extremely high, but I justified the nearly $900 CAD a night ($869.77) as a very special weekend away.
We arrived to the unit about 25 minutes early and upon peeking through the window, I realized that the place had not yet been cleaned since the previous guests and there was no cleaning team onsite. I reached out to the Sophari team and was reassured that the place would in fact be cleaned before our check-in time. Needless to say, it was not. Upon our check-in time, we entered the unit, ensured there was no one on any of the floors, and begun picking up and wiping down surfaces so we could at least get our bags in the door and our food in the fridge before quickly feeding the kids and getting ready for the baseball game that night. There were dishes on the island, half full glasses of water on the counters, pillows and blankets laid out on the sofa, dirty bathrooms, slept in beds, etc. I immediately sent some photos to the Sophari team and they said they'd reach out to the cleaning team. The cleaning team did show up about 45 minutes after our scheduled check-in and we asked them to come back in about an hour once we'd left for the baseball game, which didn't seem to be a problem.
When we got home late that night, the unit had been cleaned decently well, which we were appreciative of. What we begun to realize upon spending a little more time in the home, however, was that it is desperately in need of maintenance. There were kitchen cabinets missing doors, the remote for the kitchen blind was missing / the blind was broken and unable to go up, the table was extremely wobbly and rocked back and forth, the blind in the living space had fallen down and was on the ground, the carpets had significant staining / damage in several areas, the toilet seat in the primary bedroom on the second floor was completely unattached on the one side, the walls were quite damaged in several areas, etc. We also noticed that the kitchen was missing very basic things (there was only one cutting knife, there were no kitchen cloths, no dish towels, etc.) and beyond that, there were sticky residues on the doors, windows, bathroom tiles, and the table, there were rolls of tape on the ceiling, there was sawdust below the television surrounding the outlet and on the floor… and I could go on. :/
Also, because the cleaners had to clean around our belongings, some newly purchased items we'd tucked into a drawer were gone (they probably assumed they'd been left there by the previous guest).
I again reached out to the Sophari Property Management team, sent them several photos with explanations, and acknowledged the fact that must be difficult to stay on top of the condition of all of the units they manage. I asked that our $255.78 cleaning fee be returned and asked what else they could do for us. Shortly after I received a call from a team member who seemed very apologetic and said they'd chat with the team and see what they could do. At this point I was feeling pretty good about the situation being somehow rectified.
Later that day I received a message from the Sophari team offering us a refund of $150 while they waited for a response from "the upper hand", and then a few hours after that they upped the offer to $225 USD/ $292 CAD, which would have covered the $256 cleaning fee with $36 dollars to spare. I explained that I appreciated the cleaning fee being returned, but felt like a discount of $36 CAD on a 3-night stay at 869.77/night wasn't fair given the state of disrepair the unit was in.
For the last 2 weeks, I've done my best to come to a solution with the Sophari team and have asked for our cleaning fee back + a refund of $100 a night as a acknowledgment that the unit is in need of repair and not as advertised. They've seemed open to this as a solution, but have asked if I'd be giving the home anything but a 5 star review at the same time. The following messages from the Sophari team are copied and pasted directly from my inbox:
• Hi, I will check with our team thank you for getting back to us. Are you going to put anything other than a 5 star review in our reviews? Let us know.
• Hi I'm sorry for the delay. A teammember asked above- to see the status or have the question answered regarding review ? Please let us know. And we will get you credited.
• We offered a refund at a price we thought was fair at the time and then later asked you about leaving a review. You had asked for a higher amount. So we are just checking with you on this and if you are leaving a non 5 star review. Please let us know.
• Ok we are just looking for feedback as the cleaning was again an issue upon check in and was actually cleaned quite well. We are just checking to see What is the star rating you’d give it since your review will be shared with the owner who we are working with to address the issues with the unit you encountered.
Since then, I've given my feedback, explained that I don't think a fair refund should be dependent on a false 5-star review, responded to all of the team's inquiries and messages, and not heard back. Today, on my final day to write a review,