My family (me, my husband, our 2 year old son and our 6 month old baby) stayed for a month at a woman's house in France. She had divided the (large) house into two apartments: the bottom, which she rented out, and the top, her own personal space. This woman is never in town, and had her neighbor welcome us.
When we arrived however there was a gas leak, and her neighbor told us how to go upstairs (through a hidden outdoor entrance), so that we could stay there until a plumber could come and fix the leak. We stayed up there for two days.
When the plumber came and fixed the leak, the host messaged me and said, "so sorry about the inconvenience, glad to hear that now you can fully enjoy the house, as the plumber fixed the leak. But if you prefer, you can also stay in my upstairs apartment, it is a different style (compared to downstairs). You can also take anything from upstairs if you prefer to stay downstairs."
I took this message to mean that she had authorized us to go upstairs and downstairs, especially as the upstairs was now open. So I removed the wood plank that she had used to block the stairs inside the house between the downstairs and upstairs, and me and the baby slept upstairs while my husband and our toddler slept downstairs.
Fast forward a month - after we leave - and this woman starts sending me angry messages saying that she never authorized me to use both the upstairs and downstairs, that in her message she meant I could CHOOSE (all caps!) between the two, not 'take both.' She is angry (apparently) because the team she had sent to clean the place apparently spent 6 hours cleaning the downstairs and 6 hours the upstairs - so she's claiming that they sent her a 250 euro cleaning bill!
I don't know how this is possible, first of all, 250 euros is crazy, especially since we cleaned before leaving (not a professional-level job, but we emptied the trash, did the dishes, stripped the sheets, cleaned the kitchen). I have no idea what this 'cleaning team' was doing for 12 hours (!!) 'cleaning' this house (which is admittedly huge - 350 square meters).
So she wants me to pay this cleaning bill, plus who knows (?) because she requested 500 euros from me via AirBnB! She's claiming I 'broke' the partition that she had had installed for 200 euros between her downstairs and upstairs - when all I did was remove two planks of wood and put them in another room! She's trying to charge me 100 euros for that alone!
She also yelled at me on the phone for using 'an excessive amount of sheets' (??) and for finding a hat of hers that had been upstairs downstairs (she claims this is 'going through her personal belongings).
In any case, needless to say, I am furious about this whole thing, and I think she should be barred from renting on AirBnB.
Her neighbor suggested I pay her 200 euros to avoid a dispute on AirBnB.
Personally, I don't think I should give her any money at all! All I'd like to give her is a bad review..
What should I do?!? Help!!