Pension Elisabeth

The stay was comfortable, quiet, and in a nice place until our final day. The coffee machine in the apartment didn’t work, or seemed broken. I tried to fix it for two days without success, then called the owner’s husband. I speak German well and could understand the instruction manual in the kitchen, and we went through it together. He tried repeatedly too, then said it was definitely broken and apologized. He told me I could use their Nespresso machine downstairs for free, no problem. I checked I’d understood, and after he repeated three times that it was free, he said not to worry. My husband and I had coffee morning and evening, 12 cups in total. At checkout, the owner charged us more than 40 euros for the coffees, without a receipt. I was stunned and tried several times to explain, but she said the machine belonged to a previous guest who had left it in our room because it was broken, and that the American coffee machine worked fine so we should have used that one. I explained the conversation with her husband and our attempts to follow the manual. She didn’t accept that. She ran to our apartment, took the machine and instructions away, and said she had to throw it out. The coffee machine instructions had been in the same drawer as those for the other appliances, like the fridge and microwave, which seemed strange if it belonged to a previous guest. To be clear, we paid every cent. I vacuumed the apartment myself, we asked for nothing during the stay, and nobody had complained about us. We paid for everything, and that’s that. We haven’t become poorer, and she hasn’t become richer. It was a matter of being fair and honest. I wonder what the owner will say to justify this and blame me, after we’d been fair throughout. It could have been a five-star stay, but not now. Never again.