Hello,
Our family arrived at our rental (a condo) in the evening after a long day of driving, only to find that it had not been cleaned from the last guests. (This happened in another country, in a rather remote area, if that makes any difference.) All sheets and towels were dirty, wastebaskets full of trash, kitchen counters sticky, floors sandy, etc. We were exhausted and began cleaning sheets ourselves and making up the beds. In the meantime, the host (who lives 3 hours away) seemed very on-the-ball and was able to track down a cleaning service in a nearby town to come in that evening. That was great, although of course we had to wait a couple hours for them to clean before being able to unpack and go to bed. We tried to stay out of the way in the kitchen while they worked in the bedrooms and bathrooms and began some laundry. In the end, although they were very kind, they left the kitchen only half-clean. I finished the cleaning in the kitchen myself, including counters, floors, etc. Most of the towels were left unclean in a pile on the laundry room floor since doing all of the laundry themselves would have taken hours. We finished most of the laundry ourselves the next day ~ we needed towels!
The same housekeeping service actually called early the next morning and offered to come right then to finish the kitchen area, but by then, I had already finished cleaning in the kitchen, and our family really just wanted our privacy. (Several family members were still sleeping, we still had on pajamas on, etc.)
At some point the host and I talked, and I asked to have our first night discounted. I don't believe it was the host's fault; she had a property manager who didn't do her job. Still, I thought having the first night reimbursed seemed fair.
After our stay (4 nights), we the host and I talked again (by phone) about what kind of a reimbursement I was looking for, and although I thanked her for working hard to rectify it, I again reiterated that I thought it would be nice if she would reimburse us the first night. She was very hesitant and at first agreed to only half. She said she was short on money since it was the end of the month, she had already paid extra for the evening housekeepers (that part is true!), and felt that crediting just half of the first night was good enough. In the end though, she said she'd think about it.
She contacted me a couple days later and said she would reimburse me the full night. At that point, I was feeling a little guilty because I don't like to be greedy and I like to give people who seem to be making a real effort a chance. So in the end, I told her being credited for just half the first night was good enough, and she was happy to hear that.
So my first question is, does that seem reasonable?
My second question is, it has now been 10 days and she still hasn't reimbursed me. She keeps giving me excuses: her phone died and she had to get a new one in order to access wifi, she's not good on the internet and doesn't know how to make reimbursements, she's been busy with volunteer projects, etc. I'll give her another couple of days, but now I'm feeling like she's doing everything she can to get out of giving me any reimbursement at all. What are the community's thoughts on this?
