We intended to stay here and work between house settlements. The host knew we intended to work and said the property had NBN.
We checked in on New year's eve and were greeted with a blocked toilet. To the hosts credit it was sorted out quickly, however instead of sending over a trades person right away they sent it over a random neighbour who did not follow the covid procedures.
After that we went grocery shopping and returned to settle in and cook dinner. The kitchen was disgusting. There was the past tenants open and half eaten food in the fridge, crusted food still on cutlery, plates and bowls and utter filth in the kitchen cupboards and drawers.
We thought we would just clean what we needed for the nights dinner and do a clean in the morning.
We went to unpack our bags but found there were stains on the bedding, walls, decor and furniture.
We also tested their internet and only received 0.08mbps which was not what was advertised.
We figured we could clean ourselves and buy our own portable 4G router and make it work. But the more and more we cleaned the next day the more and more disgusted we were with the state of the place.
We requested a refund for the remainder of our time and just wanted to leave. However the owner just became more and more hostile to the point of sending us photos of surfaces we cleaned as evidence he had it cleaned and going through the garbage bins to prove we were lying.
Stayz cancelled our reservation upon their request and kept 100% of the money.
The owner finally offered to partially refund our money if they could rebook our time. We could see the dates for the stay become available on the website and then later be booked out. However they did not refund our money.
Stayz and their parent company VRBO stopped replying to emails.
I had no choice to file a transaction dispute with my bank, which took 4 months to get a refund.