We checked into the house around 8:30 pm on Jun 28th and upon entering the house, we were put off by a very strong bleach smell. We have not encountered such a smell anywhere else before. It was so strong that we started getting headaches.
We texted the owner and informed her about the bleach smell and she said they were cleaning the house and used that as disinfectant. We had to use the bathroom fresher all around the house to mask the strong bleach smell.
After this we found that the house was extremely dirty. The living room and the dining furniture were filthy and had stains, the kitchen counter had crumbs, dining plate was soiled, toaster had dust all around it (not crumbs). We had to wipe down almost every possible thing for us to use. Then when we stepped into the master bedroom, the chairs had a layer of dust/sand. The vanity draws were unbearable. It was filled with hair, loose powder, ear buds and some bobby pins. I have never seen this kind of a dirty house rented out and the owner claiming that it is clean.
I texted all the pictures with details to the owner and her response was that she will offer refund of the fees that had been charged and asked us to find a hotel nearby. She then texted that she had to put her kids to sleep and will talk tomorrow. I was amazed and upset to how she can say that when it is not a regular city where in I can go and find a hotel at 9 PM in the night, but it is a mountain region and in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone coverage.
At this stage, with us not knowing what the condition of the linens and everything else was in the house, we did not have a choice but to clean up the place so we can stay that night. We had to do the cleaning ourselves since we could not just sleep in a dirt filled place. The living room furniture was in an awful condition and was soiled. We ate all three days that we stayed there standing around the island in the kitchen since neither the dining furniture nor the living room furniture was usable.
Next morning, I told the owner that we had cleaned up the place which we use and will talk about the cleaning fee when we check out. We decided to continue the next 2 nights stay as we had to head to the Yosemite National park and did not have the time to go house hunting for another place.
There is a cleaning fee charged for us but this house was extremely dirty and was not worth that cleaning fee plus our peace of mind to rent a place like this.