Andreas G.
I booked through Booking.com, where the payment option said “Cash at the hotel.” The landlady instead asked me to pay the full amount up front by bank transfer, which seemed odd. She also requested €50 more than the Booking.com price. I called her about it, and she admitted she didn’t know what the correct amount was, though we did clear up the difference. I transferred the full amount on Thursday, July 26th at 9 PM. By Sunday, the second day of our seven-day stay, the money hadn’t reached her account yet. After she messaged me on WhatsApp, I was briefly worried I’d given the wrong account number, so I sent her the booking statement and showed her where to find both account numbers. I also explained that since I’d made the transfer late Thursday evening, the money wouldn’t arrive until Monday. Instead of reading my message and instructions, she threatened to call the police on WhatsApp. Her message said, “That’s not my account number (wrong! She didn’t read the message). I’m not messing around. If the money isn’t in my account by Friday, I’ll report it to the police. [...]” This happened on the second of our seven days, even though she had changed the payment details herself. Absolutely outrageous and unbelievable. How dare I, as a guest, let her ruin my vacation?! The money arrived in her account on Monday morning. Afterward, she complained to other guests, whom we got along well with, that we’d left the apartment dirty. That was outrageous too. The apartment was spacious, but some things were very old, especially the rippled carpet in the bedroom. One nice detail was the crib in the room, even though we hadn’t asked for it. We had mentioned we were bringing a baby. But a police threat can’t undo what happened.
