Mum’s outrage at negative Airbnb review after they used owner’s Netflix account

A woman shocked to receive a negative review from an Airbnb owner after a week-long holiday asked for advice online over whether she should try and challenge it

 

When staying in a rented cottage or holiday home, owners often have strict conditions for their guests.

This might include asking people to take out the rubbish on their last day or strip the beds before finally leaving.

Often it might feel a bit burdensome on your last day of the holiday, but it’s normally part and parcel of renting someone else’s home.

One mum who enjoyed a week away was left feeling rather upset by a negative review by an Airbnb owner as she worried it could impact their future stays elsewhere.

She shared the complaint on Mumsnet, asking if she’d acted unreasonably during the stay – and admitted they’d left the property an hour late on the final day, and broke a bowl.

The family also accidentally used the owner’s Netflix – and people were left unimpressed, with some agreeing that they wouldn’t like that.

She wrote: “We had a lovely stay (won’t mention where but in the UK) and left a glowing review of the place, which, to be fair was pretty immaculate when we arrived.

“Checkout was supposed to be 10.00 which is at least an hour earlier than we’ve ever had before and we did try to get up and out in time.

“But with two teenage kids, we had managed to get all of our stuff out of the house and by the car by 10.40 and I was just doing final checks, cleaning kitchen and hoovering when the cleaner arrived.

“She was very curt with me as I was still on the drive but she was able to park on the road just 5 yards away then virtually threw me out of the house before I could even grab the (tied up) rubbish bags to put in the bin and recycling.

“We had hoovered the night before, cleared away all of our breakfast and generally tidied but apparently didn’t put everything back in its right place.

“[The complaint said we] moved artwork” (absolutely no idea what this could be) and left so much dog hair on the sofa it took an extra hour to clean (the dog, which we had checked was ok in advance, was banned from the sofa when we were there but may have got up there when we were out but we certainly didn’t notice much hair).

“Turns out the cleaner was the owner’s mum so I’m guessing I caused offence by mentioning that she was “brusque” with us and maybe they’re upset that we broke a dessert bowl, although I left a tenner to cover for this and offered more if I hadn’t left enough, or that we accidentally used their Netflix account rather than our own (is that really bad form?).”

One commenter wrote: “Sounds like you made a mess, and used their Netflix which will mess up their algorithms and potentially stop them using it at the same time.”

Another said: “You left nearly an hour late, the cleaner couldn’t park nearby and had to lug stuff, you broke something, you used their Netflix, you left dog hair all over the sofa…oh OP.”

A third added: “Using their Netflix is pretty bad form, it messes up the algorithm and it’s obvious it’s not your account when you log in.

“On its own, it’s minor; but after being an hour late to check out and breaking something, and the potential dog hairs, it sounds like they’ve just overall found you to be poor guests.”