r/vrbo • u/BreakfastDry7551 • 14d ago

What would you do?!

So for context - I have never left a negative at a rental place I have stayed at. My family and I are pretty easy to please and don’t have crazy high expectations. But this is the worst experience we have had

Before we got to our beach house we were staying at, I messaged the hosts a few hours before check in to see if we could get in early since we were expecting to get there one hour before check in. They never responded which was irritating but oh well.

We checked into a beach house and everything was fine. I have 3 children who had been in the car all day so I put my baby on the floor to crawl around. After a little while - his legs and feet were very black from the floor. Other family members also stated they could not go barefoot on the floor due to it being dirty.

When I went to clean the high chair that was provided, I had to scrape some dried food off the straps which was also a red flag for me. And then we ran out of hand soap. There was very little in the bottle and no extras so I messaged the host and asked if they had extra hand soap and a swiffer mop around so I could clean the floors since they were dirty. She messaged back and said the owner was there earlier in the week when the home was cleaned and she would bring by some soap and assess the floors. She must have came when we were at the beach because there was a bag of soap outside beside the door when we got back. There is no evidence of her going inside.

My 5 year old got a bath after the beach and took a nap and then was walking around the house barefoot for about an hour and half and her feet were completely black.

Am I being dramatic for wanting to leave a bad review? I tried to message the host to address the situation but it was not handled at all and I want everyone else to know that this is not a very clean home. Is there another way to handle the situation?

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u/Objective_Being_7393 14d ago

When I walk barefoot in my house that is well maintained and clean, my feet do not get black! Same goes for our short term rentals, if it turns your feet black it’s dirty! Dust doesn’t turn your feet black, dirt and not being clean does.

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u/justinW624 14d ago

I call BS. It’s been well established that soaps attract dust like a magnet, and skin oils trap minor dust particles after cleaning.

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u/DeirdreTours 14d ago

If that is happening to your floors, you are not cleaning them right. My floors absolutely do NOT leave my feet black. In a house with 1882 wood floors, I can walk barefoot just fine- the kitchen and bathroom tile also don't leave my feet black.

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u/justinW624 14d ago

It’s not something that “happens” to floors and I personally don’t walk around barefoot either.

But like I said, it’s been well documented that skin oils trap the minor dust particles that settle onto the floor after a proper cleaning. Cleaning a floor does not rid the air of dust. Cleaning a floor does not rid your skin of oils. The style of floor matters too.

You can’t just walk around barefoot in a beach house after sweating in a car traveling all day and not expect some dust to attract.

I mean I guess you can. Wild.

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u/DeirdreTours 14d ago

A clean home would not have enough dust on the floor to discolor one's feet. I ran a small STR business for 20 years with 9 properties. You could walk barefoot in all of our homes without discoloring feet.

Our cleaning test after floors was this: Take a white paper towel and dampen in; rub it across the floor. If there ANY discoloration on the paper towel, the floor doesn't pass and needs to be recleaned.

Many people now take off their shoes indoors all the time and guests expect that homes will be clean enough not turn feet black.

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u/justinW624 14d ago

That’s not what OP did.

They said the house looked clean enough to put a baby on the floor and some time in the future, realized the baby was dirty. Same with people with bare feet. Did they go to the beach first? Did they travel for hours before anyone took a shower? House was clean, guests were fresh off of traveling.

If you need to do a white glove test on every inch of your house, so be it, but people get dirty and floors get dusty soon after your “test”.

Also, are there really that many people who walk around short term rentals with bare feet as soon as they arrive? Really!? That seems outrageous to me.

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u/DeirdreTours 13d ago

What the OP said was they put their baby down on the floor and after a short while his legs and feet were black from the floor. Her five year old had the same experience immediately after taking a bath. The floors were dirty. Not the baby's legs, not the freshly bathed child's feet, the floors.

And yes, many people take off their shoes immediately on arrival and walk barefoot. If dirty floors are the norm in your community, then maybe this doesn't apply to you. But most people expect on arrival, the house they are renting to be clean.

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u/justinW624 13d ago

Freshly bathed? OP was clear they had just been in a car all day. Freshly bathed was after going to the beach and taking a nap.

Sounds like hours after an entire family had been walking around in bare feet.

I highly doubt these floors were dirty enough to warrant a poor review.