A family of 7 stayed at my rental; the young woman who booked the house is the only one in the family who did not care to meet me. Right up front this seemed odd to me. The first morning, the young woman's Mother called to say the heater wasn't working and, although noone was cold AT All during the night (with the exception, Mother said, of the young woman, Corinne who booked - and were their extra blankets?) I told her Mother that there is a quilt on the foot of young woman's bed!!!, a comforter in her closet and a blanket in the top drawer of the dresser in her room!
I had told everyone in this family that if they needed Anything, had any challenges, whatever, to Please call me and I would take care of it immediately as I live just across the driveway.
I asked why they hadn't called me and they said "oh, we didn't want to bother you during the night - we weren't uncomfortable until we had to get out of bed." So, they would rather complain after the fact and demand a refund.
Oh! Corinne initially wrote this: 'would I consider giving them a refund and if I decided not to, it was okay - they would still give me a good review because they loved the house!!!!!'
Yea, right, like that'll happen!!!
Long story short, every single family member thanked me for a wonderful stay, wonderful house, Mother and Father want to come back here because the house is Perfect for their family, blah blah blah...then Mother asked me if I had ever met her other daughter, Corinne, the young woman who had booked the house. No, I hadn't. Although other members made it a point to meet me and thank me, this young woman stayed up in her bedroom while I was over looking at the heater and stayed in the car as it was being loaded to leave. So Mother took me to the car, opened it, and introduced me to her daughter, Corinne! She could not meet my eyes but mumbled something to me in greeting!!!! How odd, thought I.
So, I phoned my heater repairman who lives very close. He came over, looked at the thermostat, put his index finger on the thermostat door - click - and on the heater went!!! When I went over initially, I hadn't known this was vital to the heater either - but the thing is, when the house was being cleaned for Corinne and her family, the heater was on and working properly. Apparently Father had fiddled with it and couldn't figure it out - so I am being blamed for a broken heater!!!! They "broke" my heater and they want a refund!!!!
A simple phone call and ten minutes later they could have had the heater working. BTW, the temperature was 59* degrees.
So, she wants $150.00 refunded for their night without heat. Oh! BTW, there is a heater in the downstairs bathroom which effectively will heat up the entire downstairs and absolutely makes the downstairs bedroom/bathroom sweltering if turned on.............and there is a portable heater upstairs in the bedroom she slept in.
I feel as if I should send Corinne the heater repairman's bill!!!!
Ideas? Comments? I'd appreciate any feedback. I've haven't had anyone try to rip me off this way before and it stuns me to see this very young woman start off life on such poor footing.
Thanks,
Kathy
