Host complaining we didnt maintain her pool

[Faye22]

Hi there

We took a holiday in Mireval in the South of France 2 weeks ago and paid £2,444 for 10 nights in a Villa, so it wasnt particularly a cheap holiday!    It had a pool and when we arrived the pool wasnt quite clear, although having no idea about pools, we didnt really take much notice at the time as we were so excited to be on holiday.  You couldnt see the bottom of the pool though

On arrival, we were told the robot which cleans the pool is broken and that we had to sweep the pool manually each day.  We dont have a pool at home, so she showed us where the broom was and how to connect it up but thats about it.  Her English wasnt great, so it ws difficult to understand.    We swept it as we thought was sufficient each day which took about 1-1.5hrs per day. 

The pool was getting more cloudy each day, so we contact her and she came out to put some liquid into it, which didnt make any difference.    We tested the water each day and it was high in ph/alkaline but she told us not to worry about it, it was safe to swim in.

She then went and bought a robot after about day 3-4 which cleaned the pool each day and we were told to put this in the pool each evening until teh robot stopped and then take it out, which we did everyday.  She told us this would improve the pool.

I sent her pictures every day of the pool as I was getting worried about how cloudy it was getting and she told us to do a chlorine shock procedure.   She talked us through what to do do and we followed the procedure, by the letter and kept in touch via Air BnB messaging.

The pool didnt get any better(in fact it got much worse)  and she then told us to go to the shop to get some TAC, but that the person didnt speak English (and we didnt speak French).  The reason we had to do this was because she had run out of TAC.   We didnt go and get this as there was no chance of us being able to explain what we wanted, let alone understanding how to treat the pool!  Plus we didnt know where the shop was.  We told the host we didnt get the itemsand kept posting her pictures of the pool to keep her updated.  She never came back round or sent anyone round to inspect it afer this.

Over and above this, she had some steps up to a mezzanine floor where she told us they were very fragile and that the only way to walk up the stairs was to not touch the edge of thestairs with our feet and to ensure our feet were always in the middle of the stairs.  These stairs were narrow and winding, so it was almost impossible for an adult, let alone asking a 4yr old child to keep their foot in the middle of the stairs without touching the edges.  Have you ever tried this using stairs?! 

Needless to say, the step got a bit damaged as it was only made out of plaster and so just cumbles when you put any weight on it.    I messaged her immeidtely after it had happened and then also videoed the stairs showing me trying to get up and down them as she had requested (which was almost impossible) - and also videoing where damaged had been caused previously severaly times (as it had obviusly happened before as you could see where it had been patched up before in 6-7 different areas), due to the stairs simply not being fit for use (they were made out of simple plaster which kept crumbling) and had crumbled and been evidently repaired several times prior to us staying.  I tried to put a cover over them and she told me not to and told me to take the cover off, which we did.  I ended up stopping the children going up the mezzanine via the stairs for fear of future damage, so that was another room we couldnt use, but wsa the only room where it had a TV for the chilren.  Which meant for the rest of the holiday, they couldnt watch TV.

I then, some weeks later, receive an email from teh Host saying its going to cost EUR150 to fix the stairs (which I find hard to believe being as its just plaster and painted), plus thatwe didnt look after her pool properly and that she had to buy some solution which cost EUR200 and we are to reimburse her for this.

She also said we left lights on overnight and that she had her neighbour take pictures of and that her electricity has gone up from 14Kw to 16Kw and she has had to pay out for that.   

I have sent her a very long reply back as I feel that a) the pool wasnt in a good enough state when we arrived.  b) We don't have a pool at home, so trying to maintai something you know nothing about is very tricky.  At no point on herbooking does it say you need to know about pools, or that you would have to sweep it for 1-1.5hrs per day on your holiday!

We messaged her daily with test results and the colour of the water and she kept telling us we were doing well (I have messages as evidence). We then discover that my daughter's eczema got much worse because high ph and alkaline causes skin irritation which she didnt tell us about.

I also have video evidence of loads of areas where this plaster has come away in areas of traffic on stairs and other areas and you can see at leat 6-7 different areas on the steps where it has been damaged before.

I have also said I feel my privacy has been violated by a neighbour taking photos of when we were staying there.      Also, we needed to keep some lights on overnight as my 6yr old and 4yr old are not yet able to sleep with the light off.  There was nothing in the booking instruction to say that we had to restrict electricity or light useage?

I feel really upset by the whole thing as we gave her a nice review and now I wish I hadnt have.

In addition to that, there were loads of things wrong with the villa such as; taps falling off, taps not working, flusher on toilet not working leaving 1 toilet for 6 people, a wasp infestation, ant infestation, only 2 chairs poolside when there were 6 of us staying (one of which was broken), expecting us to feed their tortoises each day, a really loose heavy high shoe cabinet which was not attached to the wall which could have fallen at any time on the children (which would have no doubt, been fatal) and was very wobble, blunt knives, no spare toilet roll, no spare kitchen roll, no spare bedding so having to use same bedding for 10 days, only one fan in he whole house, the garden was unuseable as it was like scrubland

We didnt complain because we are not people who complain.   But I wish I had have now - especially after her sending this message.   I also wish I hadnt have done a review and am worrried she will give us a bad review.

We paid £2.5k for this villa, which we feel wasnt up to standard and we put a lot of work into the pool, which we didnt know we would have to when we booked it.  

Iknow this comes across as just my story, but honestly - I can tell you we stressed about that pool every day and told her about the stairs the second it happened (all on Air BnB messaging), treating it as our very own home.   That house was spotless when she returned.  She even asked us to strip the beds and was the covers - which we did.

What do you think??  I'd be interested in your thoughts?

Faye 

[Faye22]

Thank ou and yes, its a big lesson learned.

She has now posted a pretty poor review on me and also has put in a request for EUR231 for the problems.    I sincerely hope Air BnB can see our side of things.  We are not pool experts at all. 

Also, I thougth she only had 14 days to request money from us?  We left on 19th August so I think thats past 14 days isnt it?