I love travelling and my reviews are usually positive. In this case we booked online with HomeAway and paid a deposit as a condition of our stay. That's when things got interesting.
After (not before!) you've secured your stay with the non-refundable deposit, you receive an email from the property manager saying "you must accept the following conditions to be able to stay at our property". The conditions are:
- you pay a bond on top of your room fee
- if you arrive earlier or depart later, you will be charged $XXX per every hour
- on the other hand, if the property is not ready by the advertised time, "we are sorry but there's no refund"
- if neighbours raise a noise complain, you lose the bond
- if you touch a bed in the other bedroom, you pay cleaning fee
- if it's a bin night, your MUST become an unpaid maintenance worker and put the bins out -- even if you haven't used them! Failure to do so will attract a $XX penalty.
- if you call us with any questions that are answered in the guidebook, we will bill you per hour for our time on the phone
and so on.
The house itself is fine. Two things we did not enjoy:
1. There are cockroaches in the garage. Thankfully, you get a bottle of spray under the sink.
2. Hot water did not work. We tried calling and emailing, and the response we received was along the lines of "well, it worked before so we don't know what happened".
Overall, as per the title. The house itself is fine and you might enjoy it. But the management ruined it for us.