Nightmare. The owner of this company tried to gaslight me into staying in a house infested with…read moreants. Pull up a chair. It's... it's actually shocking how unprofessional this woman was.
We rented a $230/night house (called HAVEN) for a family birthday getaway. The day after we checked in, we discovered an infestation of ants all over the kitchen and in the living room - they were in the kitchen cupboards, on the counter, all over the floor (see pics). It was really disgusting. I cleaned up hundreds of ants and they were still everywhere. I felt like I had ants all over my body. I was in distress. This is not the $230/night deluxe experience I had envisioned.
I sent photos to this management company and called them immediately.
The first person I spoke to said that they were MADE AWARE THE HOUSE HAD ANTS, a week ago - but thought they had fixed the problem. She offered to send a maintenance person to check things out, but said the options would be to spray chemicals (I had my dog there, and wouldn't allow this), or to use a sugar wash, which, she explained, would make the problem worse before it got better. Oh, super. I told her that I was really uncomfortable and didn't know what to do. Neither of these options would work and I didn't want anyone else in the house due to COVID. She did not offer any additional options, so in my distress, I relented and said the maintenance person could come at least check things out. They gave me 30 minutes to vacate for the maintenance person. It was pouring down rain so a bit inconvenient but... ok.
A few minutes later as we were preparing to vacate, I opened up a cupboard to get a glass of water and ants were running around all of our plates and cups in the cabinets. My kids were upset and I was disgusted, and we decided we didn't want to be there at all. I called back and spoke to the owner this time. This is where the gaslighting began!
I told her as politely as I could that we were uncomfortable and would be leaving. She then LAUGHED AT ME and loudly cawed, "You're LEAVING OVER SUGAR ANTS??" Then she said, "it's not like it's mice or rats! They don't bite, they don't sting, and they don't carry disease!" OHHH. OK! I don't mind if I find a few swimming in my morning coffee, then! No prob. #BeachLife!
She also tried this one: "this is NORMAL for Manzanita!" When I tried to tell her that I've been vacationing at the coast at Seaside since I was young, and had never experienced anything like this, she cut me off to explain, "This isn't SEASIDE, it's MANZANITA!" OHHH! Yes, right, this town is 30 minutes down the coast from the one I grew up going to... and thus has a compleeeetely different climate, vegetation and pests, and that makes an ant infestation perfectly acceptable, perfectly normal, perfectly healthy.
When I explained that I did not want any chemicals to be sprayed because I had my dog in the house, she again CUT ME OFF to tell me she has EXPENSIVE dogs and she would NEVER put dogs in danger. OK? Not sure why I needed to know she has expensive dogs. This is not about you, Karen. This is about us, you know, the people who paid almost $2000 to stay here?
She never once apologized. She never offered to set us up with a different property. She just attempted to gaslight me into thinking I was CrAzY for wanting to vacate a property swarming with lovable, friendly little ants.
Meanwhile, my body still itches.
She went on and on for so long without letting me speak, that my daughter eventually took the phone from me and told her we would be leaving, and hung up. We packed up our things and got out of ANT HAVEN. I requested a refund through AirBnb, which the property manager has declined. But it's fine, I'm dealing directly with AirBnb to resolve it.
And, this is just review #1. I do not love an ant colony in my silverware drawer, but I DO love a review. And I'm only getting started.
Avoid. Unless you love ants and being insulted.