I had hoped to be able to give an overall good review. However lengthy this review is, I urge you to read it completely. Otherwise you are putting yourself at risk of injury.
Let’s start with the ants. When I contacted Juliana to tell her bout the colony of ants I found living in the kitchen; her solution was to purchase poison and then have me, the guest, be the one to put it out for the ants and to do nothing about the dangerous nails aside from saying the “…house shifted sorry….” It became pretty evident that she lacked the maturity and experience to problem solve.
We could not use the kitchen for the entire length of our stay. That is simply unacceptable. When a house has ants, it generally indicates a chronic problem. It means a regular schedule of the bombing said house is required to eliminate the ant population hopefully. Juliana admitted as much when she responded to my telling her about the ants was that “…it happens once in a while”. So, to me, that meant she was aware of the ant problem and rented out the space regardless. That’s irresponsible and shows a lack of forthright character. To knowingly advertise that renters would use a kitchen when there was previous information of a problem that would make it impossible for them to use the kitchen.
Next-claiming, the house was “older and had shifted…,” which eludes that somehow between the time the previous guests were there (going off of the reviews, that was the same month as us) and we checked in, the “shifting” took place, and BAM! Exposed nails. I find this to be extremely unlikely.
Additionally, a long rug/runner in the hallway was placed strategically on top of the vent that runs along the wall outside of the smaller bathroom. The same vent has a hole with downright filthy rusty exposed nails jutting out from the sides. By hiding that hole with the rug, the hazard of the nails was made MUCH WORSE. An unsuspecting guest (like myself when I stepped into the hole) could step on the rug believing it was laid on top of stable flooring and instead step directly into the hole and be punctured by the sharp nails just waiting there.
When I told Juliana that my son was in ballet at the University of Michigan and was, in fact, headlining a show later in the month and had hurt himself on a nail within the first 5 minutes of our checking in….did she rush over to assess the problem? Did she insist we leave until she had fixed the problem? Did she inquire about or provide medical attention if it was needed? No. She said, “it’s an old house. It shifted. Tell your son sorry.” If his injury had been bad, it could have ended his career. So I don’t think “sorry” is good enough.
Obviously, Juliana knew about the nails.
1. It takes years for a house to shift that much. Juliana did renovations herself and didn’t know the correct way to do them. That is evident all over the house, and that’s why the nails are exposed.
2. The rug was placed on top of the vent by design, on purpose. It felt like a hunting trap. I am SO GRATEFUL one of my kids or myself, or my fiancé, was not extraordinarily injured by stepping into that nail trap.
THAT most definitely was NOT from a house shifting. That rug was someone’s idea of a way to attempt to hide or put a band-aid on a problem instead of simply fixing it.
I brought up so many issues during my stay. The sum total of ZERO was addressed satisfactorily, let alone fixed. The response Juliana gave me way corporate-type speak in a tone and deflected responsibility of any kind.
1. Ants=kitchen/dining area is unclean can’t be used.
2. Ant poison=kitchen/dining area is unsafe.
3. Exposed nails throughout the main walkway with a policy of “no shoes”=host didn’t consider the safety of their guests. She chose not to fix problems ahead of time.
4. Strategic rug placement = knowingly attempting to hide fully exposed nails being indifferent and showing total lack of concern to the real danger it poses guests. It says Juliana doesn’t care if her guests are safe or not.
5. No curtains on the central area of the house with surrounding neighboring houses just a few feet away=A, complete disregard for the privacy of guests.
6. The temperature and ability to change it = Guests can freeze or be in a sweat lodge but never be comfortable.
7. Preventing the use of windows by not having screens in place. = Again, who cares if the guests are cold or hot?! There are already ants in the house; opening the windows and letting other insects in must seem perfectly ok to her as well. It’s not.
8. Both sinks in both bathrooms are not appropriately secured to the walls. = Guests can easily break sinks off the walls, causing damage to the house and again putting guests at risk of hurting themselves.
9. The large bathroom sink is designed to spill water onto the hardwood floors each time it’s used and does not have a mat underneath to soak up the water. = Water+hardwood floor = slippery when wet. “No shoe” policy on slippery floors = falling hazard. Did any of this ever cross your mind when I brought it to Juliana's attention? No.
10. Amenities simply not working. = towel warmers, windows, the microwave being partially hidden, the kitchen having resident ants, the door leading inside the house sticking, no storage for guests, curtains the house does have, are missing full panels and not useable…shall I go on??!! At what point does Juliana stop renting this space out and fix the problems? When someone is seriously injured??!
11. Vents are broken throughout the house. = The floor vent in the hallway being concealed with